Law Books and a Badge--More Toting Both : Police: Motives vary, but an increasing number of officers are studying to become attorneys. Some make the switch only to go back to the beat.

There are lots of reasons to go back to school. One of Dave Miller’s was revenge.

The decorated Fullerton police officer felt pilloried four years ago as a defendant in a lawsuit that blamed police after a suspect crashed during a car chase and killed three people. For three weeks, Miller recalled, he seethed as the opposing lawyer painted him and fellow officers as reckless “cowboys.”

The jury ended up siding with the police, but the event was an epiphany.

“That’s when it hit me,” Miller said. “We need people trained in the law to convince these people that we’re not just a bunch of cowboys.” Miller, who grew up as “the kid who always wanted to be a cop,” decided to go to law school.

These days, he’s not the only one toting law books and a badge. Entering his third year of night law classes at Western State University, Miller is one of a growing number of Orange County police officers who are either training to become lawyers or are freshly out of law school. There is no clearinghouse for statistics, but at least a dozen officers around the county are in law school or recently passed the bar exam. The Irvine Police Department alone boasts three cops who are also licensed lawyers--and two more in training.

“We’re going to branch out and form a law firm,” joked Sgt. Jeffrey Love, an attorney who supervises the department’s internal affairs division.

Cops, who traditionally have held a special disdain for lawyers, are now becoming them for a variety of reasons. Some police officers view law school as a logical extension of their daily work enforcing the law on the streets and, as with other advanced degrees, a route to quicker promotions in their departments. Others, like Miller, see it as a way to defend fellow cops and offer their agencies advice on ever-changing legal issues ranging from police searches to personnel matters. For many, moonlighting as a lawyer beats being a security guard and offers a second career--or an escape hatch from police work that can be long on peril and short on reward.

“It’s definitely on the upswing,” said corporate attorney Keith Rosenbaum, who teaches law classes at Western State and is a reserve police officer in Irvine. “It’s a function of frustration. A lot of the guys--and ladies--out there hit a point where there’s not a lot of room for advancement in law enforcement. . . . You’re under a microscope. You’re afraid of being sued.”

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Most, though, say they plan to stay on as police officers and use their new legal training on the job. Miller, a 13-year veteran who currently heads the hiring office, would like to become the house counsel for the Fullerton department. Love’s bosses plan to send him to court to defend the department against legal motions seeking officers’ personnel files.

“It’s perfect to have him do that instead of having the city attorney” do it, Irvine Police Chief Charles S. Brobeck said.

Some officers find themselves dispensing legal advice already.

Lt. Andrew Hall, a watch commander in the Westminster Police Department waiting to find out if he passed the bar exam, keeps the latest legal journals in his desk and said his legal training has helped in making personnel decisions. As he spoke, Hall took a phone call from a woman confused about how to comply with a court order barring her from going near a neighbor. He explained the order and offered some calm advice. Hall has gotten used to it--colleagues now routinely refer such questions to him.

Fullerton police trainees in Lt. Michael Stedman’s classes learn about the constitutional underpinnings beneath the how-to’s of search and seizure and defendants’ Miranda rights. Stedman, who passed the bar exam last year and also works part time for a Long Beach firm, said he wrote a department training bulletin on handling spousal abuse calls after reading about an appellate court decision revising the standard for conviction.

Most police queries about such issues are answered by the district attorney’s office, but that’s not always possible.

“The DA’s office isn’t there at 3 in the morning,” said Jeff Noble, a senior officer in Irvine who passed the bar exam in February.

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Though police officers may have a working familiarity with lawyers and the law, there’s no guarantee they’ll succeed in law school--especially while holding down a full-time job with irregular hours.

Santa Ana lawyer Bruce D. Praet, a former officer noted for his high-profile defense of police agencies, said he gets calls every year from cops considering law school. “I saw a lot of people who found out it’s a lot more difficult than they anticipated and dropped out,” he said.

Some cops find it hard to overcome their police training and their regimented, crime-fighting approach in the face of muddy legal issues, said Rosenbaum, who teaches corporation law and taxation.

“As a cop, you’re taught there aren’t gray areas--it’s black and white,” said Rosenbaum. “The best piece of advice is, put away your conservative leanings . . . and open your mind.”

Officers tell law school classmates about their day jobs but say they avoid representing the police viewpoint when studying criminal cases. Hall said he once held his tongue as the professor railed against tactics used by vice police. But he and others said law classes have made them more sympathetic to civil liberties concerns.

Most look beyond criminal law, although some graduates have gone on to work as prosecutors. Huntington Beach Police Detective Richard Butcher trains officers on legal issues at the Criminal Justice Training Center at Golden West College, but also makes house calls to write three to four sets of wills per week. Noble said he’d like to specialize in labor law and estate planning when he hangs his shingle, part time, next year.

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But after years of police work, some officers find the paperwork drudgery of lawyering unsatisfying. Huntington Beach Detective Arthur Droz retired in 1990 to practice law, but nine months later returned to the force--as a beat cop minus his seniority.

“There was very little of anything that was fun. I found very few people that enjoyed it, with the exception of attorneys in public service,” said Droz, who still practices law part time. “I think I can make more of a contribution (as a police officer) than I did as an attorney.”

Still, in a field where it’s possible to retire at age 50 or burn out long before that, even young cops think hard about life after the badge. Former Irvine cop Victor Quiros, 32, left the force to go to law school in 1989.

“I didn’t want to see myself in a patrol car when I was 40 years old doing shift work,” said Quiros, who passed the bar exam last year.

Quiros, who just opened a practice in Orange, hopes to apply his inside knowledge of police procedures on matters such as searches and drunk driving. He’s now on the other side, defending the accused.

“If you would have asked me when I finished my five years of patrol if I would do criminal defense, I would have said probably not. But in law school you learn to look at both sides of an issue,” he said. “I could work either side.”

That kind of flexibility is hard for other cops to swallow. Some view lawyers, especially those representing criminal defendants, with a contempt that makes the idea of law school unfathomable--or at least fodder for ribbing. “Got too many scruples,” huffed one police supervisor, who is decidedly not considering a law degree.

Newport Beach Sgt. Michael Hyams, a law student with a doctorate in psychology, gets needled from three directions. Police officers “hate lawyers and psychologists. And everyone else hates cops,” he said. “Thank God I’ve got a wife and kids who like me.”