Michael Brookman:
Exploring
the Past and
Experiencing
the Present
Written By Amy McElroy
I
f you’ve lived in the South Valley
during the last quarter century,
you’ve very likely met or seen
Michael Brookman. You may have
run across him giving tours at Henry Coe
State Park, or working as a docent at the
Gilroy Hot Springs, or a little further back
when he worked as a police officer in
Morgan Hill before he retired in 2014. Or
maybe you saw him in one of the local
coffee shops that he frequents since he
moved to San Martin 26 years ago.
Brookman likes to “people watch.” “I’ll
sit there and smile and wave as people go
by, and so many people just frown back
at you,” he said, shaking his head and
smiling in disbelief.
As a police officer, Brookman origi-
nally worked in various areas of Santa
14
Brookman at Morgan Hill Historical Society picnic (top photo) and
at the Prohibition Day fundraiser also held at Villa Mira Monte
Clara County, but moved into a position
as a Morgan Hill officer after six years.
“Morgan Hill was a great place to be a
police officer,” he said. “If I was chasing a
suspect, there were always people pointing
and shouting ‘that way, he went that way.’
In San Jose, everyone would be pointing
in different directions, or looking around
saying ‘I didn’t see anything.’”
Brookman explained another reason
why he preferred living in the area where
he worked: “Interface with community is
so vital. You can’t judge people. They’re
all customers.” So, he said, that’s how he
treated them.
But not everyone agreed with his
approach. Once a victim filed a complaint
against him after he arrested the burglars
and retrieved the stolen items because the
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
victim said Brookman was “too nice” to
the burglars during the arrest.
Before his years on the police force,
Brookman said, “My favorite job ever
was as a rigger in the circus for Marriott’s
Great America.” At the time, he had been
working as a theater tech, and then the
owners decided they wanted a circus
at the park. “It lasted five months,”
Brookman said. “Not long enough. We
were judged the best one-ring circus in the
country. Barnum and Bailey came out and
saw us, and they all had so much fun. It
was the best.”
Later on—before Brookman retired
from the police force—he added yet
another career to his résumé, turning
his love of local history into work as a
published writer. He had amassed a large
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