So yesterday was an insanely long day that included a civilian ride along and two arrests (one of which happened to be at the end of the night that kept me over an hour late getting off work). I love having ride alongs as I love explaining my job and showing "my" part of the city around to somebody. I highly encourage any of you to contact your local police department and take a ride along. You just might have your opinion of what it is we do change after riding through a whole shift.

Two things from yesterday really stood out to me that I wanted to share. We have two "squads" where I work that handle the north and south areas of what my precinct is responsible for. The A and B squads, if you will. The A squad had all hands on deck dealing with a person shot and a missing juvenile (unrelated) and I got dispatched to a male beating a woman call about a good 10-15 minutes away (not counting blue lights and sirens). The remarks state a black male was beating a black female inside a black charger in the parking lot of a grocery store. I activated my emergency lights and siren and started the trek, however by the time we got there the car was nowhere in sight and the person who made the 911 call wished to remain anonymous. It could have been a fake call-it could have been legit. We as police officers live for helping people and being there for them in times of their greatest need. If this was a legitimate call, it really was a shame I couldn't be there to help. In this job, you quickly learn you cannot be there for everyone, but you sure as hell try and cannot be blamed for that.

On another note, it's that time of year where it starts getting cold outside as winter approaches. Many people tend to leave their cars running when they step out somewhere or to warm their cars up. PLEASE DON'T DO THIS!!  I handled a vehicle theft at an apartment complex. This guy who happens to work maintenance at the complex had a brand new 2014 vehicle and stepped out to hand a pair of keys to his manager and left his car running just FEET away from his vehicle. He heard a noise, turned around and a black male was seen getting into his vehicle. The man yelled at the guy "what are you doing? That's my car!" before the male reversed, hit another vehicle in the parking lot, and fled the complex at a high rate of speed. The poor maintenance worker had about $1,000 worth of personal tools in his vehicle, the keys to his other car at home, and most concerning, a set of masters keys. Lesson being PLEASE bring your keys with you if you leave your car unattended. All it takes is one second.Even most officers won't leave their patrol cars running if you go somewhere out of sight. TRUST me, we drill that with rookies. You have no idea how many times a rookie has left a car running on a call just to return to where the car was and......all of a sudden has to get on the radio because someone "stole" their patrol car!

Well I overslept due to the long night of paperwork following some traffic and warrant arrests but we'll see what today holds to share with you all later!