Bob Geary (police officer)
Encyclopedia
Robert J. Geary is a former officer
in the San Francisco Police Department
who gained notoriety as the subject of a ballot initiative to allow him to take his ventriloquist's dummy, Brendan O'Smarty, on foot patrol.
in art, and a master's degree
in education. He earned four Medals of Valor
. He was a member of the AFTRA and Screen Actors' Guild, having done hand model
ing and starred opposite Don Johnson
in a 1981 television movie
, The Two Lives of Carol Letner.
In the 1980s he became a favorite subject of columnist Herb Caen
, after he wrote a letter to the editor
of the San Francisco Chronicle
defending the Police Department for issuing too many tickets to taxicabs. Officer Geary was found "not guilty" of writing too many tickets at a public event held in a North Beach
theater that featured a stripper
in the role of bailiff
.
officer. Geary sponsored a ballot initiative to save the program, which passed with 86 percent of the local vote, the highest margin of any to date in the City.
In 1991 Geary was assigned to a community policing position in North Beach. The program encouraged officers to be "highly visible" and use "creative and ingenious methods" to earn the trust of local civilians. Geary decided to order an expensive wooden dummy out of a ventriloquist catalog. He bought an audiotape program to teach himself to use the dummy, practicing in front of a bathroom mirror. Geary chose the name "Smarty" as a pun on the word "Dummy," and the full name "Brendan O'Smarty" to add dignity to the doll. Geary took the dummy to entertain children while he was on patrol, dressing it in a police uniform with badge number 1/2 and a water pistol. Despite carrying the dummy, Geary was able to function as an officer, chasing and tackling at least one suspect with dummy in hand.
In 1992, San Francisco mayor Frank Jordan
named a relatively unknown police officer, Anthony B. ("Tony") Ribera, to become Chief of Police. The previous chief, Richard Hongisto
, was fired after only six weeks on the job for ordering his officers to destroy copies of the San Francisco Bay Times
that had lampooned him over what the paper considered a heavy-handed police response to an outbreak of rioting following the Rodney King
police brutality verdict. Whereas Hongisto had tolerated Brendan O'Smarty, Ribera ordered Geary to keep the dummy in his police car while he went out on patrol. Despite an internal appeal and some press coverage, the department refused to rescind the order. The Board of Supervisors passed resolution urging the Mayor
to override the Police Chief, but he refused.
In 1993 Geary formed the "Committee to Save Puppet Officer Brendan O'Smarty," which collected nearly 10,000 signatures in a self-financed campaign to bring the matter to a local referendum
. The measure was designated and certified for the general election
in November, 1993, the last of 28 ballot measures. The ballot's wording was:
Despite opposition from the police chief and others who considered the referendum an embarrassment, the measure passed by a narrow 51% to 49% margin. Geary continued to use the puppet throughout the 1990s and became, in addition to a local phenomenon, a celebrity at ventriloquist conventions nationwide, and appearing in the 2000 documentary, Dummies!
over the funds he spent on the ballot measure, calling them an "advertising expense" to offset a $10,000 paid him by Interscope Communications for work on developing a screenplay over the ballot affair. The Internal Revenue Service
objected in 1995, and filed a notice of deficiency in 1997. The case drew nationwide attention, bringing appearances for Geary on Prime Time Live and Comedy Central
. In its own public relations
effort the IRS issued a number of humorous statements, saying among other things, "when it comes to taxes, Officer O'Smarty is a dummy."
In 2000 the United States Tax Court
ruled against Geary, reversing the deduction and assessing back taxes and "accuracy" penalties, on the basis that expenditures spent on political causes such as ballot initiatives are disallowed under Internal Revenue Code
section 162(e), even if they would otherwise be deductible under other sections of the Code.
.
Officer Geary and Brendan O'Smarty retired from the police force in 2000. Then-mayor Willie Brown
declared the day "Officer Geary Day". For his last day Geary went on patrol in a Wells-Fargo stagecoach drawn by four horses.
