It was the day after retired Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department Sgt. Tam McCarthy helped lay a long-time cop, John Pernick, to rest.
So on Oct. 27, as he gave an address at a much more celebratory gathering—the inaugural Los Gatos Community Police Academy graduation—he shared some lessons he learned from the mentor who’d died the week before.
“Some people are good at narcotics,” he said. “He was a master of interviewing and interrogations.”
The 20 graduates, who had all just completed 10 weeks of three-hour classes covering a range of police skills and duties, were in rapt attention as McCarthy told of one of the first suspects he ever had in the hot seat.
“I had interviewed a bad guy,” he said. “I was a little hard-headed…and he confessed.”
But he got frustrated, soon afterwards, when his aggressive tactic didn’t bear fruit in another interrogation.
That’s when Pernick gave him some crucial advice: “Everybody’s different.”
That day McCarthy learned how important it was to moderate your technique depending on who you have in the interview chair—for example, whether you’ll give them a cigarette or discuss the movies you enjoy.
For the audience at Council Chambers, McCarthy’s reminiscence was a glimpse into the training the grads got over the past several weeks.
Patti Perry, a retired resident who successfully completed the program, said these sorts of lessons were exactly why she signed up.
“The thing that fascinated me the most was the art of interrogation,” she said. “I was just fascinated with everything I learned.”
Along with the other students, Perry learned to use a Taser, practiced simulations of real-world scenarios via a virtual reality device and studied the basics of how to properly frisk someone.
They also learned about how to de-escalate tension.
“You have to build a report and a relationship,” he said. “It’s called using words vs. heavy-handed tactics.”
The class is not a direct line to a job in the police department, however graduates can apply to help out as volunteers in a variety of roles, such as providing services to victims, preparing for natural disasters and checking on vulnerable residents during the holidays.
Perry has already put her name forward.
Another student, Len Connolly, 63, is the facility director of the Jewish Silicon Valley’s Levy Family Campus.
He said, even after all training, witnessing dispatchers in action the previous week was the most engaging part of the whole academy.
“These people are well-trained; they know what they’re doing,” he said. “Up until then it was shooting the Taser.”
Going through the formal training process is part of fostering the relationship between their campus at 14855 Oka Road and the police department.
“They protect us,” he said. “They’re our first line of defense.”
Connolly says he’s already recruited four people to participate in the next academy.
Kareem Syed, giving an address on behalf of the graduating class, said the training was humbling.
“It was honestly a privilege and an honor,” he said. “We need to be the ones who are helping our community.”
Capt. Clint Tada recalled how eager the students were about the DUI training session he ran.
“I think what we enjoyed was the engagement by the participants and giving them an inside look into our job,” he said. “It was a great group.”
For Chief Jamie Field, it brought back memories of teaching criminology at Cabrillo College in Aptos.
“Teaching is such a wonderful tool because it’s all about the communication,” she said, adding the academy gave her staff the opportunity to flex these muscles, too. “We really put it on them to put their fingerprint on the topic they’re presenting.”
It can be fun to see how the employees tackle different subject matters, she said, adding it also serves another function—preparing officers for the more high-stakes task of facing cross-examination as a witness in court.
Field says she hopes the grads will help demystify the police profession by telling neighbors about what goes into holding the thin blue line.
“Because we’ve now pulled back the curtain,” she said. “When you actually hear about it from someone you see every day at the supermarket, it piques that interest a little more.”
