Police Chief Leaves Job as Quietly as He Served

On his last day as Culver City’s police chief, Ted Cooke shook a few hands, made a couple of last jokes and quietly slipped out of department headquarters.

The longest-serving, still-active police chief in California at the time -- with 27 years as head of the Culver City Police Department -- was ending his career. There would be no group pictures. No long speeches. No tearful goodbyes.

No one expected anything more. Cooke, 71, had always kept a distance, not just from his officers, but from most of the people he encountered throughout his career.

“It’s my nature,” Cooke said recently from his oceanfront condominium in Marina del Rey. “Although my life is kind of funny -- I’ve had a ton of fun -- I don’t tell a lot of people.”

Cooke, who retired Nov. 4, may be best remembered outside law enforcement circles for having hired a disgraced Los Angeles Police Department officer after the Rodney King beating, or perhaps for frequently issuing permits for concealed weapons to celebrities. His independence and unconventional attitude toward other law enforcement agencies have drawn praise and criticism.

Few know of his penchant for poetry or his mastery of pool, poker and racquetball. He ends his sentences abruptly if he catches himself talking too much about his personal accomplishments. He would rather use his command of words -- even his extensive knowledge of English literature -- to defend his decisions in the Police Department than to serenade or impress.

Colleagues never heard him talk of family; of his six children; of a son who died of heart complications six days after his birth; of having to donate another son’s organs after a car accident 10 years ago; or of the spinal meningitis suffered by his 43-year-old son. Only a few knew of his wife, Donna, and their 30-year marriage.

Instead, his officers found him meeting them for coffee in the middle of the graveyard shift, sharing war stories about his days in the LAPD. He told them about the 1968 shootout in which he had to drag the body of a fellow policeman, Gary Murakami, out of the line of fire; how he had been the first to tell the officer’s parents that their son was dead.

“He is somewhat reserved in exposing his family life,” said Culver City Interim Chief Gary Martin, who has been in the department for 32 years. “He doesn’t like attention brought to himself.”

Cooke has spent years decorating the Culver City Police Department with pictures of past police chiefs and century-old memorabilia. He has sent scores of letters asking retired officers to send their pictures and badges, so that they too could be immortalized.

Several of those who worked with Cooke, who was born and raised in Venice and earned a degree in English literature from UCLA and a law degree in 1970 from a law school in the San Fernando Valley, said his job had been his life since the first day he put on a police uniform in 1956.

“He had a single-mindedness about getting his work done,” said Los Angeles Councilman Bernard C. Parks, who trained under Cooke at the LAPD. Cooke retired to lead Culver City Police in 1976, while Parks remained in the LAPD, eventually becoming chief in 1997.

In 1994, Cooke’s decision to hire former LAPD Officer Timothy Wind was made with that same resolution. Wind could find no redemption for his involvement in the 1991 beating of Rodney King -- despite three acquittals and one panel recommendation that he be kept in the LAPD. No one would hire him.

Except for Cooke. He took Wind into Culver City as a community relations officer -- an unarmed position -- and defended Wind’s actions to anyone who questioned his decision to bring him on board.

“I felt that I didn’t see any reason not to give him a new job,” Cooke said. “A guy’s got to work and provide for his family.”

Wind, who worked six years in Culver City before financial considerations forced him to move out of California, said Cooke had made him feel welcome.

“He was always out walking around in the station, mixing it up with the troops,” he said. “Not too many people are going to give me a second look. He went out of his way when nobody else would.”

The physique Cooke developed as a young man is still apparent decades later, with his military posture, broad shoulders and jutting chest. His striking wave of dark hair has thinned and whitened. His blue eyes still produce an intimidating stare -- though, without notice, that stare can change into a warm, inviting smile.

Through the various physical changes there was one constant in Cooke’s actions: an unwavering trust in his officers.

He remained the only police chief in Los Angeles County to deny the district attorney access to departmental investigations of officer-involved shootings. Every police department in the county has agreed to notify the D.A.’s office whenever a police shooting occurs -- except for Culver City’s.

Such decisions have generated criticism.

“I think it’s important for the public to have confidence that, when the police officer is using deadly force, they’re doing it in a legal fashion,” said Richard Doyle, head deputy of the district attorney’s Justice System Integrity Division. “It’s very gratifying to know.... In Culver City, we don’t know.”

John Lynch, head deputy district attorney at the airport courthouse, which prosecutes Culver City arrests, said Cooke’s style had drawn other criticisms.

“He’s extraordinarily confident in his own judgment,” Lynch said. “That sometimes rubs against people a little bit. And I think that a lot of the people that have been prosecutors have been frustrated when Culver City seems to dance to its own drums.... With him, it’s either ‘my way or the highway.’ I can’t think of another police chief like Ted Cooke.”

When criticism arose that Cooke had surpassed all other police chiefs in the county in the issuing of permits for concealed weapons, he ignored it.

“I’ve never had a problem with someone misusing a gun,” Cooke said.

He said he would issue permits to retired federal law enforcement officers who would not be allowed to keep their weapons after leaving the force. He also issued permits to celebrities including Gary Coleman, Johnny Carson and Robert Blake, who he said were important members of the Culver City community.

“These are not people that are going to be involved in a crime wave,” Cooke argued.

State law changed in 1999, limiting police chiefs to issuing permits only to residents in their jurisdictions, according to officials at the California Department of Justice.

Even after retirement, police business is not out of Cooke’s blood. He has been contracted by Culver City to find grants to fund anti-terrorism efforts. He also continues to run a security company, which he has owned since the 1980s.

Cooke has maintained a good relationship with the business community over the years, according to Glenn Laiken, president of the city’s Downtown Business Assn. and a vice chairman of the local Chamber of Commerce. Police response was swift under Cooke, Laiken said.

As it turns out, the Culver City Police Department is not finished with him yet. A party is planned in February to honor all the officers who retired this year. Cooke is expected to attend.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll go,” Cooke said. “Probably.”