Fourth in a series
Re “Did Pedersen’s backers Take a Vow of Silence?”
One of the constant storylines in the unrelenting Police Dept. saga of whether the police union can oust Chief Don Pedersen, is rooted in the stark personal differences between the under-fire leader and Ted Cooke, his historic predecessor.
Leaders of the rebellious Police Officers Assn. say publicly that the Family Man vs. Funlover images that commonly are drawn between the two have nothing to do with the dispute. Others disagree, based on what they have heard around the station.
Exactly why the five-member board of the POA wants to oust Mr. Pedersen, after 4 1/2 years, remains debatable. Is it mainly because of perceived infractions by the chief ? Or, more generically, is it because he is the polar opposite of the most controversial, and most colorful, personality in Culver City history?
Neither adjective ever will be affixed to Mr. Pedersen.
“If Cooke were still here, the POA would not have dared to pull any action like this,” a veteran officer said. “If they had even thought about it, they would have been crushed. Everybody in the department knew that.
“The differences between this guy and Cooke are as obvious as the differences in their manner of leadership.
“This guy is a family man. He has a couple daughters and he is much more religious, more of an example, I would say, of a modern-day police chief.
“Cooke was a player. Cooke would go to Vegas with the guys. They’d party and drink and stuff. So he had to be lenient when it came to drinking and driving. He would get on the radio at 2 in the morning, when he was half drunk, and he would tell all available units to meet him at Jefferson and Overland, at the Denny’s. He wanted to talk and tell stories. You would go over there, meet him.
“He was drunk,” said the officer, as if that state were normal. “He would tell you stories about when he was at the LAPD (for 21 years), and he’d get in a fight with this guy and in a fight with that guy.”
An officer who joined the department not long before Mr. Cooke’s retirement in 2004, said he learned fast how to remain in good stead.
“Cooke did not hold grudges, despite what you may have heard,” said the officer. “As long as you did not lie to Cooke, you were okay. If he called you on something, and he knew the answer, you were better off if you said, ‘You’re right, Chief.’ That would be the end of it.
“However, if you tried to give him a line of bull, and lie, he would fire you or give you a month off or do the maximum, whatever he could do to you. He hated that. He always wanted to take care of things between him and the officer.”
(To be continued)
