Excerpted from The Sacramento Bee
By Julie Johnson
September 22, 2009

Five minutes before Sheriff John McGinness endorsed his No. 2 leader in the department – Capt. Scott Jones – to succeed him, former Sheriff Lou Blanas e-mailed the media announcing he was throwing his support to Capt. Jim Cooper.

Besides trying to steal the thunder from McGinness and Jones, Blanas was putting to rest Monday a grass-roots movement in the department to draft him to run for the job himself.

More than 350 staff – among a department of nearly 2,000 – signed a petition endorsing Blanas for sheriff in August. In the petition, supporters said Blanas, who served as sheriff from 1998 to 2006, had the experience necessary to ease the department's "dire straits."

Blanas originally said he wouldn't rule out a third term as sheriff, but Monday acknowledged political realities: his age and lack of desire to make a long-term commitment to the job.

"The public sector is having some tough times with layoffs and there are much more treacherous roads ahead of us regarding the budget," Blanas said. "The person that gets in there now needs to have an eight-year commitment to the job.

Excerpted from The Sacramento Bee
By Bill Lindelof
September 21, 2009

Two sheriffs. Two endorsements of competing candidates.

Today, Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness endorsed sheriff's Capt. Scott Jones to succeed him.

In an e-mail to The Bee just before the news conference, former Sacramento County Sheriff Lou Blanas endorsed Capt. Jim Cooper to head the department.

The sheriff is the top elected law enforcement officer in Sacramento County.

McGinness appeared with Jones at a news conference in front of the department's downtown headquarters.

Blanas was lobbied by a group of deputies to run for the post again. But, in a news release this morning, Blanas decided to back Cooper.

"Jim's experience on the streets and his leadership both in law enforcement and as a city councilman make him the right person for the job," Blanas said.

Former Sacramento Police Chief Albert Najera has also expressed interest in the job.

Excerpted from The Sacramento Bee
By Gary Delsohn
April 5, 2000

Were it not for his eight wild years as an undercover drug and gang cop in Rancho Cordova, Jim Cooper, a Sacramento County sheriff's lieutenant, would not be on the verge of becoming mayor in the new city of Elk Grove.

"The only reason I moved to Elk Grove in the first place," said Cooper, designated mayor-elect at an informal City Council meeting Tuesday night, "was I was working undercover and I'd be at the store in Rancho and there was someone I just bought dope from."

By all accounts, Cooper was quick on his feet, able to handle his nearly blown cover. But even he knows the hundreds of phony drug buys and gang busts, as well as his work as an always-on-call media spokesman for the Sheriff's Department, didn't fully prepare him for life as an elected politician.

Elk Grove residents voted to incorporate into their own city last month, and the top five vote-getters -- Cooper led the field of 21 -- were selected to the City Council, which will be sworn in July 1. That's the same day Elk Grove cityhood becomes official.

"Small-town politics is worse than anything," Cooper said this week. "Everything is intense. I thought my eyes were open before, but now they're really open. I have new-found respect for people who run for elected office. It's tough." Cooper, 36, a rising star in the Sheriff's Department, may think running for office is tough, but he had advantages over others in last month's race.

Excerpted from The Sacramento Bee
By Ed Aguilar
April 3, 1997

Invoking a phrase that would make executives at one famous sneaker company cringe, Sacramento County Sheriff's spokesman Jim Cooper has a simple message about gangs and drugs: "Just don't do it."

In a talk given at Foulks Ranch Elementary School last week, Cooper cautioned sixth graders that as they ender middle school they will confront a fork in their lives path. There, many kids will make decision about gangs and drugs. Cooper told them to avoid both.

"Kids at this age are more susceptible to gang and drug recruitment," he said. "People in Laguna think they're not out here, but they are. The influence is out here and it needs to be affirmed that (gangs and drugs) are not all right."

A Laguna resident, Cooper said that of the 100 or more talk he gives each year, the one disheartening fact about his discussion is that parents seldom attend them.

As part of his effort to combat drugs and gang, Cooper gives presentations to thousands of area students that show them the negative aspect of drug and gang involvement. Using a display of paraphernalia collected during his work as a narcotics detective, Cooper utilizes a frank, in-your-face style as he describes their effects to groups starting at the sixth grade level.

Excerpted from The Sacramento Bee
By Tim Herrera
February 29, 1996

Jim Cooper lives in Laguna. He's a typical father. He loves talking about his two daughters, ages 5 years and 20 months. He's quick to laugh and swap stories about child-rearing experience, both humorous and hair-raising.

