POLICE BOOKS - Bob Erler

About the Hollywood Police Department

Hollywood, Florida, the “Diamond of the Gold Coast,” was incorporated on November 28, 1925. The new "City" was approximately 640 acres and the first Police Department employed 10 Police Officers. Today, the second largest City in Broward County, Hollywood covers 28 square miles.

The more than 600 employees of the Hollywood Police Department is organized into two bureaus: Administration and Operations. Within the Operations Bureau are the Patrol Section and Criminal Investigation Division.

The Patrol Section of the Hollywood Police Department is organized into zones which patrol specific areas of the City. This strategy provides the police officers “with an opportunity to familiarize themselves with their particular neighborhood's problems, as well as allowing the residents or business owners of a neighborhood to get to know the Officers who work the area. The Officers take pride in the neighborhoods they are responsible for and enjoy meeting residents and business owners.”

The Patrol Section of the Hollywood Police Department “handles the majority of the 140,000 police service calls which occur in the City each year. In addition to responding to calls for service, Officers self-initiate police action by actively searching for and arresting individuals involved with drugs, prostitution, burglary, robbery, theft, gang activity, and other miscellaneous criminal activities. The Patrol Units are also the first to arrive on scene at all critical incidents. Patrol Units who initially arrive at critical incidents handle the incidents directly or, if additional support is necessary, will stabilize the situation until support services, such as the Special Operations Section, the Criminal Investigations Division, the S.W.A.T. Team, or the Crime Scene Unit arrive to continue the investigation.”

The Criminal Investigations Division of the Hollywood Police Department “is comprised of the Investigative Services Section, Vice, Intelligence, and Narcotics Unit, Crime Suppression Team, and the Crisis Negotiation Team. The Investigative Services Section is responsible for the investigation of Homicides, Robberies, Sexual Assaults, Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Animal Neglect and Abuse cases, as well as property crimes such as Burglary, Arson, Theft, and Fraud.”

Source:

hollywoodpolice.org

Bob Erler, an ex-Green Beret, became a police officer in Hollywood, Florida and soon was known as a "supercop." One day he came home and found his wife and son had left him. Still suffering from the effects of a high speed pursuit crash, Bob Erler went into depression. Later, on a day off, while jogging on the beach, he came across a lady and her 12-year old daughter with no place to stay. He invited them to stay in his trailer but once there the lady told him she would call the police chief and tell him Bob was entertaining two women in his trailer unless he gave her $75.

Suddenly Bob went berserk and shot the lady and her daughter, later dumping the bodies and calling the police station and saying "I've just shot two people, please catch me." From that day the suspect was known as "The Catch Me Killer." The next day he was assigned to investigate his own homicides.

Soon he was discovered and placed in prison serving 99 years. While in prison he managed to escape but was later captured after a high speed chase and shot in the back with a .357. While laying on the ground pumping blood the sheriff ran up to him, told him not to worry, he (the sheriff) loved him and Jesus loved him and had a plan for his life. Bob Erler spit in the sheriff's face and laughed, but the reality of the Christian sheriff's words came true years later when a team of Christian athletes ministered at the prison and Bob accepted Christ as his personal Savior. As Bob puts it, "Half a police officer and half a convict became a whole Christian."

Bob Erler then began to hold services and minister while incarcerated at the Arizona State Prison. Bob is now a free man, and married, but still carries bullets in his body. Bob Erler is the author of They Called Me the Catch Me Killer.