‘Cop’s cop’ retires at 50

The officer “leaped into action stopping the errant driver, and quickly deduced he was very inebriated. The man is resting in the hoosegow after his ordeal.”

That’s how Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Mike Ginther recently put it in a report recapping the night’s events for the officers who would relieve him.

It was that quirkiness, among other things, that his fellow officers remembered as they gave the 26-year veteran a send-off into retirement from the force Thursday.

“He raised shift reports to the level of an exciting novel,” long-time co-worker Lt. Loren Wyrick said.

Ginther also earned a reputation for his attention to detail — he was known for taking a red pen to edit search warrant — and his eagerness to mentor other law enforcement officers.

Oh, and let’s not forget his frequent use of corny terms like “hoosegow” to describe the city jail.

Any reporter who wants a juicy tidbit of early-morning fodder for the website knows that getting in touch with Ginther almost guarantees a scoop.

Ginther, 50, clocked in for the last shift of his career Thursday night. Early that morning, the department threw Ginther a huge send-off breakfast, complete with speeches, tears and a ton of laughs.

“He’s a cop’s cop — one of the most effective policemen we’ve had in the city. Any bad guy in his sights is going away to the ‘gray bar motel,’” Lt. Clay Epperson said, quoting one of Ginther’s well-known vernacular quirks.

Even Chief Christopher Shawkey, one of the newest to join the department, weighed in.

“When I started about a year ago, I began looking through the daily shift reports. Most were informational and professional. Then I get one that starts talking about ‘adult frosty libations,’ and I couldn’t wait to meet this guy,” Shawkey said. “I sought him out and always enjoyed going to his briefings.”

A cache of similar stories were slung up on the stage Thursday morning, from the time Ginther’s own partner accidentally shot him in the chest on patrol to the time he nabbed a serial rapist on a case that had all but gone cold.

“If he was taller he’d be the perfect cop,” Wyrick said jokingly, but added that his friend showed a level of care toward the job that he has seen in few others.

Wyrick recalled a case when they caught a cat burglar one night on patrol and on the way back in, during the early morning hours, Ginther stopped to talk with some local kids on their way to school.

“He can handle a serial burglar and three hours later hand out junior police badges to kids going to school,” Wyrick said. “He’s the total package.”

Wyrick started with the Costa Mesa police force in 1982, just six months after Ginther, and noticed right away that in every assignment the man became an expert at the task. When he became an expert in almost every area of law enforcement, well, then he taught others, Wyrick said.

The memories almost moved Ginther beyond words — almost.

“I’ve been lucky and had a blessed career,” Ginther said. “I was in the right place at the right time working with officers trying to be the best police we could be. I just hope I leave a piece of me with them.

“I will miss it more than just working as a policeman, it’s all the people here.”

Ginther has trained countless officers in Costa Mesa and other agencies on how to write search warrants, police reports, and the laws of detainment.

Now he will take his expertise to a new department working as an investigator for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office in Santa Ana.

“I try to write it like I want people to write so that the reader feels like they were there,” Ginther commented on his legendary reports.

“I take it a little further so that people do get an emotional connection and it becomes more than just facts,” he said.

KELLY STRODL may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at kelly.strodl@latimes.com.