Well yesterday was my Friday and now that it's done I can go ahead and say it. It was QUIET. I think police officers are a lot like baseball players in their certain superstitions. One being: you cannot say that word during the shift and if you do-all hell literally tends to break loose and everybody has you to blame for it. I did however have an encounter I would like to share with you all.

I received a criminal trespass call on my beat for a black male begging for change outside of a Chinese restaurant and refusing to leave on my beat. When I rolled up to the call, I saw a familiar sight. I have a man who who been virtually banned from every sort of business on my beat (albeit it apparently not this restaurant yet). When I was fresh out of the academy in field training I actually arrested this man and then when I went solo I had arrested him again. This particular man is in his mid 20's, homeless, and more than likely has an undiagnosed mental disorder. According to him, his father basically disowned him and he now leaves in no particular area just finding where he can on my beat. In normal weather (and not winter time) he generally wears blue Crocs as his shoe of choice and people always use that description of him in 911 calls. So I'll refer to him as Croc Guy here on out. Croc Guy almost always has marijuana on him and a concealed knife. When he does get arrested he generally always resists arrests (no matter how much you use verbal judo to calm him down) and then once you get him in custody he fakes seizures in an attempt to delay his transport to jail.

On this particular day, I approached Croc Guy and asked him what he was doing at the restaurant. Croc Guy told me he was just looking for some spare change as some customers had promised him some. Quickly, numerous customers and employees told me he had been scaring them when he was refused money. I told Croc Guy that on behalf of the employees of the business I was issuing him a criminal trespass warning (adding the restaurant to the list of places he was not welcome at) and then escorted him outside to talk to him.

I asked him if he had cleared up everything court related since the last time I had arrested him and he told me he had. I asked Croc Guy about his father and if he had tried reaching out to him as the holidays were approaching but he stated the father really wanted nothing to do with him. I ran his information (which I knew very well by now) just to make sure he had no outstanding warrants and asked him if he had found a warm place to stay around the area and he stated he was getting by. Croc Guy actually wasn't wearing his signature Crocs and I joked around with him about him finding warmer shoes for the winter. After things were good with the warrant check I just told him he would have to find another place to hang out an keep it moving.

I easily could have arrested Croc Guy for aggressive panhandling and search incident to arrest probably would have revealed marijuana on his person (for the record I did not smell any while talking to him) but as officers we have a very strong power called the power of discretion. Nobody can tell us who to arrest or who to cite. As officers we have that very strong power of discretion there. For a non-violent crime I use my best judgement and try to work with people when the situation allows such as this. Being a police officer is not about locking everybody up and taking them to jail. Sometimes you just have to talk to people and make them realize they're human too even when homeless and unwanted by a lot of people in the area. Just because we wear a uniform and a badge-we're human too and nothing different from the citizens we serve.

On that parting note, I'll be on my much deserved weekend but look for a post coming after I return to work on Monday. Be safe this weekend everyone.