Jamie Newbold

There was no early passion to become a cop. A pal of mine joined the post-Vietnam Marine Corps. He got out and applied to the SDPD. I was a construction worker with a ponytail that hung down between my shoulder blades, and no prospects of a rewarding, adventurous future. My pal challenged me to get a real job by following his attempts to become a cop. I accepted the challenge. I got hired and he did not.

I had a strong sense of right over wrong. I believed the PD would be a good fit. Following training and a year or so in the field, I’d made the correct choice.

My book is intended for lay people with no particular insights into police work, just curiosity. The book’s appeal, or that of the author, has already proven of interest to a few active duty and retired SDPD officers. I’m hoping more San Diegans and people with genuine regard for police stories and lives will target the book.

My book’s theme honors a past SDPD program that was designed to fight crime when gangs and the crack epidemic were bringing the city of San Diego’s citizens to their knees in parts of town. The unit’s accomplishment was the impact it had on crime, gangs and drugs. For a time, WECAN in league with other SDPD units, made the bad guys feel our weight of justice.

The book has the feel of the days and weeks in the life of one cop and a host of brother and sister officers. Some of the tales are general while many others are incident specific. Each chapter provides the reader with a seat in the front row of the experiences and the battles of my WECAN team and I as we hit crime on a more personal level. Readers are right there in the action in many close and upfront encounters with the worst, most dangerous people crime has to offer.

My strongest tie to law enforcement is the social life with fellow retirees and a handful of veteran police officers still on the Job. I occasionally attend LE rallies and gatherings with retired law officers and police supporters. My wife, a retired SDPD detective, and I make cash donations to various SDPD-related people or groups in need of financial support. The sales of this book would be a nice base of financial support if sales are brisk.

“[It’s] a down and dirty, real-life introduction of novel approaches to policing the streets of San Diego during the

late 1980s. Retired San Diego Police Officer Jamie Newbold’s personal stories of confronting gang members,

drug dealers, prostitutes, smugglers, and other criminal elements offer a riveting insight into an underworld most

of us never saw even though it often occurred in broad daylight.”

— Mark S. Zaid, Esq., National Security Attorney and Fellow Comic Book Dealer

About the Book

Twenty-Year San Diego Police Department (SDPD) veteran Jamie Newbold was just one of a cadre of

big city San Diego cops that joined the street battle against drugs and gangs as a member of the

Walking Enforcement Campaign Against Narcotics (W.E.C.A.N.). The unit of over thirty sworn officers

brought down the worst gang members and their drug-dealing affiliates over a four-year period. Here

Newbold documents his exploits, making them public for the first time.

About the Author

Jamie Newbold hired onto the San Diego Police Department in 1980 and took a full medical retirement in

2000. He then went into business for himself with ownership of a collectibles store. He is the author of The

Forensic Comicologist, a book about his business. Jamie and his wife, Kim, also SDPD retired, live in San

Diego, where it all started.

IN THE COMPANY OF COPS

W.E.C.A.N—San Diego

JAMIE NEWBOLD

ISBN13: 978-1-946754-11-0 (Paperback)

978-1-946754-12-7 (Ebook)

488 pages 6 X 9 $21.95

Release Date: July 2020

Available online and wherever fine books are sold.

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