Analysis: Role of Booze in Recent Cases Involving Current and Former Petaluma Cops Points to Bigger Problems

Law enforcement officers dedicate their careers to protecting the public from danger.

But two cases that made headlines last week involving current and former Sonoma County law enforcement officials underscore the dangers that heavy drinking, which experts say is part of police culture, poses to themselves and those around them.

On Tuesday, Petaluma police officer Ryan McGreevy pleaded no contest to an alcohol-related reckless driving charge. McGreevy was originally charged with driving under the influence a motor-scooter crash at a Petaluma Police Department-sponsored golf tournament in October triggered a California Highway Patrol probe.

McGreevy was sentenced to two years probation and fined $850.

On Wednesday, former Sonoma County Sheriff's deputy and Petaluma police officer Ricky Bostic was sentenced to 50 years in prison for attempted rape and burglary convictions in Maryland.

Alcohol appears to have played a role in Bostic's downward spiral too. In 2009 he was sentenced to three years probation for a DUI conviction according to published reports. He was forced to call it quits from his deputy post for violating a contract with the county pledging sobriety in the aftermath of a previous booze-inspired incident according to the Press Democrat, citing an anonymous sheriff's department source who knew Bostic.

These cases reflect a troubled relationship between alcohol and booze that plagues police departments across the nation.

The relationship is historic, going back to the turn of the last century, according to a New York Times report describing a former police chief doing most of his work out a saloon.

Experts say drinking is an integral part of police culture, according to a Dallas Morning News report.

An estimated 20 percent of cops have drinking problems, the report said.

Former New York state trooper Dr. John Violanti, now research associate professor at the University at Buffalo studying police stress and alcohol use, paints a troubling portrait of how deeply alcohol consumption is engrained in police life.

“They drink a lot, and they drink together,”Violanti told the Morning News. “It’s part of the macho image, part of being a cop.”

Stress, peer pressure, and an aura of invincibility they get from their role in contributing to public safety, are cited by experts in the report as contributing factors.

Cops who regularly see in their work what most of us wouldn't want to use alcohol to self-medicate, according to John Marx, a former Colorado cop who founded The Law Enforcement Survival Institute,  a group that aims to help law enforcement professionals survive the challenges their careers pose through education and training.

“The job is toxic and if you don’t take care of yourself, it will catch up to you,” Marx told the Morning News.

Do you believe those in law enforcement are prone to heavy drinking? Share your concerns in our comments section.