Lawmen Test Their Mettle in Police Games

They aren’t dressed like police and, apart from the mostly short, neat haircuts, their professions would be difficult to guess.

But those athletic-looking people running and cycling through the streets this week, swimming through the waters and sweating on Orange County courts and playing fields are cops. Thousands of them.

This law enforcement invasion, without the blue suits, is the California Police Olympics, advertised as the largest amateur sporting event in the world apart from the actual Olympic Games.

Nearly 6,000 law enforcement officers from throughout the state are expected to participate in 44 events, staged through Sunday at 25 locations throughout the county and in neighboring cities. The events test a wide range of mostly athletic skills, from weight lifting to badminton, from bowling to swimming to trap shooting. There are team sports, such as softball and soccer, and even an event to test the skills of police dogs. All events are open to the public, and no admission is charged.

The Police Olympics are held each year in a different California city and are administered by a nonprofit corporation, the California Police Athletic Federation. The Newport Beach and UC Irvine police associations are hosts for this year’s events which are sponsored by 40 Orange County businesses and corporations.

Every event is open to any sworn law enforcement officer in the state, said Newport Beach Police Officer Nelson Ferguson, one of the directors of the games, but the faint of heart need not apply.

Competitive Group

“These aren’t just a bunch of Saturday afternoon athletes getting together playing games,” Ferguson said. “I’ve never seen a more competitive group. A lot of them were athletes in college and want to stay competitive. Some people in the softball events might have been major league prospects. It’s a great chance for camaraderie between the departments, and it’s also a good way for them to stay in shape.”

Tuesday, the first full day of events, began at the Newport Dunes recreation area in Newport Beach with the triathlon, a grueling three-sport test of endurance that included a mile swim, a 23-mile bicycle ride and a 10-kilometer foot race. But for at least one competitor, even that wasn’t enough.

“I won a gold medal last year in the boxing,” said Steve Balma, 26, an officer with the San Francisco Police Department. “But this year I decided to go back to a more serene sport like the triathlon. Tomorrow I’m going to be rowing in a four-man shell in the rowing competition, too. I’m really not nervous, but I think everybody here realizes you can never do enough training.”

Three-Member Team

Balma, like many of the day’s triathletes, was competing in the event as part of a three-member team, with each member racing in one leg of the competition. His turn, as a cyclist, came about 30 minutes after his teammate in the mile swim had plunged with nearly 175 other swimmers into the cold water at Newport Dunes.

There were, however, several individual entrants, like Charlene Hess, 30, a vice and intelligence detective with the Orange Police Department, who raced in all legs of the event.

“I played volleyball in college,” said Hess, who added that she placed sixth in last year’s individual triathlon competition. “But the cycling is really my event. I like that part of this event a lot better than the swimming. I relax when I finally get out of the water.”

Judie Bertolino stood among the dozens of spouses, children and friends who were bundled up on the beach against the morning chill to cheer on their favorites. Her husband, Tim, an Orange County Harbor Patrol deputy, was preparing to ride the cycling leg for his team.

“This is the mommy support group,” she said, pointing to her two daughters, Stacy, 9, and Carrie, 5. “It’s the only fair thing to do. If he’s going to be physical and I’m going to be cerebral, at least I can stand here and scream. A lot of these people are so physical, it’s disgusting. I grew up in the Bay Area, where you sit with a glass of wine and you watch the ocean, not swim in it. There are a lot of people in blue around here, but I think they’re blue because they’re freezing.”

Kim Bushong, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy and a former professional triathlete, repeated his win of last year in the men’s individual open competition, crossing the finish line with a time of 2:05:18.

Part Chuck Norris

A few short miles up the road, at the Newport Beach Sheraton Hotel, another set of competitors were turning blue also. From bruises. The karate competition, held in one of the hotel’s large banquet rooms, was part Chuck Norris and part train wreck.

