Page 37 - March 2018 FOP Newsletter

Commander Bauer
Honoring
derstand being compassionate. I under- stand giving people chances. I don’t have a problem with that. But I have a problem when people show no remorse, and they have no regard for other people. They de- serve to be locked up and kept locked up.”

The Police in Chicago are often exem- plified and humanized by the tenor of ac- counts that came from those who worked alongside Bauer. Being the Bridgeport neighbor who went out and got a snow blower so he could clear the entire block the week before he was lost, or making sure that wounded veterans had the best seat for the Air and Water Show were the acts of kindness Bauer never really want- ed anybody to know he was behind. That’s The Police.
He was OK with being known among those who worked for him as a guy who brought the neighborhood mentality to the job, asking officers every day about how their families are doing. And how they were doing. That’s The Police.
“He made you feel like you belonged in the unit,” described Robert Galassi, who worked the first year and a half of his four years in the Mounted Unit when Bauer
was the commander. “He made me a 100 percent better officer.”
Galassi related another little-known at- tribute about Bauer. In the Mounted Unit, each horse is named for a fallen CPD of- ficer.
“He knew who every horse in that barn was named after and what year they died,” Galassi added. “That’s how invest- ed he was.”
Similar tales of being The Police came from The Police. Burns recalled the first time he met Bauer. The commander was so unassuming that Burns thought he was the 18th District CAPS officer. And the
holiday party in 018 this past year was its best attended ever.
“Why?” noted Burns, who spent part of his career in 018. “Because of the com- mander. They loved to work for him.”
Devereaux recalled in 2016 when Bauer again responded to a call for assistance. A patrol sergeant was struggling with a per- son having a mental episode. The person was subdued and taken into treatment, but the sergeant was hurt and out of work for many months.
“In my conversation with him, that ser- geant said Paul Bauer saved his life that
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