Deputy Sheriff

     I am dispensing with my life story for a moment to write down some stories of when I was a deputy sheriff for LASO ( Los Angeles county sheriffs office ) This comes at the request of my youngest granddaughter Evelyn Root. she is the one who typed this up for me.

     I need to set this up 1st. I was attending school at Ricks collage Rexburg, Idaho. 2nd semester I decided I wanted to be a pilot. So I took the basic ground school at Ricks. After transferring to LBCC ( Long Beach city collage ) I continued along the plan and took flight training, while also taking commerical pilots rating at LBCC. I eventually recived a AA degree in areonautics with a commercial pilots license. Some time in that era, 1968 - 1969 - I went on a ride along with Helen's brother Bob who at the time was a patrolman with his partner Dave Doosenburg  ( Long Beach PD ). They stayed fairly busy, responding to calls and also stopping vehicals for driving infraction. One guy they stopped for DUI, And they ave him a field sobriety test. The guy was very obivously drunk. One test they asked him to perform was to lift both his legs up at the same time, though a impossible thing to do he nevertheless tried, and of course fell. They arrested him, stating anyone trying to do that had to be drunk, anyway Bob and his partner seemed to be having fun the whole evening. It was then that I decided I wanted to be in law enforcement too.

    After Helen and I were married, November 29, 1969 we enroled at BYU for the January, 1970 semester, and I took law enforcement classes, my goal at the time included flying aircraft for a PD somewhere and eventually being an adminstrator. for a agency somewhere. I graduated in Febuary 1972 with ABS degree in law enforcment Adm, I applied to serveral agencies a described in my life story. I got hired by 4, but choose to work for LASO, I began to work as a pre academy cadet, working as a bailiff in the LACO court system. I did that for several months before starting the 6 month long academy in August of 1972. The academy consisted of classes about law enforcement, learning to shoot pistols, shotguns, driving in high speed senarios, physical training ( we usually ran about 3 to 10 miles a day.) It was a very stressful academy, as at times you were worried about screwing up and getting fired. 

    While going to the academy we would be assinged on weekends to go on patrol or work in one of the jails. When about five months was over I broke my left ankle, we were playing volleyball during are lunch break and as the rotation went I was at the net across from the biggest guys in our class, he went up to spike the ball and I countered by jumping up the block the spike, he hit it so hard that the ball blew through my outstreched hand and hit my on the forhead causing me to fall akwardly on my ankle.  At least now I didn't have to go on the runs, but I was still afraid they would  "recyle me" and put me in another class. But I stayed with my class number 136, did the rest of the week with a broken ankle in a cast. After graduating I was assinged to be a jailer in the hall of justice jail in downtown L.A. The first 9 floors of the academy were courtrooms, and the next 4 floors were jail cells. There were usually about 1500 people in that jail. On my first day at the Academy we were in a military formation still in our regular clothes. I had a terrible head cold and was on the rear end of the formation. A command was issued out like turn left or whatever, but because I couldn't hear good I thought I heard to take a step back I did, and stepped right on the shinny shoes of one of my drill instructors he pulled me aside and barked out "Cadet Root what did you do before you were in the academy?"  I responded " I was a painter sir" Then he said " Cadet Root is that job still available to you?" Whoa, first day and I am on there target list to be fired. So I had a pretty bad start, I knew that and tried everything I could to not be the guy always behind. So on the long runs I made sure that I always kept up to the PT instructure.  that seemed to preserved me from being fired. The 1st day working on the job was pretty memorable, at shift change all the deputies from day shift gathered at the 11th floor all those coming on gathered on the same floor, with a very heavy steal door seperating us when that door opened that first day, the stench of all the inmates just blew out and covered us. I thought I was going to through up. After a couple of years of that you do kind of get used to it, but really my 1st day was one to remember in this jail. Each deputy oversaw 2 cells, each holding about 100 men. In the day time, the individual cells were open, so that they could walk out into another bared area. At night they are put into there induviual cells holding 1 to 3 men. Those cells are about a 10 by 10 area, a sink, and a no private toilet. If there were 3 in a cell one of them slept on the floor with a mattress. We served food through the main cell gate, when we served the food we put them in there singular cells, while a trusty inmate wheeled a cart with food inside. Then they came out and all of the individually cells were open so they could come and serve themselves. Within the jail population, there was always a pecking order to be the head inmate. The toughest guys always rose to the top and were always the ones who ate first. Three times a week the inmates were taking out to the showers were again there was no privacy. 