Police officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
in the San Francisco Police Department
San Francisco Police Department
The San Francisco Police Department, also known as the SFPD and San Francisco Department Of Police, is the police department of the City and County of San Francisco, California...
who gained notoriety as the subject of a ballot initiative to allow him to take his ventriloquist's dummy, Brendan O'Smarty, on foot patrol.
Early life
Geary holds an undergraduate degreeUndergraduate degree
An undergraduate degree is a colloquial term for an academic degree taken by a person who has completed undergraduate courses. It is usually offered at an institution of higher education, such as a university...
in art, and a master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in education. He earned four Medals of Valor
Medal of Valor (disambiguation)
The Medal of Valor is a type of medal given to honor military or public safety personnel who have served with gallantry.- Medals :*9/11 Heroes Medal of Valor, awarded by the government of the United States, created specifically to honor the 442 public safety officers who were killed in the line of...
. He was a member of the AFTRA and Screen Actors' Guild, having done hand model
Hand model
A hand model is a person who models their hand or hands for the purposes of art, fashion or other products or advertising. Hand models are used in advertising where advertisers want close ups of the product being handled...
ing and starred opposite Don Johnson
Don Johnson
Donnie Wayne "Don" Johnson is an American actor known for his work in television and film. He played the lead role of James "Sonny" Crockett in the 1980s TV cop series, Miami Vice, which led him to huge success. He also played the lead role in the 1990s cop series, Nash Bridges...
in a 1981 television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
, The Two Lives of Carol Letner.
In the 1980s he became a favorite subject of columnist Herb Caen
Herb Caen
Herbert Eugene Caen was a Pulitzer Prize-winning San Francisco journalistwhose daily column of local goings-on, social and political happenings,...
, after he wrote a letter to the editor
Letter to the editor
A letter to the editor is a letter sent to a publication about issues of concern from its readers. Usually, letters are intended for publication...
of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
defending the Police Department for issuing too many tickets to taxicabs. Officer Geary was found "not guilty" of writing too many tickets at a public event held in a North Beach
North Beach, San Francisco, California
North Beach is a neighborhood in the northeast of San Francisco adjacent to Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf and Russian Hill. The neighborhood is San Francisco's Little Italy, and has historically been home to a large Italian American population. It still holds many Italian restaurants today, though...
theater that featured a stripper
Stripper
A stripper is a professional erotic dancer who performs a contemporary form of striptease at strip club establishments, public exhibitions, and private engagements. Unlike in burlesque, the performer in the modern Americanized form of stripping minimizes the interaction of customer and dancer,...
in the role of bailiff
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
.
Ballot initiatives
In 1988, San Francisco police attempted for budgetary reasons to end its historic horse patrol program for which his then-girlfriend served as a mounted policeMounted police
Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback or camelback. They continue to serve in remote areas and in metropolitan areas where their day-to-day function may be picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and...
officer. Geary sponsored a ballot initiative to save the program, which passed with 86 percent of the local vote, the highest margin of any to date in the City.
In 1991 Geary was assigned to a community policing position in North Beach. The program encouraged officers to be "highly visible" and use "creative and ingenious methods" to earn the trust of local civilians. Geary decided to order an expensive wooden dummy out of a ventriloquist catalog. He bought an audiotape program to teach himself to use the dummy, practicing in front of a bathroom mirror. Geary chose the name "Smarty" as a pun on the word "Dummy," and the full name "Brendan O'Smarty" to add dignity to the doll. Geary took the dummy to entertain children while he was on patrol, dressing it in a police uniform with badge number 1/2 and a water pistol. Despite carrying the dummy, Geary was able to function as an officer, chasing and tackling at least one suspect with dummy in hand.
In 1992, San Francisco mayor Frank Jordan
Frank Jordan
Francis M. “Frank” Jordan is a U.S. politician, foundation executive and former Chief of Police.Jordan was born in San Francisco in 1935 and graduated from Sacred Heart High School in 1953...
named a relatively unknown police officer, Anthony B. ("Tony") Ribera, to become Chief of Police. The previous chief, Richard Hongisto
Richard Hongisto
Richard D. Hongisto was a businessman, politician, sheriff and police chief of San Francisco, California, and Cleveland, Ohio.-Early life and education:...
