Article June 13, 1977 Issue

An Interview: with a law-enforcement officer

by ROBERT L. GATES

From what I could decipher from the police radio, we had just received a backup call on a 488 (petty theft). My head snapped back against the headrest as Dave Tolford pulled into the passing lane, switched on the dome flasher, and began to show me a little of what the 440 cu in pursuit engine in the big black and white Polara could do.

"I wouldn't normally go at this speed," he explained, "but the officer requesting assistance is on the other side of town and we're the closest to him."

For seven years Dave was a deputy sheriff, assigned for three years to the city of Norco, California, by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department. Shortly before he left patrol work to become a personnel investigator, responsible for the recruitment, background investigation, and hiring of other officers, I spent a day as a "ride along," observing how a class-taught Christian Scientist copes with the emergency demands of police work.

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