Name John Flood | ||
John Flood is a retired police officer, nationally-recognized police labor relations figure, and an authority on the La Cosa Nostra, organized crime and the Chicago Outfit. Mr. Flood resides in Las Vegas, Nevada and San Diego, California.
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His professional career, spanning the second half of the 20th century, was in law enforcement within the United States. Mr. Flood is an associate of late FBI agent and author William Roemer. William Wemette, famous for his testimony against Chicago mob leader Joey Lombardo and mob enforcer Frankie Schweihs in organized crime trials and a longtime Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informant is a confidante. Mr. Wemette was a major testifying witness in The Family Secrets prosecution overseen by U. S. District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
Fight for police rights
Mr. Flood, with such notable leaders as John Cassesse, former President of the New York Police Benevolent Association literally started the police labor union movement of the United States.
After founding the Combined Counties Police Association (formerly known as the Cook County Police Association), John Flood led numerous police strikes in Illinois. The first was the Cicero police strike in 1969 with CCPA Officer John R. Marone. This strike was historic because it was the first real strike by American police officers in fifty years following the historically famous Boston Police Strike of 1919 where then Governor Calvin Coolidge oversaw the firing of two thousand of the city's police force.
In 1969 and 1970, Mr. Flood led eight police strikes. After Cicero Police Department, in 1969 he struck the Berwyn Police Department, Berwyn, Illinois, followed by the Des Plaines Police Department, Des Plaines, Illinois; and then the Harvey Police Department, Harvey, Illinois.
In 1970, Mr. Flood struck Skokie Police Department, Skokie, Illinois. Wheeling Police Department, Wheeling, Illinois, Lake County Sheriff's Police Department, Lake County, Illinois, and Waukegan Police Department, Waukegan, Illinois. All of these actions were historic to the labor history of the country.
Afterwards, Mr. Flood and the Combined Counties Police Association, which he led for thirty three years, negotiated a series of ground-breaking collective bargaining agreements in Illinois, effectively founding the police union movement of the United States.
Emerald Society Police Officer of the Year
In the spring of 1994, the Emerald Society police organization awarded John Flood its first Police Officer of the Year award at its annual affair.
Near death
While on duty, John Flood observed a Chicago Syndicate crime in progress and drove to the driveway of the Cross Roads Motel at Lawrence Avenue and Mannheim Road, Schiller Park, where he confronted Frank Schweihs, a once notorious mob hitman who was attempting to murder playboy and syndicate front man Richard W. Hauff. Hauff was an owner of the motel night club with mob ties to Phil Alderisio. While attempting to get Schweihs to produce identification, Outfit mob leader Joseph Lombardo, sitting in a parked car nearby, attempted to kill Flood by running him down with the job vehicle. This incident was later used in a testimony against Schweihs in federal court to demonstrate his violent nature and historic criminal background. It was the first time in Chicago history that mob killers were caught in the act of assassination- a mob hit.
Current life
Mr. Flood is a frequent guest on television and radio talk show programs around the country addressing the Mafia, the Chicago Outfit organized crime, police unionization and law enforcement issues on a national basis.