Every night about 8pm,we had to count all the inmates to make sure no one had escaped. They would line up in front of there cells and the deputies counted them. The deputy then transmitted to the central jail spot, and the count was added up to make sure it was correct. other duties in the jail that I was apart of at one time or another; an outside guard letting delivery trucks in and out, control room were aurtneys came to talk with there clients, visiting centers were people could come and visit there husbands or boyfriends, a kitchen overseeing the trusties as they helped prepare food and deliver it to the various cells, trusty floor where the inmate trusties stayed, the queen tank were those men who identified as women housed, solitary confinement were inmates who were being segregated because they were either in danger or had caused some kind of dangerous act in the jail, the high profile cells, were inmates of another viraty were kept. Like Charles Manson/ who I met, and Sirhan who was the guy who assasinated senater Bobby Kennidy.

On the roof of the jail there was a basketball court, weight machines, ect. That the trusties could use when they were not working. Sometimes we would get a couple of trusties and go up there and play basketball with them. About once a month the deputies would organize a "checker tournament" for after work. This was really and invotation to meet at a local bar for drinks. I would go the socialize but they all new I only drank orange pop or root beer. One time I was a little late to one of these and my friends ordered me a pitcher of root beer which turned out to be real beer, they were all watching as I took a drink to see what I would do and they were dissapointed when I set it down and asked for root beer. After about 2 years working in the jail, I transferred to the transportation divison. In this divison I worked mosty with one other deputy. He drove a big school bus painted black and white, And I rode as his shotgun deputy. We delivered unsentanced inmates to the many outline courts througout the county. About 40 or 50 inmates were handcuffed to one another and put on the bus. There was a locked caged door between us which made it safer for the deputies. We drove to the assinged court, unloaded the inmates going there for court, and they were put under control under another deputy assinged in that lockup. As the day went on the deputy would let them out to be escorted by a baylift to whatever court they were going to. We would then drive to the next court and repeat this opperation. Eventually I was dropped of at a court were I was to be a control deputy, usually the Bellflower court. In the afternoon the procedure was reversed and we took them back to central jail. 

In 1975 I transferred to the city of industery sheriffs station. There I was mainly a criminal car control deputy. Many of the stories I will right down will be in chronological order. As I am remembering things out of order. My training partner was a seasoned patrolman, and soon became my idol. Even after you were on patrol the department continually did, as on special training days were we learned and roll played many senarios that we may be exposed to. Some of those training day included; highspeed driving, persuits, driving on ice, baracaded suspects, domestic disturbances, riot control and shotgun training. On one training day I had to go into a small building with other deputies as they set off pepper spray and mace just so we would know what it was like if we ever decided to use it on someone. Being maced is a teribble experience. Speaking of mace, I was a training deputy for a newly transferred female deputy. It was a hot summer afternoon we got a call to a family disturbance. When we got there we found the husband and wife outside in the front yard yelling at each other. After we seperated them we noticed that the wife had some cuts and swelling on her face, it was determined that the husband had done it. By law if we see evidence of physical aubuse the husband was advised that he was going to jail. He was a big man, I went to grab his arm to handcuff him and he jerked away, and he said 'you and who else are taking me to jail." I informed him again that he was under arrest, an reached for his arm and again he jerked away, but this time I had a good hold on his arm. Quickly a wrestling match insuied and we rolled around on the yard for probably less than 30 seconds. Suddenly my female trainy pulled out a small canaster of mace and tried to subdue the husband by macing him. Because we were rolling around on the ground, I to got maced, both the husband and myself were in pain from the sting in our eyes. Soon he gave up because of the pain and we both washed our eyes out with a garden hose. He was cuffed and on to jail he went, but remember we both had mace on our clothes as well so the eye pain presisted. We rolled the windows down seeking relife as we drove to the station, but it stung our eyes the whole way there. After it was all said and done, I told my female trainy that if she ever pulled out mace again I would break her arm. 

On another occasion, I was on duty in the city of Passedena the night before the rosebowl there were hundreds of thousands of people on the streets celebrating. Our job was to drive around in a sheriffs black and white van, and pick up arrested people by other officers and take them to jail, so that the arresting officers could stay out and keep arresting people. We had about five people in our van heading out to the Passedena jail. The arresties were cuffed with flex cuffs because it was easier than using the normal kind. As I made a left turn the left door slide open and 2 guys jumped out and began to run. We had to stop and I told her to close the door as I took of fleeing for the handcuffed arresties. I was able to catch both of them within a hundred feet because it is hard to run while handcuffed. It was determined that my partner had not locked the door correctly. 

