Another police encounter you didn’t hear about

We know from recent news reports that police officers sometimes interact with members of the general public in ways they would prefer to keep secret. Out of the media. Luckily, there are civic-minded members of our community who contact news writers like me when they become aware of an incident that should be brought to light. That’s how I heard about a situation some would describe as startling, even shocking, that involved a homeless man and Phoenix police Officer Richard DiCarlo.

It occurred early last month. DiCarlo was on routine patrol one morning when he spotted the man in an empty parking lot. He pulled over his police cruiser, got out, approached the unsuspecting male subject and without any provocation … saved his life. Not with a weapon. With compassion. “We wear a lot of hats out in the community,” DiCarlo told me. “Police officers have to be more than police officers sometimes. Psychologists. Social workers. Caretakers.”

DiCarlo, who has been an officer for 23 years, knew the homeless man, whose name is Tom, by way of previous encounters. He’d actually met Tom before he had become homeless.

“When I pulled up I saw the big bandage on his hand, which looked really bad,” DiCarlo said. “He told me that he’d gone to a doctor and that he needed an operation for melanoma. It was very serious. But he was having trouble navigating the system. With a homeless person it can be tough.”

DiCarlo asked his lieutenant at the Mountain View Precinct if he could take some time from his next shift to help out the man.

“I arranged to pick him up the next morning and take him to the hospital,” DiCarlo said.

The officer made sure Tom was seen by a nurse, and that the hospital firmed up his appointment for surgery. But he also worried what would happen to Tom after surgery. So DiCarlo contacted Circle in the City, a respite center that cares for homeless men and women who are recovering from illness or injury, and that tries to help them with housing and services afterward.

“There are a lot of really great people in the community,” said DiCarlo. “For me, I felt privileged to be able to help. Day after day we see people at their worst. People in tough spots. You try not to get so jaded you can’t see through to a person’s dignity.”

DiCarlo comes from an extended Italian family in California. They started a baking business prior to the Great Depression and were well-known for handing out bread to anyone in need.

“Our parents taught us that if you could help people you did it, and you didn’t ask for anything in return,” he told me.

Like recognition. DiCarlo received a commendation for his “humanitarian actions and his compassion towards a citizen in need.” But he wasn’t particularly eager for me to write about it.

“The real story,” he said, “is that officers all over the city do things like this, and more, every day.”