In April of 2007, a release arrived from the Hermosa Beach Police Department announcing that longtime spokesman Paul Wolcott was leaving his post. He didn't, until now. Wolcott has an interesting past, including a stint as an assistant to Otis Chandler, and is said to be headed to a job "working behind the scenes with a major media outlet." Larry Altman, who has covered crime for the Daily Breeze since 1990, blogs:

Wolcott's job was to tell you -- through me -- what was going on crime-wise in Hermosa Beach. He made himself fully available, allowing me and my fellow Daily Breeze reporters to call him at all hours of the day.

Sometimes I reached him as he was sitting in a restaurant with his wife. He didn't mind and I guess she didn't either. I called him a couple times when he was relaxing on Main Street at Disneyland, one of his favorite spots to people watch.

Nothing is more difficult than trying to write a story with little information. Wolcott's press statements contained plenty of facts about what had happened. They were well-written, full of details and free of police jargon that has to be translated into English.

Wolcott understood the news and reporters. He knew how to provide a good quote to make articles more interesting for readers. He displayed a positive personality, and anticipated what I was going to ask before I asked it. He was always prepared with an answer.

I consulted him whenever I had a question about police procedures. I sometimes even told him when I was working on an exclusive story, trusting him that no one would find out until it was published. Sometimes we just talked about anything.

Wolcott worked for Chandler after being seriously injured in a 1982 crash with a drunk driver that killed his partner, Officer Gary Moss.