Jim Wilson

Not on My Watch Jim Wilson

This memoir takes you through the rookie years of being in uniform, patrolling the Ghetto on second shift, making some terrible mistakes-apprehending a felon and luckily coming out uninjured, then being placed in traffic enforcement detail where some lucky stops of vehicles came up with some good felony arrests and later receiving the Policeman of the Year award. Some of the "characters" in the police department were identified as well as some of the street people. The author took pride in being a good, honest, hard working policeman, who said that he never had a boring day during his twenty year police career. He believed in the great golfer, Lee Travino's philosophy, "the harder you work the luckier you get." It was proven by the author's felony arrest record. His theory was, if you stop vehicles, you make some good felony arrests. During the turbulent sixties (Viet Nam) era he was assigned to plain clothes as an intelligence officer to gather information on subversive groups and their activities. The author was able to get some good information by having an undercover policeman infiltrate one of the most active groups. He and his men were able to use a house across the street from where this group lived that was inhabited by an elderly woman, and she thought it would be fun to be able to work with the police department, to watch the people across the street. During the time he worked traffic enforcement, the city annexed a large area on the North Side of Peoria (Richwoods). Thinking he was ready for a change, the author volunteered and was assigned to that area in Patrol Division on second shift. It did not take him long to realize it was too quiet an assignment. It was a lot of public relations and no action. He lasted six months at that assignment and was transferred to the detective bureau, where the author stayed until he retired with twenty years service. The last two and half yearsof his career, he was supervisor on the second shift.