In his 31 years as a Santa Barbara city cop, Sergeant Mike McGrew became a force of nature not just on the streets but inside City Hall. For more than 20 of those years, McGrew — laconic, ferocious, hilarious, and implacable — ran the police union, backed countless political candidates, and famously waged war not just against “the bad guys” but various mayors, city administrators, and police chiefs with whom he so famously feuded. McGrew — also described as blunt, confrontational, and media-savvy — won an award his rookie year for tackling a samurai-sword-wielding man on State Street, starred in reality TV highlighting the department, lost a teenaged son to cancer, struggled with addiction issues of his own, found God, and, most recently, struggled with his own cancer. The side effects of that treatment — numbness of hands and feet — persuaded McGrew it was time to retire, effective last week.
He is, however, hardly disappearing. McGrew is currently entertaining thoughts of running for City Council from the Fifth District. Were he to jump in, he’d run against Eric Friedman — backed by the Democratic Party, and aide to former county supervisor and now Congressmember Salud Carbajal. McGrew confirmed only that there’s been a lot of discussion and that he’s “still praying on this one.”
Regardless, McGrew said he will function as a departmental chaplain and that he’s helped launch the Santa Barbara Worship Center, where he leads services every other Sunday at the Louise Lowry Davis Center. In addition, he’s finishing a book combining several G-rated cop stories and his religious awakening. McGrew is also part of an Orange County–based ministry that specializes in “casting demons out,” a gift he said he stumbled upon while praying over a homeless man who appeared to be bleeding to death on the street. “After we started, all these distractions started happening all at once,” he recalled. “Radios, phones all started going off, and the smell of death was everywhere.”