TPD leader prepares to pass torch

TAMPA - You could say George McNamara invented community policing in the Bay Area -- playing catch with neighborhood kids, turning run-down parks into places for kids to gather instead of finding trouble on the streets.

Years ago, FOX 13 covered McNamara's efforts to make a dent in summer juvenile crime. McNamara had gathered a group of kids in a Sulphur Springs park, telling them, "get this ballfield fixed we can get a basketball league going. We can get older people. There are cops that play basketball."

Next he's in a housing project, talking to older kids: "Instead of kids stealing cars and things like that, I want to do something positive."

Then there was a small boy, drawn to a crime scene, whom McNamara urged to join the police explorers.

There are dozens of stories about "Mac," as everyone knows him -- how he befriended two young boys 20 years ago, telling them to stop by the police station on their way home from school on Fridays to show him their grades. He'd give them a dollar for each star on their work, just like he did for his own kids.

"It did my heart good," McNamara recalled, "and the job of a police officer is always to give back to try to help out."

A year short of 30 at the Tampa Police Department, Major George McNamara retires Christmas Eve. He'll take three decades of experience with him, along with the uncanny ability to earn trust and get tips that solve crimes.

He'll also leave unfinished business. One of the toughest is the unsolved murder of Jefferson High Football star C.J. Mills.

And he'll never get over the loss of detectives Randy Bell and Ricky Childers, murdered by Hank Earl Carr, who went on to commit suicide after killing State Trooper Brad Crooks.

Every year McNamara leaves flowers on the men's graves.

"I don't know why this happened," he said. "I have no idea other than we ran into a devil that day."

McNamara says his faith was restored as the huge funeral motorcade wound its way through the streets of Tampa. "You look out and there's thousands of people lined, in 90-degree weather, with flags, saluting. People getting out of their cars, just the support in this community, we're very fortunate."

McNamara's wife is also a veteran TPD officer, and his 20-year-old son has now decided to follow in his parents' footsteps. Michael told his dad he wants to help people.

"What a proud moment it would be for me as his father," Mac said, "to be able to pin my badge on his chest."

Next month, McNamara faces open-heart surgery to correct a problem that could propel blood clots into his brain. As you'd expect, McNamara downplays the operation, saying he's going to look at opportunities after he recovers.

But first he'll work Christmas Eve so his captains can spent the night with their families.