BUENA PARK : Police Spokesman to Hit Streets Again

During his years as the public voice of the Police Department, Sgt. Terry Branum was frequently thrust into the limelight when crimes in the city drew the attention of the press.

One the most notable examples was the 1983 tragedy involving a New York boy, David Rothenberg, who was set afire by his father in a Buena Park motel room.

The case drew so much attention that Branum had to alter his workday to accommodate demands from newspapers and television reporters around the country.

“My typical day was to come to work at 3 or 4 in the morning,” he said, to do East Coast media interviews. He was also interviewed by the author of a book about the crime and was portrayed in a TV movie.

His greatest satisfaction came from befriending the boy and his mother and assisting her with the media bombardment.

Branum, known among reporters as a square shooter, earned the title in the mid-1980s of “most quoted cop” in Orange County.

“Initially it sounds silly, but it reinforces that you’re doing a good job--that you’re dependable and you get facts,” he said.

But after so many years of giving out official crime information, Branum this month returned to patrol duty.

In his new assignment, he will investigate crimes rather than just talk about them. “I kind of miss police work,” the 22-year veteran said.

Branum’s career as department spokesman began in 1981 “as an experiment, to lessen the workload of field officers and detectives, and to create better relations with the media.”

Branum, 46, held the post off and on over the 12-year period, and for all of the last three years. He believes the job improved the relationship between the department and the press.

“It gave everybody a person to contact, get questions answered and rumors cleared up,” said Branum, who added that being a good spokesperson takes patience and a desire to deal with the media.

Police Chief Richard M. Tefank said Branum’s interest in being the department’s public information officer has been an advantage. “He’s done a great job and he’s been able to keep positive relations between the Police Department and the media,” Tefank said.

Of the cases he has had to handle, Branum said, one of the most unusual was a reported 1982 sighting of Bigfoot.

“I can’t understand why the story got so big,” he said. “It was just a transient. . . . It was like the story that wouldn’t go away.”

Even CBS anchorman Dan Rather called and asked for a scoop. But Branum held firm and told him to wait with the rest of the press for the next day’s press conference.

Because such cases spur pressure from the media to release information, Branum said the job can be frustrating.

“The toughest part is when you’re dealing with a big case, such as a murder, and you have a lot of media attention and reporters know when a step is missing--and (they’re) right, but you can’t release the information,” he said. “It’s kind of like a shell game because of the papers’ competition.”

Branum said that while the job is to protect an investigation, the role is also to serve the public.

“It’s the people’s Police Department. They have the right to know what’s going on,” he said.