By Charles Lear
Throughout the history of UFO sightings, police involvement has been fairly common as they are often the first to be called by concerned citizens. Sometimes the officers sent to investigate end up becoming witnesses themselves and there are cases where they have given chase and involved other officers providing researchers with multiple, exceptionally qualified witnesses. Then there are cases where the officers have been the primary witnesses and some were so moved by their encounters that they ended up becoming highly active UFO researchers and investigators themselves. As would be expected, these investigators treat their cases as if they were doing a criminal investigation and when it comes to UFOs, this is an excellent approach.
Perhaps the most renowned officer turned UFOlogist was Tony Dodd, a British policeman who had an extraordinary sighting along with another officer in 1978. Dodd was a sergeant at the time and was driving as part of his duties as supervisor for the night patrol in North and West Yorkshire with a beat patrol officer in the passenger seat. They were on a country road along Cononley Moor around 4:30 AM on December 12, when they came upon what Dodd described as a huge, 100 foot disk with a dome on top, portals, flashing blue, red, green and white lights and three hemispheres protruding from the bottom. The object moved away from them towards a wooded area at around 40 miles per hour, descended into the trees until just a glow of light was visible and then that was gone. At this point, another officer drove up to them in a separate car asking if they had seen the object and this made for a total of three officer witnesses.
Tony Dodd became fascinated with UFOs and started reading books on the subject. He regularly returned to the Moors to sky watch and had repeated sightings along with invited witnesses. Dodd’s wife, Pauline, was with him when they both witnessed a craft that resembled a spinning top with hundreds of small, red lights. Dodd came to believe that his sightings were not accidental and that aliens were subconsciously guiding him to locations where they could be seen. In 1982 he joined the Yorkshire UFO Society, which later became Quest International and published UFO Magazine. He served the organization in different capacities including a stint as Director of Investigations. He left in 1998 and published a book, “Alien Investigator: The Case Files of Britain’s Leading UFO Detective”, wherein he described his initial sighting and cases he investigated involving abductions and animal mutilation which had come to be his areas of specialization. He firmly believed in the E.T. hypothesis and that there was a cover-up regarding government interaction and possibly conspiracy with aliens. Dodd died in 2009 and was fondly memorialized by fellow researchers.
Another British policeman, Gary Heseltine, is still active today and has made a significant contribution in the form of a reporting center and database. In addition, he has co-produced and co-written a soon-to-be-released film, “Capel Green” which covers the Rendlesham Forest Incident and includes new witnesses. Heseltine retired as a Detective Constable working for the Leeds Transport Police in 2013 where he had worked since 1989. Heseltine’s interest in UFOs began as a young man of 15 or 16 (he admittedly can’t remember the exact date) in the summer of 1975 or 1976. He was walking at night with his girlfriend in his hometown of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire when they saw a large, bright white light slowly and silently moving across the sky. As it passed over a housing estate, all the lights there went out. His girlfriend became frightened so Heseltine took her home riding on the crossbar of his bicycle, which he’d been pushing, and then chased after the light, which was heading towards his house. He got ahead of it and then waited for it to see if the lights in that area would go out and they did. He rode to his house and warned his parents of an immanent power failure, which proved true but his parents dismissed his claim that the light had caused it as coincidence. Heseltine began reading all he could on the subject of UFOs and joined the British UFO Research Organization but his interest was sidetracked by the menace of adulthood with the birth of a daughter, a new job and a mortgage. It wasn’t until 1996 that his interest would be rekindled after spotting a copy of UFO Magazine at a newsstand, which he began to read regularly. He got in touch with editor, Graham Birdsall, formed a relationship and this led to having an article being published announcing the Police Reporting UFO Sightings reporting center and database that Heseltine was inspired to create in 2002. According to his last update, he has gathered over 500 reports involving over 1000 officers. Besides his other activities, Heseltine manages to find time to publish the online magazine called, UFO Truth Magazine.
Here in the states, retired officer Christopher DePerno was recently made the Mutual UFO Network’s Chief Field Investigator for this writer’s home state of New York. DePerno was a Major Crimes Detective who served in law enforcement for 25 years and became active as a MUFON field investigator after he retired. He’s had a life-long fascination with UFOs after a childhood sighting of an object moving at high speed, which repeatedly stopped and moved again in different directions. Besides his work with MUFON, DePerno has a KGRA Radio show devoted to UFOs called “Project Aries.” He’s currently investigating a case with the help of local researcher, Linda Zimmermann involving a large triangular object that reportedly dropped two barrel sized objects into a New York lake and hopes to send in a dive team to possibly recover the objects. Zimmerman hosts a show, UFO Headquarters on Hudson River Radio and her co-host, Michael Worden, is an active sergeant with the Port Jervis, NY Police and a paranormal investigator in his off hours.
There is a group of law enforcement officers who investigate UFOs and the paranormal as part of their official duties. On the Navajo Reservation in Arizona, reports of UFOs, ghosts, skin-walkers and cryptids were common enough that a special branch was assigned to respond and investigate. The Navajo Nation Rangers are federally trained officers with extensive duties that include law enforcement, search and rescue, management of parks, archaeological sites, and wildlife. They began investigating the paranormal because there was a need by residents to have someone listen to their stories, calm their fears and attempt to find answers. Retired Ranger John Dover and his partner, Stan Milford have given interviews and lectures describing some of their investigations and their accounts are truly strange. One case involved a woman who was followed by a glowing orb while driving home one night and when she got to where she usually parked there was a giant rabbit with black eyes there staring at her. When they investigated, Dover and Milford, using a compass, detected electromagnetic effects around the drivers seat. MUFON investigators helping with the case had the car’s oil tested and the chemistry included sodium nitrate, which is not normally found in oil.
UFO investigations by police officers are compelling because of the special training they have and their practical experience presenting succinct facts in a chronological order that are meant to be heard in a court of law. There are others out there who have not been profiled here and DePerno feels that as officers retire there will be more to come. What better to keep an ex-policeman active than a never-ending mystery?