On another occasion I was working a one man day shift car. A call came out that some students at Nogales high school were rioting, about 6 or 7 deputies arrived to try quell the riot. We formed a line to hold the students back. I don't remember what it was all about the students stood there taunting us but we held. One of the students flicked a peace of paper at me, normally not a big deal, but we could not allow such actions as it might make the situations escalate. So I stepped forward into the crowd and grabed the student and handcuffed him and set him on the ground and resumed my postion in the line. The disterbance lasted for about and hour when we finally broke them apart and they were sent home for the rest of the day. I later recived a letter commendation for the way I had handled myself during this dangerous and intense time. I belive that the charge of assult that they had on me was dropped by the DA's office. But his arrest was instremental in taking detention out of the incident. On another occasion I was working alone in a evening traffic car, I stopped a car for some kind of violation, the driving stopped his vehicle in the middle of a large truck stop. He became boisterous right away which caused a group of truck drivers to come and see what was going on. I determined he was going to jail. The crowd got larger with about 25 truckers chanting at me. I could see that trying to handcuff him was going to be ugly. So I went back to my car a radioed for backup. Then I went back to the front of my car were the bad guy was standing he said "what did you do did you call for backup." I responded " no I radioed for and ambulace, because you are going to need it after I am through with you." The bad guy started laughing because it was such a stupied thing to say then the guy said " handcuff me lets go to jail." So I breathed a sigh of relife thinking I was going to get beat up by the crowd. 

On another occasion I was working a PM shift with Dennis Hendurson. He was my favorite partner. He; like me, liked to take bad guys to jail. A call came out that a large neighborhood party had grown into over 1000 people. People and cars were everywhere. Causing the area to be unsafe. Our assinment was to basically get the traffic out of the area. Dennis and I stood on the opposite side of the street corner because there was so much traffic, the cars were only going about 2-4 miles and hour. As they drove by us, we shined our flashlights in the car's interior. We found lots of drugs and guns. Since they were going so slow and there was no place for them to go, we opened the doors of those violators. And pulled them out and placed them under arrest. We put them in the back of our car and went back to traffic control. One guy had very bad drugs, so I opened the driver's door and told him to stop, he tried to go out, really no were to go. I reached into the car and tried to get the keys off him. But he kept moving and slinging at me. I had a really heavy flashlight and I had to hit him a couple of times over the head with it before he stopped. We had traveled at that time, maybe 30 minutes. By the time it was over, we had arrested 8 guys all stacked in the backseat of our car, the one guy that wouldn't stop was charged with kidnapping (me). Not only did we set the record for the most arresties in the back of our car, the fellow that kept driving while dragging me was found guilty of kidnapping and was sent to prison for 3 years. 

Another story was when we were patrolling one morning, like 2 am we noticed a guy stumbling down the street of a neighborhood. When we stopped to make sure he was ok. He said " do you know why I am walking? I'm to drunk to drive." He was only a few houses from were he lived so we just took him home. Had he not been near his home, we would have had to arrest him, for his own safety. I had the unfortunate experience of seeing what drugs can do to people. I had a call were a 6 year old boy had been beaten by his father. It was his teacher who reported it to authorities. The boy was taken out of the home and put into foster care. But, the parents petitioned the court to get him back and he was eventually returned to him home. 2 months later he was dead by the hands of his father. Such a sad thing. res

On another occasion and call came out about a possible child drowning in the family pool. We arrived quicker that paramedic's which is unusual. We assessed the situation and determined to drive him to the hospital. My partner sat in the back performing CPR on the 2 year old boy, I drove to the hospital. I called ahead and the deputies blocked the intersection for me so I could drive without having to stop. At times we were driving up to a 100 miles per hour. We got to the emergency room were the waiting staff came and took the baby from my partner. He was pronounced dead 10 minutes later. A total accident. He had been left unattended at the pool during a family party, he just walked into the pool and no one noticed it until it was to late. I saw lots of deaths by suicide, murdering and accidents. One call we got was to a bar were there was a fight. As we arrived the fighting parties had left, but in the corner was a man sitting in a leaning back chair against the wall, he had been killed by one of the fighting parties. He was not even apart of the fight. He was a innocent bar attender who was at the wrong place at the right time. The area that I patrolled was a very high gangster area. There were 4 main gangs, they were often waring each other. Then sometimes one gang would drive into the opposing gangs area, at was often called a drive by shooting. Were they would randomly fire several gunshots into on of the opposing gang members house. Sometimes no one got hit, but occasionally someone did get hit. And now that gang would have a retaliation by driving by the other gangs house and firing there guns, sometimes the retaliation was quick, sometimes it would be months. Anyway it is just part of life for those who choose to be gang members. 

During patrol if we saw a gang car, we would stop it and search it. Often we found drugs and ocassionally we would find a gun. The gangsters did not like us because we stopped them a lot. But they were respectful of us and did as we instructed them. One day a call came out of a residential burglary in progress. It was a few miles from were I was, so I headed to it knowing that the likely hood of them still being there was minimal. A description of the vehicle had been broadcast.  As I was heading towards the address, I noticed a car of that description heading in the opposite direction, on top of that I saw tv cords hanging out of the trunk, I turned around to persue the car and it took off, but his escape route was heading straight to our station. As I broadcast the persuit, it gets broadcast in the station and as soon we passed near the intersection, about 6 patrol cars came out and joined the persuit, the bad guys gave up right away after seeing all the patrol cars chasing him.