Excerpted from The Sacramento Bee
By Tim Herrera
February 29, 1996

Jim Cooper lives in Laguna. He's a typical father. He loves talking about his two daughters, ages 5 years and 20 months. He's quick to laugh and swap stories about child-rearing experience, both humorous and hair-raising.

Cooper likes to discuss the educational system and schools. He can't wait for the cold and clammy weather to break because he's trying to get ready for coaching his older daughters T-ball team. He knows you can't get good practices in when all the parks in Elk Grove and Laguna areas are soggy with rainwater.

Cooper is quick to flash a smile and offer a handshake. If you bumped in him at Raley's or Buckthorn's, you could probably banter about every subject imaginable.

But a few things set Jim Cooper apart from most. First, he's big. Really big. Like NFL linebacker-sized big.

He prefers that you call him "Jim" or "Coop." If you meet a guy that big, you call him whatever he prefers.

Second, he runs with a rough crowd. But it's for work and not for pleasure.

Cooper is a sergeant with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. His main job for the most of his 11 years with the department has been battling gangs and narcotics. Cooper spearheads the Violence Reduction Unit. Over the past year, the unit has been responsible for taking 211 illegal guns away from gang member s and other bad guys and getting those weapons off Sacramento County streets.

Excerpted from The Grapevine Independent
By Joanne Boyd
October 30, 1991

The war against drugs was the primary focus of Red Ribbon Week activities in Rancho Cordova last week.

But for approximately 175 Mills Jr. High School students in Arch Pritchett's science classes, the real life consequences of using drugs stared them right in the face.

Sacramento Sheriff's Department Detectives James Cooper, an undercover officer with the street gang task force, spent a full day at the school, talking to Pritchett's six classes.

He is extremely effective," Pritchett said of the officer. "This is the third year in a row he has come to Mills and it's totally voluntary – he's on his own time."

Pritchett said Cooper's visual aids have a tremendous impact on the students, most of whom are 13-year-old 8th graders. "The kids keep coming back to talk to him between classes," he said. "When we teach the kids about drugs, we can't pass the drugs around. And we don't have T-shirts taken off of dead gang members."

The officer passed around different types of drugs (in sealed containers), T-shirts and more. A table at the front of the classroom was filled with gang and drug paraphernalia. He showed them a hat taken from a member of the Del Paso Heights Bloods. On the hat was the number 187. "That's the section of the penal code for murder," Cooper said. "This guy was advertising he murdered someone and got away with it."

The students became wide-eyed when shown a T-shirt taken from a 12-years-old gang member who is now dead.

Excerpted from The Sacramento Union
By TG Swauger
July 18, 1991

Sweeping drug raids Wednesday morning netted narcotics agents more than 6 ½ pounds of methamphetamines 63 grams of tar heroin and $75,000 in cash.

The raids may have served a major link of the methamphetamine trade funneling into the sate through Mexico, Sacramento County Sheriff Glen Craig said.

More than 200 agents from 13 law enforcement agencies combined forces for the 7 am sweep of homes, apartments and business. Twenty six people were arrested.

The operation took 28 minutes to complete.

AN additional 13 Mexican nationals were held for the US Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Sheriff Craig described the crackdown on the Mexican connection as disruptive to future drug traffic. He said all the suspects were connected through several sources.

"(This was) a major supplier of the south portion of the county. We think it will have a significant impact on the traffic of methamphetamines and tar heroin into the county," said Sheriff Craig at an afternoon press conference.

"I feel comfortable that our people have made a significant dent in this operation," he said.

25 took part in the Good Guys! hostage incident

Excerpted from The Grapevine Independent
By Joanne Boyd
May 29, 1991

Twenty –nine officers of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department were honored last week for "going beyond that which is expected of them as law enforcement guardians," said Sheriff Glen Craig.

About 1,000 persons were present at the Scottish Rite Temple May 21 to recognize the offers to put their lives on the line daily.

Keynote speak Dan Lungren, attorney general for the state of California said it was an opportunity to thank the officers, "not in the midst of tragedy but in the midst of celebration."

The officers, he said, are the first line of defense for the community and the first line of sympathy for the victims. "We need look no further than these tables for our heroes," Lungren said. "Something draws these officers to make a contribution to all of us….they are much more than a gun and a badge."

Twenty-five officers received award from Sheriff Craig for participation in the Good Guys hostage incident April 4. Two of the officers, Robert Currie and James Cooper, have strong ties to Rancho Cordova.

The department's highest honor, the Gold Medal of Valor, was presented to special enforcement detail member Donald Devlin, Michael Hammell, William Kelly, Gregory Peterson, Charles Price, Gordon Smith and Roget Stanfill. The officers entered the stockroom at the rear of the Good Guys store without regard to their personal safety, putting the lives of the hostages before their own.