Sacramento police Officer Billy Lyons, known for compassion for the down and out, dies

William “Billy” Lyons, a longtime Sacramento police officer once dubbed the “Sidewalk Saint to winos” for his compassion in dealing with the homeless and destitute, died of pneumonia in Sacramento Feb. 5. He was 76.

Lyons, the son of a police officer who went on to wear his father’s badge number — 127 — spent 42 years with the department, driving the paddy wagon downtown, working patrol and pioneering the mounted unit that patrols Old Sacramento and downtown.

The unit’s horse barn is named for Lyons, who retired from the department in 2006 after a career in which he said he never had to fire his weapon.

“That guy is the best man,” former Sacramento police Officer Steve Reed said Thursday. “He showed compassion for every single person he dealt with.

“I never in my 20 years that I worked with him every heard anything negative. He was especially compassionate with the homeless when he worked the paddy wagon.”

Reed, who later went on to oversee security for Arden Fair mall, hired Lyons while he was off duty to work mounted patrol in the mall parking lots, and recalled how Lyons went out of his way to make certain that children at Arden Fair got a chance to see the horses.

“He was just great with the public,” Reed said. “There’s only two people in my life I wish I was like, and that’s him and another guy in the department whose a sergeant.”

In a 2006 Sacramento Bee profile of Lyons’ career, reporter Bob Sylva called him a “downtown hero” who always carried a pack of Marlboros to hand out to defuse tense encounters.

“Everybody knows Billy — inebriates, K Street deadbeats, thieves, the powers that be,” Sylva wrote. “And Billy knows everybody. He knows all the modus operandi; what happened on that corner; who shot whom and why. Though his genial memory is a gruesome police archive, he has never lost his abiding faith in mankind. ...

“Never a tough guy, he treated everyone, especially the drunks, the deranged, the victimized, with respect, tenderness, even compassion. One witness calls him a ‘sidewalk saint.’”

Lyons, who lived in Land Park, was a Sacramento native and joined the department working part-time in 1964 when three other family members were serving on the force: his father, Kenneth Lyons; his uncle, James Lyons Sr.; and his cousin, James Lyons Jr., his family said.

He is survived by Valerie Lyons, his wife of 41 years; daughter, Amy Gunter; and granddaughter, Addison Gunter.

The Lyons family is planning a memorial service in April.

Gunter said that after retirement her father returned to the mounted horse barn every day to volunteer cleaning out stables and working there until November.

“Everybody was his friend,” Gunter said. “He threw compliments around to anybody and everybody.

“He was always willing to help neighbors and friends, everybody who needed it.”

When he retired, Lyons offered his own bit of advice for how to make Sacramento a better place.

“If you want to make a difference in your community, become a cop,” he said. “It’s a tough job. But you can make a difference. For me, it’s been a wonderful go.”