Reverberating Loss of a Promising Cop
by Diana Griego Erwin

Day in and day out, it is easy to forget that police work is so fraught with danger. All over the city, patrol officers and their sergeants go about the business of keeping the rest of us safe, and much of what they get in return amounts to lip and attitude.

With the proliferation of guns on the streets and the continuing breakdown of civil accord, it's amazing police officers aren't hurt more often. And yet there's still a painful, disbelieving shock when an officer in your own town is killed in the line of duty. It is worse yet that Officer Emily Morgenroth was so young.

I have met many of our town's finest, but I did not know Morgenroth, who died in an alcohol-related collision Friday at age 26. And yet there is a profound respect in the air when those who knew her speak her name. Respect begets respect.

"She loved people. She knew how to treat them," said a homeless man who claimed to run into her frequently.

Morgenroth's friends and colleagues at the William J. Kinney police substation in North Sacramento were too broken up to share their thoughts Monday, but Lt. Tom Sweeney said the city has lost a gem.

"She cared about other people and gave them her concern and time even when it might have seemed inconvenient to someone else," he said.

Recently, for example, she shooed a colleague home when an arrest at the end of his shift meant he'd do overtime handling the booking. She did it for him.

In fact, she was always encouraging others to spend more time with friends and family, Sweeney said. "She knew what was important."

Her gift of "connecting" with others made her a superior officer. "People talked to her; they trusted her because she really listened to them. She didn't trivialize their problems," Sweeney said. "The citizens of Sacramento have truly lost an officer who was there for them."

Sacramento Police Chief Arturo Venegas Jr. said her father told him Morgenroth died doing what she really loved.

"They felt really at peace that she was fulfilling her dreams," Venegas said. "You know, sometimes people say, 'Oh, this wouldn't have happened if she hadn't been an officer,' but that is not the case here. She hadn't achieved all her dreams, but she was doing what she loved."

In many ways, Morgenroth represented the modern officer Venegas has often described as the future of police departments: professionals who bring a diversity of life experiences and skills to a career that, these days, calls for more brains than brawn.

She joined the Sacramento police force with her sights set on a FBI career, but some think she decided that maybe local policing suited her best. She spoke Japanese and German, held a political science degree from UCLA and taught English in Japan for two years before returning home to Northern California. Two years ago, she graduated from the police academy; she's worked the 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. graveyard shift in North Sacramento since January. Her boyfriend was a fellow officer.

Morgenroth was northbound on Marysville Boulevard on Friday night when her police cruiser broadsided a truck making a left turn into a liquor store parking lot. The driver of the pickup, whose blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit, has been charged with drunken driving; vehicular manslaughter charges could be added. The California Highway Patrol is investigating.

Meanwhile, flowers commemorating the fallen officer have appeared at the base of the flag pole outside the police substation and at the crash site.

The collision occurred near Bill's Liquor at the corner of Marysville and Del Paso boulevards where a steady stream of passersby paused Monday to look at colorful bouquets left on a telephone pole heavily splintered in the crash.

A woman stopped with two small children to explain, in Spanish, the tragedy that had occurred there. While not absolutely sure, she said she believed Morgenroth was the officer who once helped calm the family when her nephew was hit by a car.

Ten minutes later, a man with torn pants and a shirt stained with grease bowed his head as if praying.

Indeed, he was.

"I just think we don't appreciate how the police risk their lives and how dangerous it is, 'tis all," said Edward Tooley, an unemployed mechanic. "From what I've read, the officer was very young. My prayers to her family."

Reprinted with permission from the Sacramento Bee.
Our appriciation to Diana Griego Erwin.