The momentary deviation from Moreno’s tersely professional demeanor didn’t last long. As he finished his coffee, he said he was waiting for investigators to call and tell him a warrant had been issued for a murder suspect.

"We already know the person did it,” he said. “We’ve been assisting homicide investigators with locating key witnesses and getting them to give statements. We’re just about there, and hopefully we’ll get a call in a few hours that there’s a warrant for this person. Otherwise, we have to wait and hopefully he won’t shoot anyone else while we’re waiting.”

Although Moreno said he thinks the 12 Oakland homicide investigators are bogged down with cases, he also doesn’t think hiring more police officers will completely solve the city’s crime problems. He says there will always be criminals “eager to commit crimes and much less eager to get arrested.”

More frustrating to Moreno is the community’s negativity towards the police.

“[The police are] the most visible, so we get the brunt of the complaints,” he said. “You have to hope the majority of the community doesn’t feel the same way.”

Moreno said negative media attention can make the situation worse.

“When there’s a spike in crime, everything comes back to the police department,” he said. “People will say that we’re not doing our jobs, but we’re not perfect, and we can’t solve all of Oakland’s problems in one day.”

This sentiment has been repeated so many times by so many Oakland officials that it has almost lost its meaning. But Moreno’s frustration about risking his life doing a demanding and unpleasant job without much public appreciation is real.

“Deep down it does affect us,” he said. “People will come up and yell and scream at you, or make obscene gestures. A kid will come up to talk to us and their parents will drag them away. If you’re in a coffee shop people will say you shouldn’t be sitting down.”

That day, the other Starbucks patrons didn’t seem to notice Moreno, who was in uniform, although a man on the street waved as he passed by the store’s window. Moreno waved back and smiled slightly.

“People will also say hello and thank you sometimes,” he said. “It doesn’t happen a lot, but when it does happen it makes our day because we don’t expect it.”

“Lo and behold, it’s me and him in front of my house,” he said. “I was unarmed, and didn’t know if it was a setup.”

As it turns out, the man was simply there to do his job. He picked up the furniture and left. But Moreno knew the man recognized him and was nervous that he had discovered where Moreno lived. He installed an alarm system, informed the Oakland Police’s intelligence bureau and moved soon afterwards.

“It was time for me to move anyhow,” he said, smiling.

Although Moreno ended his story on a joke, the fact that the dangers of his job always follow him is a frustrating part of his life--a frustration compounded by the negativity he receives from the people he serves.

Moreno, 36, has worked for the Oakland police for nine years. Unmarried, he returns home after shifts that can last 16 hours to his black labrador, named Giacapino after an old cousin from Italy. Moreno is short and stocky with dark hair, brown eyes and an already-emerging five o’clock shadow at 4 p.m. He looks like he comes from central casting for a big city cop.

Moreno must live and breathe his work as a police officer, but he doesn't complain. While sitting in a Starbucks near the Oakland Police Headquarters last month, he described the challenges of his work with an emotionless, “tough guy” attitude. When asked why he became a police officer, Moreno simply replied, “It was either that or be a garbage man. That’s what most of my family does.”

A career in garbage would probably have been safer. In November, 29 robberies, 18 aggravated assaults, two arsons, 11 incidents of prostitution, 25 drug busts and over 70 car thefts were reported within a one mile radius of the intersection of International Boulevard and 23rd Avenue, part of Moreno’s beat. Three murders have occurred there since Sept. 2.

Moreno considers all of this crime almost inevitable.

“You can have a million police out there, and criminals will still commit crimes,” he said.

It’s ironic, but some crimes help him do his job. Moreno is part of a seven-person investigative team that makes arrests to assist the city’s homicide investigators. People arrested for lesser crimes such as narcotics or prostitution often become informants who help investigators solve murders.

“When there’s a murder that happened, we go out to that area [where the murder occurred] and make arrests,” Moreno said. “A lot of those people [arrested] are on probation, and so they’re ready and willing to give us information, if it will get them out of jail.”

Each week, Moreno’s team sends an undercover officer to 18th Avenue or 23rd Avenue to make arrests. Officers go through specific training to learn to pose as drug users or sellers, including

how to look, what to say when buying drugs and what lingo to use in each neighborhood, Moreno said.

“When you approach a drug seller, he’s immediately trying to classify you as what they call a ‘John,’ a regular person, or an undercover officer,” he said. “They ask to see your teeth and hands, ask to see your crack pipe, touch your chest to make sure you’re not wearing a bullet-proof vest and touch your right side to make sure you don’t have a gun.

Moreno said he also watches surveillance videos to study behavior during drug exchanges. However, even after all of this preparation, he still has a problem fitting the role of a drug user.

“My teeth are pretty white,” he said. “I just try to keep my head down.”

During a bust, an undercover officer will approach a drug seller and try to convince him to sell some drugs.

“Once that exchange happens, you give the signal and then you get into the real fun,” Moreno said. “Then there’s a lot of action. The marked units come to arrest the guy. Once these guys see they’re going to get arrested, they’ll run far and they’ll run fast.”

Although Moreno said he enjoys this “intense, high-action work,” there are also significant risks involved.

No specific statistics are kept on the number of officers injured while undercover, but Sergeant Robert Nolan, an Oakland homicide investigator, said undercover work is one of the most dangerous jobs a police officer can do.

“You are out there without the protection of your gear or any symbols of being a police officer,” he said. 

Undercover officers also carry out prostitution stings. An officer will solicit a prostitute, who also usually checks extensively to ensure that the “customer” is not with the police.

“The prostitute will ask suggestive things and do things, because a cop won’t submit to certain things,” Moreno said. Then his voice trailed off.

“Actually, it’s embarrassing,” he said. “I don’t want to go into it.”

Even when pressed, Moreno wouldn’t elaborate. He seemed to want to protect me, a young, female reporter, from the gritty sexual details.