February 2, 2006

Almaden police sergeant, homicide unit to receive Pride
of San Jose Award from Mayor Ron Gonzales

Unit to receive accolade during mayor’s State of City speech Feb. 8

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

Mayor Ron Gonzales will honor San Jose Police homicide detectives next week during his State of the City address for their impressive homicide arrest rate.

And among the honorees will be Almaden’s Tim Porter, a sergeant with the unit for about a year, who’s shown talent in quickly solving murder investigations.

The unit has one of the highest homicide arrest rates in the country. It cleared 26 of 28 homicide cases last year.
In 2005, the city had a total of 31 homicides. The discrepancy between the number of cases solved and killings is because at some slayings there was more than one victim.

By comparison, San Francisco’s homicide division’s arrest rate is 22 percent.

In 2004, the national homicide arrest rate was 63 percent.

The 45-year-old Porter joined the ranks of the San Jose Police Department in 1988. He’s worked in the city’s Mobile Emergency Response Group and Equipment team and on the local federal Drug Enforcement Administra-tion taskforce. He was promoted in 2000 and was responsible for the Megan’s Law team for two years hunting down sex offenders.

He was also in the Metro Unit where he worked as a plain-clothes officer in drug and prostitution enforcement.
Gonzales will give his annual speech at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 8, at the City Hall rotunda.

A total of 12 officers are assigned to the unit, with 10 working current cases and two working cold cases. A seven-person crime scene unit assists the homicide unit collecting evidence after a slaying has occurred. So far this year, both units have already worked on six homicides. All will attend the ceremonial event to receive the customer-service award.

Unit detectives go on call—seven 24-hour days—every five weeks. During that time they pick up the homicides. Sometimes the officers are lucky and go a couple of months without a homicide or they may deal with two homicides in less the 24 hours.

“I’m just happy when you can tell a victim’s relatives or parents that you have a case solved. I hope we can continue the good luck,” Porter said.

The unit is under the supervision of Lt. J.R. Gamez, but its previous commander was Lt. Mike Sterner, who presided over the group for nearly two years.

“We’re very honored to receive this award. The men and women in the homicide unit have worked very hard over the years to maintain a high clearance rate and to insure that those responsible for violent deaths are prosecuted,” Sterner said.

While the city is fortunate not to have a large homicide rate compared to a city like Detroit, which has annual homicide rates in the high 300s, Porter attributes the unit’s high solve rate to having many field resources at the scene of a killing such as the city’s gang and undercover units.

“If a homicide happens right away we’re able to put people out in the field to help us when we’re out there investigating,” Porter said.

The unit recently solved three homicides through Porter and his partner, San Jose Police Sgt. Rob Millard after cracking a cold case from the 1980s.

Porter also credits the unit’s high solve rate to the department’s rotation of officers policy which assigns different detectives to different units every four to six years. With almost every type of assignment the department implements the policy.

“We throw a lot of resources at the problem right away,” Porter added. “It’s not uncommon to work 36 or plus hours in a row to try to get as many leads or do as much as you can in that time period. Sometimes we have pretty long days until we run out of leads. When you work that long and hard with all those things you get some pretty good luck.”

Porter will rotate out of the homicide unit in a year. He and his partner also said the high homicide solve rate can be attributed to having strong community ties.

“It helps when you can go to community and recreation centers or schools and talk to people and they go out and call us with as much information as they have,” Millard said.

Millard, who’s been with the San Jose Police Department for 17 years, said it’s all about team work. “It’s not just the homicide unit. It’s a team effort,” he said. “We leave no stone unturned because we have the resources.”
Millard said the unit has had an above 80 percent homicide solve rate since 2000. He said some homicide suspects have been arrested as quickly as three hours after the crime has been committed.

About the award, Millard said, “It’s our job. It’s nice and we’re grateful as a unit to be nominated for this. We’re very passionate about our work. We’re expected to solve all homicides.”

In 1998, Attorney General Janet Reno gave Porter and his partner the DEA Administrators Award for outstanding work during a heroin investigation that netted more than 100 pounds of the drug in a three-month period.
Porter has also received many departmental awards such as the Hazardous Duty Award when he was involved in a shooting during his service in the SWAT team and for the number of sex offenders he and his partner arrested in a one-year period.

The State of the City address will be presented at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 8, in the rotunda of the new City Hall, 200 E. Santa Clara Street. For tickets call (408) 554-2972.