Robert Sberna

Badge 387 Robert Sberna

For nearly 40 years, Jim Simone patrolled Cleveland's 2nd District, a drug-plagued area with one of the highest violent crime rates in the U. S. Nicknamed "Supercop," Simone generated headlines and public interest on a scale not seen since Eliot Ness searched for Cleveland's "Torso Murderer" in the 1930s. Simone entered police work after serving in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne, where he earned two bronze stars and two purple hearts. As a cop, he never shied from danger. He was involved in numerous gun battles, and killed five people in the line of duty (all ruled justifiable). Notoriously equitable as a cop, Simone was more interested in doing the right thing than honoring the "blue code." Badge 387 recounts the brave exploits that earned Simone hundreds of commendations. In 1983, while searching a church basement for a gunman, he was shot in the face. Despite his wounds, he managed to shoot his assailant, saving himself and two other cops. And in 2009, he plunged into a frigid river to save a woman. Simone was Cleveland's "Patrolmen of the Year" in 1980 and 2009, the only officer in the city's history to receive the award twice.