Officer Jerry Johnson

After twenty-six years with the Minneapolis Police Department, Officer Jerry Johnson recently retired. Over the years he spent time working in a variety of areas: the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd precincts, as well as the Traffic division, where he worked for 21 years.

Some of Officer Johnson’s most memorable moments come from the time he was working in the busy 4th precinct, where he worked with motivated cops who were fun to be around. While there, Johnson and his fellow officers handled calls on a regular basis like shootings and near riots that cops in suburban departments would only handle a few times in their careers. The memory that sticks out the most from his time in Traffic was an accident on Halloween that he was called to by Kaju and Fossum. There had been a motorcycle crash on River Parkway that decapitated and killed two people. When he arrived, both of their faces were looking up at him from the grass, and the eyeballs of one of the victims were still inside the lenses of the military goggles he was wearing.

For new recruits, Officer Johnson’s best advice is do the right thing, even if it makes some of the people you work with angry. Never compromise your integrity or get caught up in lies and legal stuff. He recommends that recruits work as hard on a call as you would want a police officer working on a call at your own house. Never get complacent and always go to work with the attitude that you will be ready to handle whatever comes your way. Last but not least, keep your uniform clean and keep the same attitude you had your very first day on the job.

Now that he is retired from the Police Department, he plans to work at his new job here in Minnesota for right now, and eventually move to Arizona.

If you want to reach out to Officer Johnson, you can contact him via email at squad924@earthlink.net.

Many thanks to Officer Johnson on twenty-six years of service to the Minneapolis Police Department. Enjoy your retirement and the warm weather in Arizona!