Cologne guy is just a smelly symbol

You have to wonder why anyone would want to be a cop.

They are assumed guilty until proved innocent. Almost everything they do is recorded. And when something big or interesting does happen, responsibility is taken away from them.

Consider the cologne guy at the hotel last week.

A 52-year-old yahoo from Gilroy barricaded himself in a room at the La Casa del Camino hotel on Friday for some inexplicable reason.

Early in the morning, guests started complaining about a strong cologne smell. No word on whether it was Brut or not, but we’re guessing it wasn’t anything cool like Artisan by John Varvatos.

According to police spokesman Sgt. Tim Kleiser, the man appeared briefly at his door, and “his eyes were watery and red. He appeared affected by the odor.”

So here’s where it got tricky.

The hotel was evacuated. The Orange County SWAT team and bomb squad were brought in. A sheriff’s helicopter decided to practice aerial circle maneuvers all afternoon. And South Coast Highway was partially blocked, which created a mess.

In all the commotion, of course, Brut boy escaped. He was not in his third-floor room when officials finally broke in.

And after all was said and done, police are not treating it as a criminal matter, even though the man allegedly had a DUI warrant.

So if it’s not criminal, why all the hardware?

I’ll tell you why. Because the pendulum has swung to safety at all costs.

In the old days, when cops did real police work, they would have evaluated the situation, probably busted down the door and hauled him off — all before lunch.

And 99% of the time, that would have been fine. But now it’s all about the 1%.

It’s the remote chance that Brut-smelling bombs are a thing now.

So everyone has to follow regulations, bring in the heavy iron and treat it like some Afghanistan stronghold. As a society, we have turned everything into a worse-case scenario.

Meanwhile, veteran cops just shake their heads and try to put on a good face.

Full disclosure: My stepfather, Art Guerra, now retired, was a sergeant for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Now 80, he spent more than 30 years chasing bad guys, so I talked with him recently about this issue.

“I don’t think I’d like to be a cop in today’s world,” he said. “They’re not able to do everything that we did. Plus, they are criticized about anything they do.”

He gave this example.

A man with a gun is seen fleeing the scene of a crime, and he enters a nearby home. Police pound down the door and “take care of business,” Guerra said.

Granted, pounding down doors doesn’t always work. But today, it seems, everything has to be done by the numbers. Police chiefs have to worry about what the mayor is going to say or what the media is going to say.

In this process, where second-guessing is standard operating procedure, how are street cops supposed to make split-second, life-or-death decisions?

Are we purposely clouding good judgment? In our desire for complete security, are we creating more dangerous work environments for police — and the public?

This reality is taking its toll. Police departments are struggling to fill open positions. Just last week, the San Diego Police Department said it is losing an average of 13 officers a month — outpacing the effort to replace them.

The reasons? According to the police chief there — morale, workload and “the climate of what’s going on.”

Even with more pay, the agency can’t attract new officers.

Look at it this way: The only thing that was gained from the hotel fiasco is more field practice.

How to set up a perimeter.

How to fly in circles.

How to use the Hazmat robot.

One wonders if we wouldn’t be better off just letting the cops do their jobs once in awhile and returning some kind of trust to a career that used to be noble.

---

DAVID HANSEN is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at [email protected].