Old-Fashioned Police Work
I have a couple thoughts about my career and the times Mark and I worked together. My first memory of meeting Mark was when Howard Coolidge and I were working the same shift and making a few 11550 arrests. I think Mark was in the Detective bureau then, anyway Howard and I would have contests to see who could make the most 11550 arrests for a particular month. I should mention Howard and I was fairly new to Santa Maria PD at the time and like Mark had moved up here from down south to raise our families in a nicer environment.
There was a particular officer who complained that Howard and I were making bad arrests and that the subjects we were arresting were not under the influence but merely had used within the time frame that would cause them to give a positive urine test. Of course this was absurd, but as things go a lieutenant questioned Howard and I about our arrests. Naturally Howard and I were upset about these allegations especially since the person making them was a SLUG! (And I was still on probation) Well we went to Mark (because he was a hustler for 11550 arrests) and vented to him. Mark networked and found out that administration was not giving the complaint any credit because they too knew the person making the complaint was a SLUG! Mark kept Howard and I on track and reminded us of our reasons for moving to this area. From then on I used Mark to vent and as a sounding board when I thought I was on the right track but was being second-guessed. Mark never steered me wrong and we became good friends over the years.
A few years later I was in the detective bureau and was the lead detective on a particularly gruesome homicide where a female victim was raped and beat to death. This was a who done it, which means there were no immediate suspect(s). My thoughts on the case were good old-fashioned police work, knocking on doors, looking through reports for similar MO’s etc. At first it was slow going and I started to get suggestions on how to handle the case. Some of the suggestions were pretty far out there especially since it was still pretty early in the investigation. Mark was a beat coordinator at the time and had previously worked in the detective bureau. Because I respect Mark so much, I went to him and asked what he thought I should be doing. Well Mark reassured me I was “doing the right thing” and that good old-fashioned police work would eventually solve this case.
While going through reports my partner on this case (Mike Aguillon) found several reports where a male had confronted females with sexual overtones being made. About a week later Officer Jeff Lopez arrested a subject who attempted to kidnap a female. The rest is pretty much history, we obtained a confession and were able to tie this suspect to the other cases as well. Mark can always be counted on to get sound advice from and to this day I still call on him to make sure “I’m doing the right thingâ€.
Love ya brother
Greg Carroll