During a ride-along with a college journalist in 2014, Northern California police officer Noah Winchester bragged about he was looking out for the safety of the students on campus.
But that was before he was arrested for raping two women while on duty as a police officer for the Los Rios Community College in Sacramento.
And that was before he was arrested for raping an additional three women while on duty as a police officer for the San Mateo Police Department.
Police arrested the 31-year-old man Thursday on 22 counts of kidnapping, rape and related charges.
Turns out, while Winchester was bragging about keeping everybody safe, he was pulling woman over and threatening to arrest them unless they had sex with him. Not much different than the [__South Carolina deputy__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2016/07/23/south-carolina-deputy-threatened-to-arrest-woman-and-her-boyfriend-if-she-refused-to-perform-oral-sex-on-him/) we wrote about over the weekend.
Winchester’s attorney warned the media about rushing to judgement on his client.
But he was only arrested after an eight month investigation which began in October while he was working for the San Mateo Police Department. He resigned in February.
Nevertheless, the local police union may pay for his legal defense, according to [__CBS San Francisco.__](http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/07/25/court-proceedings-delayed-for-ex-san-mateo-cop-accused-of-multiple-rapes/)
Winchester was an officer for the Los Rios Community College from January 2009 until January 2015, which is where he is accused of raping two women. He then accepted a job with the San Mateo Police Department in January 2015, where he is accused of raping three women in a span of ten months.
He was profiled in November 2014 by the Los Rios college newspaper, [__The American River Current,__](http://www.arcurrent.com/news/2014/11/10/riding-shotgun-with-campus-police/) by a writer named Adnan Ramic, who summed up his experience with the follow passage:
“The entire experience of my ride along was very insightful to understanding the daily life of an officer on campus. It wasn’t hard to see that Winchester is a man who takes pride in his work, and genuinely cares for the people who come onto this campus.”
Like many citizens, Ramic fell victim to the Police PR Spin Machine. He will probably think twice next time a cop tells him he is looking out for the safety of his community.