Not much is known of Stottlemeyer's life before he joined the SFPD, though in an interview, Ted Levine stated it was his own belief that Stottlemeyer had served in the military and was later discharged, lived on the East Coast, then moved to California as a young man, joining the police force. In "Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion", it is implied that he has lived in the Bay Area since at least the 1970s, as when he is trying to get information from reunion guests about a homicide investigation, he is booed off the stage when the projectionist displays some embarrassing pictures of him wearing riot gear and violently attacking protesters at an anti-nuclear warfare demonstration at UC Berkeley (Monk and Natalie are mortified, while Stottlemeyer insists that the protestors' permit had expired). In "Mr. Monk Makes the Playoffs", it is mentioned that he hasn't lived in Los Angeles for almost 30 years. The novel "Mr. Monk and the New Lieutenant" reveals that Stottlemeyer's father was a bartender named Hamish. In "Mr. Monk Stays in Bed" Leland uses the phrase "The 101" to refer to Highway 101. In Northern California, people will call Highway 101, "Highway 101," not "The 101"; that's a Southern California term. Stottlemeyer mentions in "Mr. Monk Gets Cabin Fever" that he was the youngest officer in the history of the SFPD to make detective, giving him at least a few years of seniority on Monk. As Stottlemeyer mentions in "Mr. Monk Goes to the Carnival," when Monk was promoted to detective, he was partnered with Stottlemeyer, and right away, showed off his amazing abilities when he proved that a prostitute's apparent suicide was murder.