Five years ago, at noon on May 7, 2007, I sat in the canteen at the Los Angeles Policy Academy in Elysian Park, just north of downtown Los Angeles, awaiting the arrival of Captain Robert S. Hauck, then second in command of the West Los Angeles Bureau.

Some sort of ceremony had just concluded, and I was definitely the sore thumb sticking out: no dress blues, no badge, and definitely no sidearm. I had worked closely with Hauck on a number of projects, and he had something to tell me. Little did I know the magnitude.

As he sat down at the counter, I could tell the casual lunch we had planned simply to catch up on what we’d both been up to during the six months or so since he had been promoted to Captain II and placed in a new leadership role was off the agenda. He wasted no time: “You saw the news last week, right?” I had been traveling out of town in the Midwest, but the local event had reached the level of national media coverage, complete with detailed video footage, so I knew what he meant.

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