‘Dinosaurs’ Recruited Out of Retirement to Help Beleaguered Police Shuffle Paper

On Sept. 10, 1956, Marvin O’Leary became a Long Beach police officer. After 26 years, on Sept. 10, 1982, O’Leary retired with the rank of sergeant.

At age 58, after eight years of retirement, he is back on the beat along with five other retired officers known as “The Dinosaur Squad.”

“The department asked us to come back. It was in need. We came back to try and help,” said O’Leary, who is in charge of recruiting dinosaurs.

Besides, O’Leary added, “this is a good part-time job.” And the dinosaurs don’t face the dangers they did as active duty police officers.

O’Leary said he had missed law enforcement and jumped at the chance to come back. He worked as a private investigator, security officer and as director of security for the Long Beach Plaza during retirement.

The retirees were brought back to help the understaffed department. They handle non-emergency and low-priority calls, primarily as report-takers. They also issue parking citations.

By helping keep the police paperwork shuffled, it allows the department to put more of its regular officers out on patrol.

“We take care of the cold calls. We go where there are no suspects. We don’t get involved in any chases. We don’t go to any family beefs,” O’Leary said.

The dinosaurs--or retreads, as they are sometimes called--are appreciated by the department because their efforts “allow uniformed officers to respond to the high-priority or hot calls,” said Long Beach Police Sgt. Everett Atha.

Police officers trust them, said detective Lianne Osendorf. “They are experienced. Their reports are excellent.”

And the public recognizes their value.

A man whose home was burglarized recently was surprised but pleased when O’Leary arrived to take a report within a few minutes after the crime was reported, O’Leary said.

“People complain about the department’s lateness. There are documented stories that it has taken more than five hours for officers to answer low-priority calls,” he said.

The retirees have been answering calls since October. They dress in suits and ties and sometimes ride in marked city automobiles equipped with radios. They carry concealed weapons and police identification cards with their photographs on them.

They are paid $18.82 an hour and can only work six hours a day, four days a week.

The oldest member of the squad is Edward Vogel, 67, who was a patrolman with the department for 28 years, retiring in 1976. Sgt. Glen Campbell, 59, also served 28 years. Sgt. Matthew Parrish, 57, retired after 27 years. Detective Steve Housden, 58, served 26 years in the department. Sgt. Conrad Nutzman, 55, also retired after 26 years.

At the first of the year, O’Leary said, four more retired officers will join the squad.

He said he will recruit a total of 20 officers. He has also been given permission to contact retirees of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

O’Leary said he has contacted between 60 and 70 retirees from the Long Beach department. But most of the retirees he has met do not want to return to work, he said.

The idea of having the retirees come back to work came from Long Beach City Councilman Doug Drummond, a retired Long Beach police commander who turned in his badge in 1988 after 29 years.

“I talked to the chief (Police Chief Lawrence Binkley) about the idea. He took it from there,” Drummond said.

The holidays for Nancy Placencia, 13, and her family will be brighter because of her classmates and others at Washington Middle School in Long Beach.

Students read of the family’s plight in a local newspaper recently. Nancy’s mother, Maria Gonzalez, the family’s sole supporter, died recently of cancer, leaving an elderly grandmother, Ramona Gonzalez, who is unemployed, to care for the seventh-grader, her three brothers and sisters, Alejandro, 9, Guadalupe, 7, and Mayra, 5.

The students collected more than $300 in pennies and nickels. The money, plus $500 from an anonymous donor, canned goods and toys bought by the students and teachers, were presented to the family this past week.

* Patricia Reid Koch has been hired as an assistant superintendent of business for the ABC Unifed School District in Cerritos. Koch was financial planning manager for the Los Angeles Unified School District. She replaces Kim Stallings, who recently left to join the Placentia School District. Koch, 41, has a doctorate in educational psychology and special education from UCLA. She has a bachelor of science degree in foreign service from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in human learning from the Institute for Behavioral Research in Silver Springs, Md.

* Long Beach City College student Rita Fielding has been given the college’s Crystal Award. The award is for academic achievement for students active in campus affairs at the college’s Pacific Coast Campus. Fielding is an honors student, treasurer of the campus chapter of Amnesty International, and a member of the Teachers of Tomorrow club. She also serves on numerous student committees.