Cops protect and serve citizens and superstitions

Well, you might be surprised. Police culture, it turns out, includes plenty of superstitions.

Consider Sgt. Graham Young's angel ring, Sgt. Eric Distel's white feather and Lt. Gigi McCalla's pens. They don't leave home without them.

“I don't see people rubbing rabbits' feet or putting horseshoes on their patrol cars,” said Distel, a 20-year Escondido police veteran. However, he added, “I have a feather hanging from my rearview mirror. My wife made it for me, to keep me safe at work. I've had it 10 years. I'm afraid to take it down.”

Some police employees view Friday the 13th and full moons – the next full moon is Friday – with suspicion, and many, half-joking, avoid speaking the word “quiet.”

“That's a no-no. As soon as someone says that, we get really busy,” said Amelia Osuna, a Chula Vista police dispatcher for 22 years.

“And there's the notion of, we haven't had any homicides this year, so far,” Roark said. “Now if you say that, people run and knock on wood. People think you can be jinxed by what hasn't happened, and they're halfway serious about it.

“We still buy into the whole thing about, when it's a full moon, it'll be busier for us. I've seen studies to the contrary, but it is still pretty prevalent in our culture.”

The full-moon theory certainly has local support.

“Officers say more things happen during a full moon,” El Cajon police Lt. Ron Smithson said.

“Weird stuff happens on a full-moon night,” California Highway Patrol Officer Brian Pennings said.

Distel, besides displaying his lucky feather, said he is careful to dress in exactly the same order each day.

“I always put stuff in my right pocket first, then left pocket. Nothing really bad has happened since I started doing it that way. Sometimes when I think I've omitted something from my routine, I'm like, 'Oh, I hope nothing goes wrong,' ” Distel said.

El Cajon police Lt. Frank Le Haye said some officers get used to a certain chair in the patrol briefing room, and will sit in no other.

“They think it would mess up their whole mojo,” Le Haye said.

National City police Sgt. Graham Young carries good-luck tokens, including a ring with an angel silhouette labeled “Protection” on his key chain.

“I make sure it's there every day,” Young said. “My mom gave me a Celtic cross since I started in law enforcement, and I've never taken it off in 13 years.”

Lemon Grove sheriff's Lt. Gigi McCalla's mother gave her a pocket pen set at her academy graduation in 1984.

“It doesn't work anymore, but every day it's still in my pocket,” McCalla said. “I wouldn't feel complete.”

Osuna said she carries protection in her purse: an angel, a little flat stone that says, “I will never leave you,” and a saint from Mexico.