“The idea here isn’t really a win-lose sort of thing,” said Joe Mollo, a San Francisco police officer and a board member of the California Police Athletic Federation. “The idea is to have respect for each other and try to prevent injuries to each other. Still, you’ll see a few people get hit pretty hard, and maybe a few tempers will flare.”

After the competition opened with a series of katas --stylistic exercises, and the only karate event open to women--by some of the entrants, bouts began in several weight and age classifications (each entrant, said Mollo, is required to hold or be a candidate for a black belt).

“About the only time I ever used martial arts on the job was when I was a correctional officer at Folsom Prison,” said Mark Blea, 25, a Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy. “I kicked this guy. It was over in about 10 seconds. I’m sure all these guys hope they never have to use it on the job, but if there are people on the street who know how to use it, it’s nice if you do, too.”

Minimum Force

The average police officer, said Mollo, “learns two or three ‘come-along holds’ and how to use a baton. The idea really is to use a minimum amount of force. But I heard of one guy from LAPD who had a guy pull a gun on him once and he just kicked him across the head and that was that.”

There is, however, more than one way to crush a foe and, depending on the point of view, Bob Barrier’s might be the deadliest. While the triathletes were splashing together and the black belts were crashing together, the loudest sound in Barrier’s arena--Yankee Doodle’s tavern in Long Beach--was that of billiard balls plunking into pockets--one after the other.

“I worked vice most of my career,” said Barrier, a Los Angeles sheriff’s lieutenant, “and I got to play pool a lot. It helped my career. I used to work ‘morals’ up on the Sunset Strip, and people would never figure me for a cop. They were more interested in my pool prowess, and they didn’t think about who I was. I’m devoted to the game. Sometimes I practice 10 or 11 hours a day.”

Barrier, who said his cue cost $1,000, was last year’s Police Olympics straight pool (call-shot) champion, said Tom Wonner, a UC Irvine officer and the billiards coordinator.

Misspent Youths

“These guys are damn good,” he said. “I’ve kicked around pool halls for about 40 years and I’m impressed. There are obviously a few misspent youths in this room. But this is a good way for them to unwind. Sometimes on the street it can get a little nasty, and sometimes a little pool helps.”

George Brand, a retired sergeant from the Orange County marshal’s office and last year’s nine-ball champion, said he “grew up on the East Coast where all the great players played. I was a good friend of (billiards legend) Willie Moscone, and I had my own billiard room in Fullerton for a while.”

Brand said he was “competitive in many sports until I had two spinal operations in 1953 and 1954.” But billiards still offers “a tremendous amount of walking and bending over. Good for the stomach.”

Another thing good for the stomach was the lack of beer at the competition, often a pool room staple.

“These guys take it pretty seriously,” said Wonner. “Still, there’s more ice water in this room than I’ve seen a group of cops drink in a long time.”

Costs Covered by Entry Fees

Organizers say the cost of staging the events will be covered by the entry fees from individual officers who are spending $32 each to enter their first event and $5 for each individual event after that. The proceeds from the corporate sponsorships, as well as from sales of Police Olympics-related merchandise, will go to benefit eight local nonprofit organizations.

“We won’t really have any idea of how much money will come in until the end of the week,” Ferguson said. “We need to see how the sale of the merchandise goes before we can make a guess.”

Other events to be held during the rest of the week include: arm wrestling, beginning at 2 p.m. Friday at the Newport Beach Sheraton; boxing, continuing at 7 p.m. today and Saturday at the UCI lower intramural field; track and field, beginning at 8 a.m. Friday and Saturday at the UCI track stadium; the tug of war, 1 p.m. Saturday at UCI’s Mesa Court; equestrian competition, continuing at 9 a.m. today at the Orange County Fairgrounds; swimming and diving, beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday at Heritage Park Aquatic Stadium in Irvine; and volleyball, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at Woodbridge High School.

Ceremonies honoring officers killed in the line of duty in the last year are scheduled to precede the boxing competition Saturday, said Ferguson. The tribute will include speeches by police chiefs, a cannon salute, bagpipers and a fireworks display.