Officer arrested on suspicion of robbing San Mateo drugstore
SAN MATEO >> A veteran San Francisco Police Department officer has been arrested on suspicion of robbing a San Mateo pharmacy for painkillers in what his attorney says was fueled by an opioid addiction he developed after an on-duty injury suffered a decade ago.
Sgt. Davin Cole, a 56-yearold longtime San Mateo resident, was arrested and booked on charges of second-degree robbery and resisting arrest, San Mateo Police Department spokesperson Alison Gilmore told this news organization.
The robbery was reported about 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Rite Aid at 666 Concar Drive in San Mateo. Gilmore said Cole was off duty at the time of his arrest. She did not release any other details about the case, including whether Cole brandished a weapon.
Cole was released from jail on a $57,500 bail bond pending a Nov. 18 arraignment. San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said his office is awaiting the results of the San Mateo police investigation to review the case for prospective criminal charges.
In response to an inquiry from this news organization, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department confirmed that it placed Cole on unpaid leave pending an internal investigation and offered no additional comment on the arrest.
Attorney Tony Brass said Friday that Cole was on his way to a residential drug rehabilitation facility. He added that Cole developed an opioid dependency after he first was prescribed painkillers in 2010 to treat a severe dog bite injury to his calf that he suffered during a police dog training exercise.
“He has struggled with the addiction in secrecy for a long time,” Brass said.
Brass also pointed to Cole’s work with the city’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, which directs people arrested in low-level drug offenses away from jail and toward treatment services, as an example of Cole “helping people deal with the same struggle he was dealing with.”
Cole has been an officer with SFPD since 1994, according to the Police Department and state records. He has been one of the department’s more public-facing officers and on his LinkedIn page lists his current duties as a supervisor for patrol as well as the department’s homeless out
reach and foot beat, as part of a multidisciplinary team designed to provide a holistic response to police calls involving homelessness. He also has served as an acting lieutenant.
Prior to his time with SFPD, records show he briefly served with Foster City police and before that served over four years with the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office.