Cooper likes to discuss the educational system and schools. He can't wait for the cold and clammy weather to break because he's trying to get ready for coaching his older daughters T-ball team. He knows you can't get good practices in when all the parks in Elk Grove and Laguna areas are soggy with rainwater.

Cooper is quick to flash a smile and offer a handshake. If you bumped in him at Raley's or Buckthorn's, you could probably banter about every subject imaginable.

But a few things set Jim Cooper apart from most. First, he's big. Really big. Like NFL linebacker-sized big.

He prefers that you call him "Jim" or "Coop." If you meet a guy that big, you call him whatever he prefers.

Second, he runs with a rough crowd. But it's for work and not for pleasure.

Cooper is a sergeant with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. His main job for the most of his 11 years with the department has been battling gangs and narcotics. Cooper spearheads the Violence Reduction Unit. Over the past year, the unit has been responsible for taking 211 illegal guns away from gang member s and other bad guys and getting those weapons off Sacramento County streets.

Excerpted from The Grapevine Independent
By Joanne Boyd
October 30, 1991

The war against drugs was the primary focus of Red Ribbon Week activities in Rancho Cordova last week.

But for approximately 175 Mills Jr. High School students in Arch Pritchett's science classes, the real life consequences of using drugs stared them right in the face.

Sacramento Sheriff's Department Detectives James Cooper, an undercover officer with the street gang task force, spent a full day at the school, talking to Pritchett's six classes.

He is extremely effective," Pritchett said of the officer. "This is the third year in a row he has come to Mills and it's totally voluntary – he's on his own time."

Pritchett said Cooper's visual aids have a tremendous impact on the students, most of whom are 13-year-old 8th graders. "The kids keep coming back to talk to him between classes," he said. "When we teach the kids about drugs, we can't pass the drugs around. And we don't have T-shirts taken off of dead gang members."

The officer passed around different types of drugs (in sealed containers), T-shirts and more. A table at the front of the classroom was filled with gang and drug paraphernalia. He showed them a hat taken from a member of the Del Paso Heights Bloods. On the hat was the number 187. "That's the section of the penal code for murder," Cooper said. "This guy was advertising he murdered someone and got away with it."

The students became wide-eyed when shown a T-shirt taken from a 12-years-old gang member who is now dead.

Excerpted from The Sacramento Union
By TG Swauger
July 18, 1991

Sweeping drug raids Wednesday morning netted narcotics agents more than 6 ½ pounds of methamphetamines 63 grams of tar heroin and $75,000 in cash.

The raids may have served a major link of the methamphetamine trade funneling into the sate through Mexico, Sacramento County Sheriff Glen Craig said.

More than 200 agents from 13 law enforcement agencies combined forces for the 7 am sweep of homes, apartments and business. Twenty six people were arrested.

The operation took 28 minutes to complete.

AN additional 13 Mexican nationals were held for the US Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Sheriff Craig described the crackdown on the Mexican connection as disruptive to future drug traffic. He said all the suspects were connected through several sources.

"(This was) a major supplier of the south portion of the county. We think it will have a significant impact on the traffic of methamphetamines and tar heroin into the county," said Sheriff Craig at an afternoon press conference.

"I feel comfortable that our people have made a significant dent in this operation," he said.

25 took part in the Good Guys! hostage incident

Excerpted from The Grapevine Independent
By Joanne Boyd
May 29, 1991

Twenty –nine officers of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department were honored last week for "going beyond that which is expected of them as law enforcement guardians," said Sheriff Glen Craig.

About 1,000 persons were present at the Scottish Rite Temple May 21 to recognize the offers to put their lives on the line daily.

Keynote speak Dan Lungren, attorney general for the state of California said it was an opportunity to thank the officers, "not in the midst of tragedy but in the midst of celebration."

The officers, he said, are the first line of defense for the community and the first line of sympathy for the victims. "We need look no further than these tables for our heroes," Lungren said. "Something draws these officers to make a contribution to all of us….they are much more than a gun and a badge."

Twenty-five officers received award from Sheriff Craig for participation in the Good Guys hostage incident April 4. Two of the officers, Robert Currie and James Cooper, have strong ties to Rancho Cordova.

The department's highest honor, the Gold Medal of Valor, was presented to special enforcement detail member Donald Devlin, Michael Hammell, William Kelly, Gregory Peterson, Charles Price, Gordon Smith and Roget Stanfill. The officers entered the stockroom at the rear of the Good Guys store without regard to their personal safety, putting the lives of the hostages before their own.