Davis police Sgt. John Wilson spent his last day on the job Friday not in uniform, but in running shoes, carrying the Special Olympics torch to the UC Davis campus for the annual Summer Games festivities.

It marked a fitting end to Wilson’s 30-year law-enforcement career, which colleagues say will be remembered for Wilson’s emphasis on community-oriented policing.

“He’s just an outstanding police officer,” said retired Davis Police Chief Vic Mentink, who during the 1980s led the department under the philosophy that the citizens of Davis were his bosses.

“John picked that up right away,” Mentink said. “He’s a high-energy person. He’s very considerate of others, and his police work was exceptional.”

“I’m very old-school. Technology’s nice, but talking to people and getting information is really more important,” added Wilson, 55. “Enforcement doesn’t solve everything, so you have to look for different approaches.”

Wilson has been part of the Davis Police Department since 1978, when he took a student internship with the agency while attending UCD. His job included tracking burglary, prowling and sexual-assault reports as officers searched for a serial rapist on the loose.

“The joke was that I knew too much, so they had to make me a reserve (officer),” Wilson said. In 1980, he became a part-time bicycle officer — one of only three such positions in the country at the time. Wilson said he liked the independence it offered him.

“It was really good training in being proactive,” said Wilson, who later became one of the first certified bike-officer instructors in California. “It gave me a chance to prove myself.”

The part-time gig led to full-time employment in 1981. Over the next three decades, Wilson handled a wide range of assignments, including patrol, youth services, the SWAT team, the Major Accident Investigation Team and undercover work for the Yolo County Narcotics Enforcement Team (YONET).

Wilson also coordinated the department’s reserve officer program, whose members in the 1990s comprised the city’s Stop Underage Drinking Squad (SUDS).

The SUDS program was the result of several major incidents in Davis that were blamed in part on underage drinking, such as stabbings, drunken-driving crashes and the 1992 death of 14-year-old Andrew Mockus, who was pushed into a moving freight train after being beaten and robbed by several intoxicated youths.

“During that time we really became concerned that underage drinking leads to violent crime,” Wilson said. “There were a lot of people who wanted to turn what happened into something positive.”

Under Wilson’s watch, the SUDS team would patrol parties, popular youth gathering spots and the streets of Davis, where young drinkers carried open containers of alcohol. The first month alone yielded 50 arrests for underage drinking.

And while the problem has diminished over the years, “it never goes away,” Wilson said.

To keep the issue at the forefront, Wilson since 1997 has organized the “Every 15 Minutes” program at Davis High School. The program includes the staging of a horrific-looking mock car accident outside the high school campus, plus other activities that drive home the dangers of alcohol abuse.

Davis school Superintendent Winfred Roberson, a former DHS principal, said the program has made a significant impact on students.

“(Wilson’s) efforts were commendable. Clearly it takes a lot of time, coordination and energy to pull it off, and to get the desired impact,” Roberson said. “If it encourages students not to drink and drive, it is worth it.”

As the years went by, Wilson saw many fellow officers promoted to higher ranks or leave for other police departments. But Wilson chose to stay put, and was satisfied in his role as sergeant — a position he says kept him “where the action is.”

Promoting “would have meant having more of a say in how we do things, but it would also have meant spending more time in meetings or in an office,” Wilson said. “I came to realize that truly wasn’t what I wanted to do.”

“John’s always been the glue that keeps this place together, its future and its past,” said Chief Landy Black, one of eight police chiefs Wilson served during his career. “He really sets the tone and gets our officers involved with things they probably didn’t realize were part of policing.”

Now, it’s up to them to carry on that legacy. For Wilson, the future will include travel, Giants baseball games and the hobbies he hasn’t had time for, such as hiking and horseback riding.

That he won’t be donning his uniform anymore seems a bit surreal.

“It just feels like I’m going on vacation,” Wilson said last Thursday, his final shift as watch commander for the swing-shift officers. “I’m not out of gas yet, but I’m getting close enough that now’s the right time.”

— Reach Lauren Keene at [email protected] or (530) 747-8048. Follow her on Twitter @laurenkeene

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Sgt. John Wilson walks the halls of the Davis Police Department one last time before retiring. The 30-year veteran hung up his badge on Friday. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo

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