BY BETSY TAYLOR, The Associated Press
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Consider it a little cop humor.
Police officer Michael Mancini, 42, from Santa Cruz, Calif., jokes that if he’s being honest, he really doesn’t want anyone to die at the end of his shift. Really what he wants is to go home for his time off. He kids that’s what he was thinking one night when he directed his flashlight into a car at a man slumped over the steering wheel.
“I go, `Thank God, you’re not dead.’ And he goes, `Are you sure, dude, ‘cause all I see is a bright light. ...”’
At the annual conference of the American Society for Law Enforcement Training -- which met Monday through Saturday in St. Louis -- law enforcers brushed up on everything from “CPR to tactical response issues,” noted Van Benton, director of operations for the Frederick, Md.-based group that has about 5,000 members.
But perhaps the most anticipated part of the meeting was a Friday night showdown to see who would win the title of World’s Funniest Cop. And it’s far from amateur hour. Last year, in California, Jay Leno hosted the event.
But are police officers funny?
“When I think of cops, I don’t think of wacky fun,” said comedian Chad Riden, 28, from Nashville, Tenn. That changed for him when he met Dan Whitehurst, 41, a detective for the Nashville Police Department who won the competition in 2001, and Riden learned the detective, now a friend, had a gift for humor.
Humor can be a secret weapon on the job for police, those taking part in the competition said. It defuses tense situations; it helps morale within a department; and it can keep criminals appropriately off balance.
“Humor with a suspect I’m investigating, it can kind of humanize me,” Whitehurst said.
“Comedy is a powerful tool. If we weren’t funny, we’d be firemen,” joked Mancini, who works with the Santa Cruz, Calif., harbor police.
The competition drew an audience of about 450 people in a ballroom at the Adam’s Mark Hotel. Last year’s champion, Mancini, and Whitehurst competed against Jim Keith, 60, who works in communications for the Des Peres Police Department in suburban St. Louis.
Keith was transformed from an unassuming guy who works with juveniles in an anti-crime program -- and who called the opportunity to perform stand up in front of the crowd “a blessing” -- into his tank top, plaid boxer-wearing stage persona, known as “The Dad.”
His routine included stories about his “two wonderful kids,” including a daughter who turned 16. “She just got her hunting license. I mean learner’s permit,” he joked, saying the teen kept confusing pedestrians with “bogeys at two o’clock.”
The night’s jokes, like much of comedy aimed at adult audiences, included profanity and barbs that weren’t politically correct by anyone’s standards. But the audience was warned at the start, and comedians also included moments geared toward reaching their law enforcement audience.
Keith told conference attendees that in his work with underage offenders he asks them the last time a parent or grandparent unexpectedly told them they were loved, and he asks them when they last said “I love you” to someone important in their family.
He asked audience members to consider doing the same. “Call Mom for no reason and say I love you,” he advised.
Then he told the crowd of officers Friday night, “But whatever you do, don’t do it now because she’ll want to know what jail you’re in and how much the bond is.”
In a close competition determined by audience applause, Mancini won the competition again this year; Keith was first runner-up; Whitehurst was second-runner up. They won trophies, and Mancini received a donated bulletproof vest. He asked that it be given to another officer who needs one, as he won another last year.
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American Society for Law Enforcement Training: www.aslet.org