Page 32 - February 2017

P traits by Peter Bucks
Tributes to officers from the CPD Officer, Lodge 7 member and renowned artist
What happens when you listen to your mother
n BY DAN CAMPANA
The path to becoming a po- lice officer takes many shapes. For some, it’s a calling borne out of upbringing or legacy. Others choose it out of
a commitment to serve. Edward “EJ” May’s decision involved motherly advice and following the lead set by two brothers who were already Chicago Police Officers by the time he returned home from serving in Vietnam with the
Marine Corps.
“I came back and my moth-
er was always big on getting a job with a pension, so I took the test and got the call,” May said, noting he graduated from the academy in April 1976. “Ever since then I’ve been a police officer.”
of anyone looking over his shoulder during stints work- ing in various districts around the city. He spent a little less than half of his career working in the tactical unit, while he manned an incident car for his last 21 years until retirement in 2012.
May laughs a little when he mentions that his assignment in his native Englewood neigh- borhood stood out because it gave him a chance to go into the houses he never could as a kid.
“I can’t say I had a bad time anywhere,” May offered. “I en- joyed what I did. We went out and we worked. It’s literally like playing cops and robbers, but the stakes are a little high- er.”
With so many years on the street, May said on his last day a fellow officer tossed around numbers that suggested May might have been responsible
for the most arrests of any Chicago cop ever. May said he playfully responded by pointing out those computerized statistics didn’t include his
first decade of work.
He knows it would be tough for him to be on
Four decades after joining
the Department, the 65-year-
old May reflects on his 36-
year career and says it went
by in a flash. He relishes the peo-
ple he met and worked with, and drops his voice when thinking about the colleagues lost over those years.
EDWARD “EJ”MAY Star# 16474
“You don’t know where the time goes. All of the sudden you look in the mirror and (wonder) who’s the old guy looking back,” he said. “I didn’t have a good career. I had a great career.”
Modest in the mold of many Chicago cops, May down- plays the impact of his work by generally saying he hit the streets every day knowing he’d have a chance to help someone. And he never wanted to be anywhere other than between the curbs doing so.
May – who shared an old quip that police work is “hours of pure boredom; seconds of sheer terror” – enjoyed the autonomy of being in the patrol car without the pressure
32 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ FEBRUARY 2017
the job in today’s environment filled with public distrust and cell phone cameras recording every move every officer makes. But, his advice to a young cop isn’t what you’d expect. May preaches to focus on a fundamen-
tal skill.
“The most important thing they can learn is how to
write a report. When you’re writing the report, it’s not for today, it’s for six months from now, six years from now,” he explained. “You have to be able to read the report and remember every little thing. Some guys get it, some guys don’t. Take pride in yourself.” d