, was fired after only six weeks on the job for ordering his officers to destroy copies of the San Francisco Bay Times
San Francisco Bay Times
The San Francisco Bay Times is a free weekly LGBT newspaper in San Francisco, California that started as COMING Up! in October 1979 as "the gay lesbian newspaper and calendar of events for the Bay Area."...
that had lampooned him over what the paper considered a heavy-handed police response to an outbreak of rioting following the Rodney King
Rodney King
Rodney Glen King is an American best known for his involvement in a police brutality case involving the Los Angeles Police Department on March 3, 1991...
police brutality verdict. Whereas Hongisto had tolerated Brendan O'Smarty, Ribera ordered Geary to keep the dummy in his police car while he went out on patrol. Despite an internal appeal and some press coverage, the department refused to rescind the order. The Board of Supervisors passed resolution urging the Mayor
Mayor of San Francisco
The Mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of San Francisco's city and county government. The mayor has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the legislative branch....
to override the Police Chief, but he refused.
In 1993 Geary formed the "Committee to Save Puppet Officer Brendan O'Smarty," which collected nearly 10,000 signatures in a self-financed campaign to bring the matter to a local referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
. The measure was designated and certified for the general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
in November, 1993, the last of 28 ballot measures. The ballot's wording was:
Shall it be the policy of the people of San Francisco to allow Police Officer Bob Geary to decide when he may use his puppet Brendan O'Smarty while on duty?
Despite opposition from the police chief and others who considered the referendum an embarrassment, the measure passed by a narrow 51% to 49% margin. Geary continued to use the puppet throughout the 1990s and became, in addition to a local phenomenon, a celebrity at ventriloquist conventions nationwide, and appearing in the 2000 documentary, Dummies!
Tax lawsuit
Soon after the election Geary attempted to take an $11,500 tax deductionTax deduction
Income tax systems generally allow a tax deduction, i.e., a reduction of the income subject to tax, for various items, especially expenses incurred to produce income. Often these deductions are subject to limitations or conditions...
over the funds he spent on the ballot measure, calling them an "advertising expense" to offset a $10,000 paid him by Interscope Communications for work on developing a screenplay over the ballot affair. The Internal Revenue Service
Internal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
objected in 1995, and filed a notice of deficiency in 1997. The case drew nationwide attention, bringing appearances for Geary on Prime Time Live and Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
. In its own public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
effort the IRS issued a number of humorous statements, saying among other things, "when it comes to taxes, Officer O'Smarty is a dummy."
In 2000 the United States Tax Court
United States Tax Court
The United States Tax Court is a federal trial court of record established by Congress under Article I of the U.S. Constitution, section 8 of which provides that the Congress has the power to "constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court"...
ruled against Geary, reversing the deduction and assessing back taxes and "accuracy" penalties, on the basis that expenditures spent on political causes such as ballot initiatives are disallowed under Internal Revenue Code
Internal Revenue Code
The Internal Revenue Code is the domestic portion of Federal statutory tax law in the United States, published in various volumes of the United States Statutes at Large, and separately as Title 26 of the United States Code...
section 162(e), even if they would otherwise be deductible under other sections of the Code.
Retirement
In 1998 the Police Department named a horse after Geary. In 2000 Geary sued an advertising agency for using his likeness to promote the Colorado LotteryColorado Lottery
The Colorado Lottery is run by the government of Colorado. It is a member of the Multi-State Lottery Association .The Colorado Lottery began on January 24, 1983, initially selling only scratch tickets. Its first drawing took place on April 23, 1983...
.
Officer Geary and Brendan O'Smarty retired from the police force in 2000. Then-mayor Willie Brown
Willie Brown (politician)
Willie Lewis Brown, Jr. is an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served over 30 years in the California State Assembly, spending 15 years as its Speaker, and afterward served as the 41st mayor of San Francisco, the first African American to do so...
declared the day "Officer Geary Day". For his last day Geary went on patrol in a Wells-Fargo stagecoach drawn by four horses.
External links
- Memo opinion - tax court ruling denying deduction