The print version included this quote in a sidebar "A man's gotta have a hobby. I just got to get the wife to quit calling it a skirt." Danville police Cpl. Mike Briggs, a drummer.

Hearing the call to duty
By John Simerman
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

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Contra Costa Sheriff's Police Pipes & Drums, which formed in 2004 as one of the few law-enforcement-only pipe bands on the West Coast.

The band counts 10 members, all recruited from the ranks to play traditional Scottish pipe music at line-of-duty funerals and other, less somber events such as holiday fests, school functions and, on Friday, a police academy graduation at the Dean Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

Most of these police pipers and drummers have musical experience, but many had only a distant memory of it when they signed on to don kilt and glengarry, spats and sporran.

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More here including a slide show with audio.

Best regards,

Jake