Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

The beat goes on: Former Chicago police officers share memories at Las Vegas reunion

Retired members of the Chicago Police Department began filtering into the conference room at the Sahara early Sunday evening, smiling, waving and hugging old friends they had not seen since a reunion a year ago or longer.

"Hey, how ya doin'?" shouted one ex-cop when he saw another ex-cop hailing him from a nearby table.

"Hey, Eddie," yelled his old friend, "come ova he-ah, I wancha ta meet a coupla my friends."

"What, you got friends?"

There's a certain mystique about Chicago police officers, a sort of street-smart, cocky bravado and audacity perhaps born out of laying their lives on the line each time they report for work.

Or perhaps it's because they're from Chicago, which is their kind of town.

So is Las Vegas.

About 450 people this week attended the annual Chicago Police Association of Nevada reunion.

"We call it a law-enforcement reunion," George Hitzman, 66, executive secretary of the association, said. "But it's really a social gathering more than a reunion."

Although the organization was started in 1994 by six retired Chicago cops living in Las Vegas, it is not restricted to Las Vegas residents. And it's not even restricted to Chicago cops or even just to cops.

"We don't restrict this to dues-paying members," Hitzman said. "You can come to the reunion whether you were a police officer or not."

There is as little formality as possible with the Chicago Police Association of Nevada. The club's bylaws require candidates for office to be former Chicago officers, but anyone else may be an associate member.

That's true of Hitzman, who was an auxiliary police officer in a suburb of Chicago for 30 years. He also was a construction electrician for 42 years and spent 45 years with the Army Reserves.

Hitzman retired from all of his jobs in 1999 and moved to Las Vegas. After hearing about the local association, he joined.

"I was suckered into being the executive secretary," Hitzman said, "only because nobody else wanted it."

Hitzman said there are 400 dues-paying members of the Chicago Police Association of Nevada. "But we have a mailing list of close to 1,000."

More than 200 of the members live in Las Vegas. Others are spread out around the country.

Joseph de la Paz, 59, is the president of the association. He retired and moved to Las Vegas in 1996 after 29 years with the department.

"I refer to it as quitting," de la Paz said. "Retiring makes me feel old."

De la Paz went to work part time for Metro Police in Las Vegas in 1997 in the Special Investigations Division. He is in charge of the section's alcohol awareness program.

Working for Metro is tame compared to the Chicago department, he said.

"In 29 years, I never worked (indoors)," de la Paz said. "I always worked the streets. This is kind of a change for me."

De la Paz worked thousands of cases Chicago. The most memorable was a tragedy.

"It broke my heart," he said. "This little black girl, a child, had been running a high fever for two weeks. I rushed the baby to the hospital, but she died in my arms."

Founding father

Sixty-eight-year-old Bill Meade is a charter member of the Chicago Police Association, which meets on the first Wednesday of each month at 1250 S. Burnham Ave. He and fellow retired cop Bob Peppler instigated the group.

"I moved out here in '92," said Meade, who retired from the Chicago Police Department in 1988. "In a short time, I got lonely."

He met Peppler and together they found four other retired cops and held an informal meeting at now-defunct Vacation Village.

"It was just, 'Hi, how are ya? How are things? Bop, bop, bop,' " Meade said. "We decided to meet again the following month and about 25 guys showed up."

They decided to formalize the organization and Peppler was elected its first president, and Meade its first vice president.

"About four months later Bob and I said, 'Wouldn't it be nice if we had a reunion out here and bring out people we haven't seen in a long time -- renew old acquaintances?' " Meade said.

Nearly 300 people attended the first reunion.

"It's not really a reunion, but a get-together where we tell war stories," Meade, a member of the Chicago Police Department for 32 years, said.

One of Meade's more memorable war stories involves a case in the early '60s, when he was working a robbery detail.

Meade and his partner spent three years trying to nab a crook who would rob people as they arrived home after working late at night during the spring and summer months. He would burglarize homes in the winter.

One winter the burglar broke into a home and discovered a family was there -- a widower, his son and his son's wife.

"He ended up killing all three," Meade said. "Wiped out the family."

After years of dogged police work, the case was resolved by accident.

"One night, there was this witness in an unrelated case who was being protected," Meade said. "There was one police officer assigned to the front of the house, and one assigned to the rear.

"The one at the rear was in his uniform, but in his own vehicle. He spotted some guy sneaking down the alley toward him. He got out of his car and the bad guy took a shot at him. The police officer shot back and killed him."

They went to the dead man's apartment and found evidence covering three years of robberies and burglaries, including the one in which the family was slain.

Meade retired at age 55. But he didn't stay retired.

"In '88 I went to work -- excuse the expression -- as the director of safety and security for Arthur Andersen and Company," Meade said. Andersen has lately been best known as the accounting firm for the troubled Enron Corp.

After four years he quit Andersen and moved to Las Vegas for the weather, among other reasons.

"My wife and I weren't ready to die yet, so we didn't retire to Arizona or Florida," Meade said. "We still wanted to do things, so we moved here to enjoy ourselves."

Officer camaraderie

Mary Pearson spent 10 years as a patrolwoman with the Chicago Police Department. Her late husband, Delphys, was on the force more than 29 years. When he retired in '91, she also quit.

"If my husband hadn't retired I would have stayed longer," Pearson, 57, said. "But I wasn't going to let him come out here to Vegas by himself."

Pearson joined the department in 1981 at age 37, when her first husband said he didn't think she could pass the written examination.

She passed the test, and eventually took a pass on the husband.

Pearson and Delphys, her second husband, grew up in the same southeast Chicago neighborhood, but after graduation from high school they went their separate ways and didn't meet again until she joined the police force.

"He was in the (police) district I was assigned to," she said.

After a couple of years they patrolled as partners for two weeks, but quit after they started dating.

"In about '83 he asked me out, and in '85 we got married," she said.

The Pearsons were among the first to join the Chicago Police Association of Nevada. She said there is a lot of camaraderie among the members.

"All you have to do is say, 'Can somebody help me?' and anybody will help you," Pearson said.

When her husband died of cancer in 1996, everyone was supportive. "They were there for me," Pearson said.

But, that's the way Chicago policemen are.

"Someone's always watching your back," she said.

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