West View Lt. Randall Freedman's Retirement Marks End of Family Business

For the first time in nearly 60 years, members of the Freedman family will not have a hand in local law enforcement.

Randall Freedman, 63, a lieutenant with the for the last 37 years, retired June 30, following in the footsteps of his older brother. Ralph Freedman retired in February as chief of police with the

The Freedman brothers' father, Ralph C. Freedman Sr., worked in the West View Police Department from 1954 until he retired in 1978. In 1979, another brother, Ronny Freedman, joined the West View Police Department where he worked for around a decade, in part as a detective.

"The family dynasty has come to an end, sadly," West View Mayor John H. Henry said when Randall Freedman's retirement was announced June 8 at the borough council meeting.

"He's been a good police officer all these years," said West View Borough Council President Mary Bernhard. "We're sorry to lose him."

Randall Freedman, whose father survived the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, joined the U.S. Navy after high school. When he returned home, he joined his father at the West View Police Department for four years before the elder Freedman's retirement.

Ralph Freedman joined the Ross Police Department in 1966. He became a magistrate in McCandless from 1981 to 1993 and then resumed his police work, becoming police chief in 2005. Randall Freedman earned the rank of sergeant in the West View Police Department in 1989 and a promotion to lieutenant in 1996.

“[My father] being a policeman and then my brother being a policeman just kind of absorbed me, and I followed their footsteps into their place of work,” he said.

West View Officer Matt Holland, who worked with Randall Freedman for the last 10 years, said he was level-headed and extremely good to work with.

“They used to call him ‘Mr. West View’ because he grew up here,” Holland said. “He knew everybody that lived here. He knew different houses; he could tell you who lived there throughout the years. He just knew everybody.

“He was very well-liked throughout the community and very well-liked with the officers he worked with. They never really saw him in a bad mood; he was always pleasant to be around, just a joy. He enjoyed being a police officer.”

Ralph Freedman took a slightly different route into the family business. After graduating from high school, he signed a contract to play baseball and spent some time in the minor leagues before returning home and taking work at Allis-Chalmers, a tractor equipment manufacturer on the North Side of Pittsburgh. Then the employees went on strike.

"We were out for six months, and Ross Township was having a [police hiring] test, and my dad told me, ‘Why don’t you try for Ross Township?’” said Ralph Freedman, 66.  

Ralph said he considered his father’s advice but was leaning toward West View, his hometown. Before he made a move, his father gave him one last suggestion.

“He told me at the time, him and another old cop there, 'Go to Ross. [West View is] one square mile. Ross surrounds you. You could get lost in Ross; there’s a lot more action.' So I took the test in Ross, and I was just lucky enough to happen to get on. They only hired five guys.”

Though the brothers worked for different departments their entire careers, they worked together on numerous cases, including a 1976 traffic stop that turned into a manhunt after the driver fled and took a hostage. Randall Freedman was shot at, he said. Ralph Freedman, in an attempt to stop the man, commandeered a car and followed the driver into Pittsburgh, where officers eventually arrested the man.

Both men said that there was a lot more shooting back in the day. Getting shot at was just a part of the job, they said.

“At the time that it happened, you really didn’t think about it. You’re just doing your job, and afterwards you think, 'Holy hell, I could have got shot,'” Ralph Freedman said. “But at the time, the adrenaline is going and you don’t think about it. You’re just doing your job.”

They have many stories to tell.

Ralph Freedman worked on narcotics cases for three years and was involved with the Jill DeJohn case in the mid-1970s. DeJohn, of Ross, was convicted in 1976 of murdering her husband for insurance money. Randall Freedman said he helped to maintain order at West View Park during the riots after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

“I’ll miss the guys, the people you work with, and the people in West View,” Randall Freedman said. “Because we are so small, you knew a lot of people and you talk to them. They’ll be missed, definitely.”

Though retirement means the end of two long careers, the brothers are ready to begin a new and perhaps less action-packed chapter of their lives.

“I think that it was time to move on, go out and enjoy the weather or whatever,” Ralph Freedman said.

“I’m going to Disney World!” Randall Freedman joked.