An HPD father and son celebrated a badge ceremony by going on patrol together from North Shepherd Division.
It happened on Feb. 21, the day Detective Sgt. Steve Murdock of the Homicide Division put away his plainclothes for a day and donned a uniform, enabling him to go on patrol on the northside with his son, the rookie, Officer Travis Murdock, a recent academy graduate now assigned to North Shepherd.
The younger Murdock said he got yet another lesson in community policing when he and his “partner” wheeled up to Mom’s Food Store at Delz and Yale. The owners are known as “Mom and Tom” and they are long-time friends of Detective Sgt. Murdock from his patrol days in these same environs more than twelve years ago.
As Travis tells it, “He used to work in Acres Homes and I had trained oute at Shepherd for six months and actually picked Shepherd as a permanent assignment. We rode as a two-man.
“We drove up to this convenience store. Mom and Tom are the Vietnamese owners. Back when Dad was on patrol out there a suspect entered the store and threatened to sexually assault Mom. Dad intervened. He walked in right before the suspect had done anything. He arrested the suspect.
“I got to meet Mom to tell her a new generation was stepping in. She had pictures of me as a one- or two-year-old in the back in the manager’s office. It’s almost like they’re integrating us into their culture.”
Mom offered the new generation some candy but he took a rain check.
