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Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Laura Lorman, police chief for the WVC-MC District, has been in law enforcement for more than 20 years.
Top cop keeps the campus clean
Laura Lorman heads campus police force at West Valley, Mission colleges
By Shari Kaplan
When West Valley-Mission College District Police Chief Laura Lorman reflects on what made her embark upon the law enforcement path she has followed for more than two decades, she says it was definitely not something she knew was her calling from an early age. She suspects, however, that her family had a significant influence on the foundation upon which she later would build her career.
It could be that, growing up with three older brothers, a spunky young Lorman came to appreciate early the value of self-defense. Perhaps it's because her personality is naturally that of a people-person who enjoys helping others. The fact that one of her brothers went into law enforcement was an encouragement, Lorman says, but the person who was her first role model and was the most inspirational to her was her mother, Maryhill Gleason.
"My mother was an engineer at Lockheed at a time when that wasn't very common. All her jobs seemed to be 'men's' jobs,'" Lorman recalls with an amused smile, telling how when her mother worked on the Alaska Pipeline project in Canada's rugged Yukon Territory, some of her friends found it rather extreme--to put it lightly.
"I grew up knowing that just because you're a female, you're not limited in what you can do. My mother gave me the feeling that I could do anything I was interested in," Lorman says.
A Southern California native who settled in Sunnyvale in 1966 and has lived there ever since, Lorman had the confidence that she could tackle any profession she wished--she just wasn't sure at first what her calling would be. She obtained an AA degree in history from De Anza College in Cupertino with aspirations of becoming a history teacher.
Partway through her studies at San Jose State University, however, two things happened. The passage of Proposition 13 cut a large number of teaching opportunities, which led her to rethink her future in education. Around the same time, her brother Allen McCulloch, then an officer with the San Jose Police Department and now a retired lieutenant, suggested his little sister sample a class in the Administration of Justice Department and see what she thought of it.
"I took one class and fell in love with it!" Lorman says. Not only did she switch majors to graduate with a bachelor's degree in A.J., the popular lingo for Administration of Justice, but she also went on to obtain a master's degree in its counterpart, Justice Administration. She then began applying to departments "anywhere and everywhere." Even though she scored well on both physical and written tests, her lack of actual police experience proved a hindrance.
In January of 1979, the West Valley-Mission Community College District Police Department gave the eager young recruit a chance, hiring her as a sworn officer to work a split patrol, as its officers still do today, alternating between Saratoga's West Valley College and Mission College in Santa Clara, spending several months at a time on each campus.
Once hired, Lorman discovered her gender also proved something of a hindrance, not so much in sexist remarks from colleagues, but in a much more basic sense.
"At that time, you couldn't get a bullet-proof vest that was cut for a woman. You also couldn't go to a police uniform supplier and just pick out your uniform size. You had to have your uniform specially tailored," she says. She also had a hard time finding utility belts that fit her hips and even developed calluses over her hip bones until she could find a belt that was cut right.
Police Chief Laura Lorman stops to chat with Christina Booth, a senior executive assistant who works at West Valley College. Lorman regularly walks around the campus.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
In terms of women's abilities to carry out the enforcement of the law, Lorman says she is proud to cite that female officers' arrest statistics are almost exactly equal to that of males. Women also have a significantly smaller number of incident-involved injuries and instances where they need to use physical force. Lorman attributes this to the fact that women, at least in this culture, often develop more refined interpersonal communication skills. They've also been proven to use verbal and intuitive approaches more often than men do.
"Women put a different spin on doing the job," Lorman says, adding that because of the insights provided by females in the field, many police academies have added classes in various aspects of interpersonal communications.
During her years as an officer, Lorman says she never had a day that wasn't interesting or exciting in some way. When thinking about some of the most memorable of these, three incidents come to her mind immediately.
One of her most frightening experiences came when she responded to a call from a nearby Santa Clara County sheriff's deputy for backup in a confrontation with a violent suspect. Lorman was pulled into the fray and found herself on the ground with a man who managed to snatch her gun from its holster. As soon as it fell, Lorman remembers an adamant thought running through her mind: "If I can't have the gun, then he can't have it either!" She gave the weapon a swift enough kick to render it uselessly out-of-reach to the suspect, but not to the deputies. Together, she and the deputies soon had the suspect under arrest.
In sharp contrast, one of the most amusing calls to which she responded involved a man who appeared to be a bit 5150--the law enforcement code for "mentally disturbed." Someone in a West Valley classroom called the campus police to report that a strange man had harassed the class, claiming to be an F.B.I. agent and proclaiming he was going to teach them how to chop down trees. Particularly disturbing was the fact he had an ax with him, although he was not threatening anyone with it. Lorman later found him sitting in his vehicle in the college parking lot, using a golf club to chow down on spaghetti. The police transported him to Valley Medical Center's emergency psychiatric services for evaluation.
