Randy Cox didn’t wear the silver, shiny badge that long before he figured out that police work is not black and white.
Back in 1980, as a rookie officer in his mid-20s for the Redmond Police Department (RPD), Cox responded to a grocery store where the manager had detained a shoplifting suspect. But to the dismay of the store manager, Cox did not arrest the suspect, an elderly woman who was caught stealing $24 worth of food because she did not have enough money.
“She was stealing food because she was hungry,” Cox recalled during a ride-along with the Redmond Reporter earlier this week. “I thought, ‘You know what, I’m not going to arrest her.’ The poor gal had to steal to eat.”
Instead of putting her behind bars, Cox helped her put food on the table. Cox drove over to his former employer, Northwest Manufacturing, in the Willows Valley and asked his old boss if he could help the elderly woman out with some money for food. Much more than a one-time, token donation, Northwest Manufacturing set up a bank account for the woman — money just for food — that had at least $200 in it until she died four or five years later. For the final years of her life, that elderly lady no longer had to steal to eat.
“That was a prime example of community policing before anybody knew what community policing was all about,” said Jim Taylor, one of Cox’s supervisors before he retired in 2004.
Cox, who was Taylor’s best man in his wedding, admitted he thought he was going to get in trouble for not arresting the woman, but in the end he said he felt “that wouldn’t be justice if I arrested her.”
Cox, now 56, reflects back on that incident, one of many compassionate examples of his community-policing style that he become known for throughout his eventful, rewarding 30-year career at the RPD.
“I was given this position by the citizens to serve them, not abuse them,” said Cox, who retired on Wednesday, making him the third member of the 30-year club at RPD. “There is a lot of discretion involved (with police work). The first time I learned that was when I didn’t arrest that old lady.”
PROACTIVE, PERSONABLE PATROLMAN
Cox, who has been told he is “the last of beat cops,” has patrolled the Overlake district, 10 hours a day, for the last 30 years. He knows the Overlake addresses by house color, not house number, claiming that he has probably been in every house in the district at one time or another during his three decades of patrol. He never wanted to move up the ranks, he was content with just being a patrolman. Higher rank meant more time in the office, more paperwork and less time on the streets interacting with the residents and business owners.
“I like to get out of my car and talk to people,” said Cox, known for his humorous, upbeat personality.
The Education Hill resident has become well known — and well liked — around town because of his personable, strict-but-fair approach to police work.
“Randy makes a good police officer because he is personable and can relate to everyone,” said Redmond Police Officer Natalie D’Amico, who worked on the same squad as Cox. “I don’t think you can ever replace someone with a personality like Randy.”
Cox said he understood the fact that every incident had a different set of circumstances, thus a different set of consequences. Many times, his ability to communicate and ease tension helped defuse heated, emotional incidents.
“It’s not your position, it’s your disposition most of the time,” Cox said. “You just have to go with the flow. I try to be really, really nice to everybody. It’s really worked well for me.”
Although he has no kids, Cox, a former Seafair clown, had a knack of connecting with kids, too. He always had a steady supply of teddy bears in his patrol car trunk to give to kids at emotional accident scenes. He also started the SOS (Summer of Safety) program, where he would go to Redmond elementary schools and talk to young students about stranger danger, sometimes even wearing the ever-popular McGruff the Crime Dog suit.
“He wasn’t here for a paycheck, he was here to serve his community,” said Taylor, his former supervisor and longtime friend. “His public relations skills are excellent.”
It’s hard to quantify the impact Cox has had on the Redmond community, but it’s easy to see he has touched the lives of many people on both sides of the crime line — victims and suspects.
Cox recalls one man came up to him at Home Depot and thanked him for setting him straight as a troubled teen, back when he had many run-ins with the police, including one with Cox several years ago. “I sat in the driveway one night and talked to him about right and wrong and from there he said his life just got better.”
Cox has also made life-long friendships with victims who he helped in dire times. One man, Joe Sollars, a longtime Eastside bartender who now works for the Census Bureau, said Cox saved his life after he was involved in a horrible motorcycle accident in 1991.
Cox remembers driving on the 148th Ave Northeast off-ramp of westbound SR 520 when he saw motorcycle skid marks tailing off into the brush. Cox followed the skid marks and found Sollars barely alive.
“Randy was the first person to respond,” said Sollars, who broke his pelvis in six places. “He really helped calm everything down. He even visited me in the hospital a day or two later. Without Randy, who knows how my life would be right now. I really admire the guy.”
HIS CAREER CALLING
Cox’s interest in police work began back in his senior year at Highline High School in 1972. Then a long-haired, Firebird-driving fearless teen, Cox was hanging out with some buddies outside an old dairy plant in Burien when they saw a King County Deputy pull over a man. After an altercation, the suspect ran away and the deputy chased him on foot. Cox didn’t just sit there and watch, instead he ran over to the patrol car, grabbed the radio and told dispatch that one of their deputies was chasing a suspect and needed backup. Within minutes, other deputies arrived and the suspect was arrested.
Cox admits it was a brave, risky move, but in the end he was thanked by the deputies for his quick thinking and communication. That was when he decided he wanted to be a cop.
“I thought it would really be a fun job,” he said.
Who would have guessed that would be the spark of a long, illustrious career at the RPD?
“Like I tell the new kids, you get to wear this,” said Cox, pointing to his badge, “but everyone owns it, you just happen to be the one they chose. “It’s just on loan to you until you retire.”
Cox said his retirement plans include spending more time in the garden and traveling with his wife, Annie. He said he will remain living in Redmond on Education Hill and hopes to volunteer at Hopelink.
“He will be missed,” Taylor said. “He will always be my friend. He was always happy to help people out on the street, just an outstanding police officer.”
