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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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From narc to Woodland police chief

Department's new leader got his start working as an undercover agent in Texas

By , Columbian Small Cities Reporter
Published:
3 Photos
Woodland's new police chief, Phil Crochet, started the job this month.
Woodland's new police chief, Phil Crochet, started the job this month. Crochet began his career decades ago as an undercover narcotics agent working in Texas high schools. Photo Gallery

On the Web:

The Daily Show’s tongue-in-cheek segment featuring Phil Crochet, “Police sensitivity training in Austin,” is at http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/mz5mhc/police-sensitivity-training-in-austin

WOODLAND — Police Chief Phil Crochet seemed to be a different man 29 years ago. With a pierced ear and permed hair grown past his shoulders, he strolled into high school every day just looking to score some drugs. Methamphetamines, cocaine, LSD, marijuana — in 1985, he bought it all.

That year, Crochet enrolled at Waco High School, in Texas, as the school’s first undercover narcotics agent posing as a student. After a brief training period, the Waco Police Department threw the young-looking Crochet into his first law enforcement job, living out a real-life “21 Jump Street” scenario.

“There really wasn’t a lot about how to be undercover, how to keep your cover and how to stay safe,” said Crochet, now 49. “So, I was kind of just flying by the seat of my pants most of the time.”

On the Web:

The Daily Show's tongue-in-cheek segment featuring Phil Crochet, "Police sensitivity training in Austin," is at http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/mz5mhc/police-sensitivity-training-in-austin

It’s an experience few police can say they’ve had.

“It was almost surreal being in school again,” he said. “But I was constantly reminded that I’ve got a job to do, and we really made some cases on some bad guys.”

Crochet was only 20 years old at the time, and the Waco school district had just consolidated three high schools into one, a convenient opportunity to blend in as an unfamiliar face on a campus with a serious drug problem.

This month, Crochet moved his longtime law enforcement career from Texas to the Northwest for his first chance to lead a police department. Over the decades, Crochet’s career has placed him in a range of roles, from working in a street response unit and patrol assignments targeting organized crime to doing training and community outreach.

And yes, you may have seen him on TV.

Just last month, he appeared on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” in a segment highlighting a training program with the Austin Police Department that teaches officers how to peacefully approach aggressive dogs instead of shooting them.

It wasn’t Crochet’s first time on national TV. Oprah Winfrey interviewed him in the late 1980s when he became the first cop to work two undercover stints in the role of a student.

Felony drug cases

It all began at Waco High, where Crochet made about 120 felony cases on students involved in the drug trade. Shortly after making those arrests, he was back at it again, this time in Temple High School, where he closed nearly 80 more felony narcotics cases on students.

While undercover, Crochet went through all the motions of a normal high-schooler, going to most of his classes and making plenty of friends. In the classroom, he passed himself off as a slacker only interested in getting high. One semester, he even failed an English class with a meager 19 percent overall.

“I didn’t do much homework, but I did go to the classes most of the time,” he said. “I would spend my day trying to figure out where to go and who was involved in the drug trade and that kind of thing.”

On his second day at Waco, Crochet made a new friend who showed him where he could get his fix. The friend only knew Crochet as Ken, his undercover name. Now, Crochet laughs as he looks back on that day.

“We hop in my car after school and we’re driving down the road, and he said, ‘Ken, I’ve got to tell you, there are all these narcs in this school,’ ” Crochet said. “‘I know there’s a narc in this school this year. But you stick with me, I know who they are. I’ll keep you out of trouble.’ ”

After school, the rookie cop took fastidious notes on his transactions: what kind of drugs he got and how much he purchased, who sold them to him, and when and where the deals went down.

When the department wrapped up the investigation, Crochet walked into the school with a freshly shaven head and a new suit. Then, he waited in the library as other police brought suspects in for him to identify.

Crochet couldn’t help but laugh when investigators escorted his friend from that second day of school into the library.

“He looks at me and says, ‘Ah, Ken. They got you, too,’ ” Crochet remembers. “I mean, he just wasn’t getting it.”

Crochet enjoyed slipping into his role as Ken. He describes it as an exhilarating and almost liberating experience.

“I was able to do all the things in high school that a lot of people would like to do but you just really can’t if you want to be responsible at all,” he said.

Close calls

It wasn’t always fun, though. For his safety, Crochet never wore a wire, but he came close to blowing his cover a number of times.

There were some scary moments, too, like the time a dealer robbed Crochet at gunpoint for a few hundred dollars, he said. Crochet ended up busting the guy later.

Often, dealers even accused Crochet of being a cop, he said. Usually, they were just being facetious, and most ended up selling to him anyway, but some threatened to kill him.

Some dealers pressured Crochet to use the drugs in front of them to prove he wasn’t an undercover cop. In those cases, he either found an excuse to hold onto the drugs until later or the deal wouldn’t go down.

Crochet began his police career sort of on a whim. Shortly after graduating from high school, he spent a semester in college before dropping out to spend some time thinking about changing directions.

One day, Crochet’s brother handed him an unused application he’d picked up for himself for the Waco Police Department.

“So, I went ahead and applied, not real seriously at the time, just as something to do, I guess,” he said. “But after I got into it, I really, really just fell in love with it.”

It turned into a long career for Crochet, who comes to Woodland after spending the last 23 years in the Austin Police Department. Most recently, he held the rank of commander and was assigned to the recruiting and training division.

Crochet initially looked into retiring in the Northwest with his wife, Stacie. He didn’t expect to become a police chief, but now that he’s in the position, he doesn’t plan to retire for at least a few years.

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Columbian Small Cities Reporter