The most rewarding incident, and one Lorman says epitomizes the personal, less-rushed nature that distinguishes university law enforcement from municipal law enforcement (police and sheriff's departments), involved a student rape victim. Lorman was able to meet with the victim on several occasions, not only to take down pertinent information, but also to be sympathetic. She also gathered a number of resources to help the victim cope and heal and made time to follow up with the young woman.
As a thank-you gesture, the woman returned Lorman's kindnesses by designing and making a plaque bearing the images of a heart, hand and ear, which symbolized Lorman's warm and caring nature, her helpfulness and her patient listening. "In all the years I've been in this business and gotten various recognitions, this one means the most to me," she says. "Especially when I've had a bad day, when I look at that plaque, it always makes me feel better."
By the mid-1980s, Lorman received a promotion to sergeant, which still involved patrol but mainly consisted of paperwork and jobs inside the station. A decade later, she stepped in as acting chief when longtime Chief Charles "Stoney" Brook retired. Then, in 1997, the job opened to applications. Among a small group of hopefuls, Lorman got the job--no lack of experience this time around!
"I think this kind of job usually attracts people who want to leave an imprint," says Lorman, for whom it is also true. As an officer, she says she often had ideas about possible changes or improvements, but could only suggest them to her superiors. "You're in no position to actually make it happen," she explains. As a sergeant, she had more sway, but it wasn't until she became chief that the department was hers.
"I wanted to be able to get in there and do things. We've had a good working relationship with students, faculty and staff. I took that good relationship and have tried to institutionalize it so that it becomes part of our 'culture' and will continue on after I leave," says Lorman, who came up with the current version of the department's mission statement.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Police Chief Laura Lorman runs the West Valley-Mission College District Police Department
"We try to be involved with the community--to get out there and talk with people. Our department should be accessible and our image a resource that people don't have to be intimidated to use," she says, adding that this includes both sworn officers as well as non-sworn Campus Service Officers, or CSOs. "I like that students see officers as approachable. Sometimes they even come up to officers and ask what's a good A.J. class to take."
Sergeant Chris Rolen was attending one of those classes some 16 years ago when Lorman, then an officer, gave a presentation on the WV-MCD Police Department and its CSO program.
CSOs are uniformed students who receive A.J. class credit and a stipend for their work. The program involves providing members of the college community with various types of assistance that do not require a sworn, armed officer. It also includes foot patrol, evening escorts, parking enforcement, first aid, crowd monitoring at special events and office help. CSOs are in constant radio contact with on-duty police personnel and can summon an officer if needed.
Lorman and her presentation impressed Rolen so much that he joined the program.
He says, "Being a CSO provided me with exposure to the field of law enforcement. It allowed me to see firsthand what types of activities officers were involved in. It was the type of thing where you get a taste of something, and then you have to have more!"
Now a sergeant who works mainly out of Mission College, Rolen says he served under three other chiefs before Lorman took the helm. What sets her apart from her male predecessors is not so much her gender as her way of running the ship.
"Her style of management is the most unique in that she allows people in her department to make the most of their abilities. She's very much interested in seeing people progress and grow in their jobs," he explains. "She wants to see people do well--that's just as important to her as herself doing well. That makes the whole department do well, from the top on down."
Along with presentations similar to the one that recruited Rolen, Lorman also takes students on tours that she plans with Marge Faulstich, the coordinator of the A.J. program. Lorman believes that instead of simply studying topics like the Napoleonic Code of France, the English law system with its bewigged barristers and the legal system of Italy, it would be a wonderful enrichment for students to actually visit these places and learn about them firsthand.
The first trip was in 1982 and took students to England, France and Italy. At first they were a bit overwhelmed with culture shock, Lorman recalls, but by the end of the trip they had become true adventurers. Five years ago, she led another student trip to Hong Kong, with the aim of broadening students' familiarity with the United States' "neighbors" across the Pacific Rim and increasing their understanding of the very different Asian justice systems. Next spring she anticipates a return to England, and possibly elsewhere.
"Traveling is a whole different kind of education," Lorman says. She speaks from the experience of numerous family road trips throughout the United States when she was growing up. She also became a ravenous reader of Richard Halliburton's travel book series published in the first half of the 20th century.
As a high school student, she fed the wanderlust her trips and readings started by going on a student tour through Europe. As a young adult she returned to see that continent with a Eurailpass. This also served to further her love of the arts and humanities, especially theater, opera and ballet. She pursues these interests here at home as well.
When the busy chief finds time to kick back in her home, a Sunnyvale condominium, she enjoys reading, organizing and remodeling the house, listening to music ("I don't think there's any type of music I don't like!") and playing with her cats, Huey and Duey. There was once a Louie, but he has since passed on. She also enjoys taking photos and entering photography contests and spending time with her niece and nephews: "My job as Auntie Laura is to spoil them!" she asserts with a grin.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
