S

gt. Cary Glazer serves 
with the Wayne State 
University Police 
Department in the Crime 
Abatement Team (CAT). He 
has been a police officer for 
more than 19 years.
He always wanted that 
career. “
As a favor to a friend, 
whose children attend Hillel 
Day School, I talked with 
students about policework as a 
career,” he said. “I would joke 
with them: ‘
See what happens 
if you do not do well on your 
LSAT or MCAT.’
 But, actually, 
I always wanted to be a cop 
since I was little.” 

Glazer discusses policing 
passionately, but he does not 
claim to know the answers. 
“I am not an expert; I am 
not even cop of the year. I 
am always learning. I make 
mistakes and try to learn from 
them.” 
Here is what he has learned:
 • “A police officer is a 
social worker — with a gun. 
Generally, when people call 

the police, they are out of 
options. A police officer is 
usually the last person people 
want to see. They call on us 
when the situation is bad 
enough. Our job is not to 
make it worse.” 
• “If you do not want to 
help, then you should be 
in another line of business. 
You will meet people from 
other cultural backgrounds 
as a police officer. Your job is 
always to serve them. 
We Jews, especially, should 
really understand that. 
Nobody wanted us here in 
America. I am not trying to 
compare relative levels of 
suffering of blacks and Jews, 
but we should understand how 

it feels to be not understood 
by the majority culture.” 
• “We are there to serve and 
protect — but mostly to serve 
the public.” You could get 
a different impression from 
television. “There are tens 
of thousands of contacts per 
week between police and the 
public every day without any 
problem, without publicity 
or fanfare: Helping someone 
across the street or giving a 
driver good directions.”
At the Wayne State 
University Police Department, 
Glazer recalled getting a phone 
call from a faculty member 
who had left the building and 
forgot to turn off the coffee 
machine. “We went into the 

closed building, found his 
office and turned off the coffee 
pot. Is that part of policing? 
That is service.”
• “Our job is not to make 
things worse. If a police 
officer posts support for a 
white supremacist group, that 
person should not stay on the 
force. To feel that way, even 
without going public, they 
disqualify themselves.” 
• “A police officer who beats 
anyone should not be a police 
officer. Don’
t go into law 
enforcement if you want to do 
that.” 
When force is necessary: 
“Officers do not want to take a 
life but sometimes are left no 
choice.” 

continued on page 26

LOUIS FINKELMAN 
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Jews in the D

22 | JUNE 25 • 2020 

“I am not an
expert; I am 
not even cop of 
the year. I am 
always learning. 
I make mistakes
and try to learn 
from them.”

— SGT. CARY GLAZER

A Jewish police offi
 cer discusses
policing at a diffi
 cult time.

A J
i h
li
ffi
di

Protect
 Serve
and

To

Sgt. Cary 
Glazer