When CSI co-star Gary Dourdan was arrested for drug possession in Palm Springs, USA Today reporters called PSPD Sgt. Mitch Spike for official police information on the case. When police on stakeout outside a Palm Springs Casino shot and killed a man, reporters reached out to Sgt. Spike for an official PSPD statement. When this writer wanted to establish a literary presence and a research foothold in the real life department I was fictionalizing in the Shooting Shrink Series, I called the PSPD Chief and he referred me to Sgt. Mitch Spike.
Michael Thompkins and Sgt. Mitch Spike in his office at PSPD
Most mornings that I'm in Palm Springs, the first thing I do after I pick up my coffee at the same Starbucks my fictional heroes frequent, is to turn the radio on to 920AM KPSI and the Steve Kelly Show. When it's time for the news, I fully expect anything that is going down in the Palm Springs crime scene to include somewhere in the report: "according to Police Department spokesman Sgt. Mitch Spike."
...Stay tuned for more on Sgt. Mitch Spike. Perhaps you'll see Mitch and me having sushi together somewhere in the Springs.