Page 18 - August 2017

P traits by Peter Bucks
Tributes to officers from the CPD Officer, Lodge 7 member and renowned artist
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
About that hat.
Jake Molina had been eye- ing the cowboy hat for some time. So a few days before the Fourth of July Weekend, his partner on patrol in 012, Susie Rickher, bought it for Molina. The stars and stripes seemed like the perfect motif for the time, and just to make sure he didn’t incur a uniform viola- tion, Molina adorned the hat with the CPD checkerboard.
“I’m a hat guy,” confides Molina, who is coming up on 18 years on the job. “When I was on the recovery burglary team in Tac, I wore a Stetson fedora on the street.”
Molina wears the hat as a topper to the honor he be- lieves the uniform displays, a supplement to the presence the Chicago Police star ra- diates. The stars and stripes cowboy hat is the rare depar- ture from the classic crown cap that he favors over the ball caps many officers sport.
Off duty, you won’t see Molina without a hat to
cover his immaculately kept bald dome. The many
friends he has made from the Department working
in 013, 010 or the old Targeted Response Unit (TRU) know Molina from the Harley Davidson Newsboy hat that he loves to wear off duty.
But the hat also has great significance in the way Molina approaches the job and adorns why he wanted to become a Chicago copper.
“We wear many hats on the job,” Molina describes. “You might have to wear the hat of a doctor one day, the hat of a psychologist one day, and the hat of, well, you have to try to be everything sometimes.”
Perhaps this is a tip of the cap to life on patrol in the CPD, or at least what makes patrol officers serve the community as effectively as they do. Molina has never lost sight of what keeps cops on the street going.
“It does feel good when you do help somebody, a legiti- mate victim who needs help,” Molina explains. “Doing that
18 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ AUGUST 2017
is essentially why I wanted to do it in the first place. It feels good to help people. I hope that doesn’t sound cliché or cheesy.”
The daily dose of robberies, domestics and more shoot- ings than you would think, of course, fill up life for officers on the street. But sometimes a call comes in that makes ev- erybody want to tip their caps to Chicago Police Officers.
Molina had such an experi- ence when working with TRU. A perp who would eventual- ly go down on two counts of attempt to murder a police officer jumped in a car after taking those shots and started a citywide chase. Molina and his partner heard the call that, chase was coming through where they were patrolling just south of 21st Street and Loomis Street when they saw somebody lose control and smash into a pole.
“He jumped out and ran. It looked suspicious so we checked him out,” Moli- na recalled. “He wouldn’t stop. We chased him on foot and ended up tackling him. He was the shoot-
er.”
From that experience and 19 years on the job, Molina
has developed a formidable perspective about how to stay safe and successful on the street. Given the state of Chi- cago policing, he offers that perspective to young officers who, though it might sound cliché or cheesy, are out there to help people.
“What I would say is just be careful,” he says. “Try to think everything through. You can’t rush to decisions.”
The one hat Molina had been longing to don finally fit when he got married and went from having two dogs to having a family with three kids, ages nine to 21. Initially, his wife was against him wearing that cowboy hat with the stars and stripes. But she found it’s hard to argue with what it means.
And it’s hard to argue with what Molina means to Chica- go policing. Clearly, he has earned a tip of the cap. d
Capping it off
JACOB “JAKE” MOLINA Star# 7626