The Ultimate Price

In case anybody needed a reminder of just how stressful police work can be, I ran across an article in Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times and wanted to share it with you.

Susan Clemmer was veteran detective with the LAPD. She was a stand-up cop, well-liked by co-workers, and always wore a smile. The other day, she put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger. As of now, nobody knows why.

Of course, it isn’t hard for a fellow cop to imagine the emotions that must have bottled up inside Ms. Clemmer over almost 20 years on the force. Her death and the suicides of another 19 LAPD officers since 1998 are a stark reminder that this job doesn’t end when you hang up the uniform. The things we see and do on a day-to-day basis take a constant toll. In the backs of our minds, we all know that one day we may be asked to pay the ultimate price in the line of duty.

Police officers are some of the finest men and women around, and they chose public service They chose to serve and protect our streets and neighborhoods. They defend the peace and serenity that we enjoy, and they do it under difficult conditions, understaffed and sometimes feeling unappreciated.

I think everybody should take this opportunity to look at cops as human beings, not just blue uniforms in cars.

Stay safe, and have a great weekend.

Bobby Lopez
President, San Jose Police Officers' Association

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LAPD mourns suicide of veteran narcotics detective
By Richard Winton and Joel Rubin
Los Angeles Times
July 8, 2009

Officers throughout the Los Angeles Police Department grieved Tuesday as news spread that a veteran detective had killed herself in the lobby of an L.A. County Sheriff's Department station Monday night.

Susan J. Clemmer, a well-regarded officer assigned to the LAPD's Gang and Narcotics Division, walked into the Santa Clarita sheriff's station about 9:15 p.m. and spoke to the sheriff's deputy at the front desk, according to sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore and LAPD officials.

Clemmer, 41, placed a box of personal items on the counter and asked to speak to a different deputy. After a brief conversation with a second deputy, when Clemmer was briefly left unattended, staffers heard a gunshot and rushed out to find her with a single gunshot wound in her head, police said.

No one else was injured.

What Clemmer said to the deputies, and whether she identified herself as a police officer, remained unclear Tuesday.

The death of the 19-year LAPD veteran left officers throughout the tightknit department stunned.

"We're in shock. It came as a complete surprise," said Capt. Kevin McCarthy, one of the commanders of Clemmer's unit. "She was always smiling and easy to work with. There was no indication that anything was wrong."

Clemmer, McCarthy said, had sent a text message to another detective in the unit saying she looked forward to seeing him at work later in the week.

Clemmer joined the narcotics unit about a decade ago and for the last several years was assigned to a squad that worked with the U.S. Postal Service on cases involving drugs sent through the mail, according to McCarthy.

He praised her as a solid officer.

Soon after joining the LAPD, Clemmer was thrust into the spotlight as a crucial witness for the defense in the Rodney King beating trials of the early 1990s.

She told jurors in a federal civil rights trial that King had laughed about the beating he got from several LAPD officers after a traffic stop and said King had spit blood on her during the ambulance ride to the hospital. She also testified that she had spoken to one of the accused officers moments after the beating and that he appeared frightened by the confrontation.

Clemmer's testimony was central to bolstering the officers' defense that they had been frightened by King and acted out of concern for their safety. She took the stand after an expert witness for the defense testified that King's behavior, as described by the defendants, was consistent with PCP intoxication.

Two officers were eventually convicted in the federal civil rights case. Clemmer gave substantially the same testimony in the officers' state trial, which ended in acquittals and sparked deadly riots in Los Angeles.

Between 1998 and 2007, 19 LAPD officers committed suicide, according to a department study released last year.