You probably don’t know his name, but odds are you’ve seen his badge: Los Angeles Police Dept. Badge 714, as seen during the credits of the old Dragnet TV series. Cooke, LAPD’s official spokesman, not only briefed the news media on spectacular crimes (the Charles Manson murders, Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination, the police shootout with the Symbionese Liberation Army after Patty Hearst’s kidnaping), but also served as a technical advisor to many police shows, including Dragnet and Adam-12.
Cooke joined LAPD as a foot patrolman in 1953, became a media relations officer in 1964, and retired in 1988. Badge 714 will now reside at the Jack Webb Museum at the department’s Police Academy. Lt. Dan Cooke died April 30 of bladder cancer at home in Rancho Bernardo, Calif. He was 72.