The Week Before Christmas

So the week before Christmas is always hectic. People rushing to get ready for the holiday and scrambling to get gifts together for loved ones. Sometimes when you're getting ready for a holiday, you lose track of other basic things-and that's how this week's entry get its theme.

I was third in line at a traffic light as it began to turn yellow. The first truck went clearly through the light and then the light turned solid red. A good two seconds after the light turned red, the pickup truck in front of me decided to go through the light also. Now most people paying attention would never try and do that with a cop right behind them. I stopped the guy and he told me he was just trying to follow his friend in front of him and didn't even realize the light was red or the fact that I was right behind him. In my Christmas spirit, I decided to give him a break and sent him on his way. I did tell him that using GSP to coordinate with his friend probably would be the smarter and safer decision and he obliged!

I was out tag running, looking for a vehicle to stop when I came across a tag that had been suspended for about three months. Tags in my state are usually suspended when the vehicle has a lapse in insurance. I pulled the car over and noticed the driver was about 18 years and proudly flaunting that he had JUST come home from basic training. I normally give breaks on moving violations to teachers, military, medical personnel, etc. However for something like this (which is fixable and usually gets the fine dropped), I write the ticket. If the vehicle gets into an accident (when it really shouldn't have been on the roadway), I could be liable for not taking any action. I wrote the guy a ticket and when I went to the window he was incredibly upset I was writing him a ticket. I even broke it down to him and explained EXACTLY how to get the ticket thrown out and he still wasn't having any of it. I even told him what to do to avoid getting another one before his courtdate. Hopefully he listened to me.

I responded to an apartment complex on a call of shots fired and about 30 people gathered around in the back. I was ready for a large crowd as I expected this type of situation in the complex and I got there relatively really quick. However, when I got there, there was nothing going on anywhere. Not even a cat running around.

To close out the week, I had to go to an assisted living home where all the residents have these medical alarms in their room where they can call for help if they need it. They're constantly going off, even in unoccupied rooms (which is really creepy actually), We got two calls simultaneously and both were false alarms. At least the week ended on an easy note!

Stolen or Not Stolen?

I was stopped at a light and saw this car in front of me. I ran the tag and the tag came back to a trailblazer and this was a small black sedan. I pulled the car over and an older female was driving.

I asked her what the situation was with the tag and she said she didn't know because the car wasn't hers. I asked her who the car belonged to and she told me it was Mr. John's car. I asked her if she had any registration paperwork and she came up empty handed. I asked her if she had a phone number for this "Mr. John" and she said no. I had her place her hands on the steering wheel while I went to look and write down the VIN from the dash. I realized the VIN was missing and I immediately went to place her in handcuffs. I ran the VIN from another location and found out that the car actually belonged to her! I asked her why she lied to me and she said she didn't want to get in trouble. The car actually had canceled registration so she slapped on a tag from another car that she owned. What could have just been an impound of her car turned into her car getting impounded and her going to jail!

While I ended up staying late with that arrest, I was on my way back to the precinct to go home when I hopped on the highway and saw this pickup truck weaving ALL over two lanes. I knew this was something I couldn't ignore and pulled it over. The car couldn't decide  where it was going to pull over but finally did. It turns out the car didn't even have a valid tag on it. The driver told me he bought the car from a family in a neighboring state, whose grandfather died (it was his old truck). The grandfather's title was missing and he needed it to get it registered. The truck needed a TON of work and it had a very strong pull to it (which explained the weaving). Thankfully he wasn't intoxicated and I didn't have to have an even later night. The guy got a ticket for not having his vehicle registered past the allowed time from the state.

Breaking For Change

So I've fallen behind a bit because it just has been SO busy lately. So the next few posts will be snippets of what happened in December thus far.

There's this pink house in the zone that's huge, with broken windows that have never been fixed, vines growing all over it....you get the picture. Take your typical haunted creepy house and this is it. To top it off, the person who lives there is a Voodoo priestess. She's constantly getting into trances and then calling 911 and just mumbling on the phone. I've been there plenty of times, even when I had the TV show COPS with me.  Every time I go there she answers the door with her  eyes spaced out and tells me everything is ok. The inside of the house has creepy figurines and always smells like incense burning. It's crazy!

I answered a call for a vehicle break in at the mall on my beat. There's an office there for the power company. This employee drives a Dodge Charger and her vehicle has been broken into twice in the last few months. The first time,  a firearm was stolen from her vehicle. The lady did what she needed to do and never left anything in plain sight in her car to prevent future thefts...Then a guy broke into her car and stole maybe $5 worth of coins in the cup holder...and she's left with hundreds in damages to her door lock.

As the Weather Cools, The Streets Get Hotter

So this has been a crazy week just in the last three days. We've had two officer-involved shootings, one of which had a fatal result. Not to mention, the days have been pretty crazy.

Sunday I responded to a call of shots being fired at a city park within a residential neighborhood. The caller stated he could see people hanging out in the park and the gunshots sounded like they were coming from two different guns. I was the first one on scene. I couldn't hear any gunshots by the time I got in the area but started to creep very slowly in my patrol car as I rolled up the scene. The park was empty but there was an SUV parked just on the side of the park with someone inside. I quickly gave the tag number to my dispatcher who ran it as I approached. A black female hopped out of the SUV with a cigarette in her hand. I asked her if she had heard anything recently and she said she did hear the shooting coming from the park but didn't see anyone. I asked her why she was just hanging out on the road in the dark and she told me she lives just down the street but didn't like smoking in front of her kids. The tag confirmed she lived right down the street. She went along on her way but my heart was pounding not knowing what was going on when she jumped out like that .

Monday was an insane day. As soon as I got my keys, I got a hot call on the other sector since I was the only car in service at the time. It was an all brawl in the parking lot of a state labor office. I responded code to the scene as I kept getting updates that the brawl was just getting more intense. I pulled  up and paramedics were treating a woman and a male who was bleeding from his mouth. Everyone was trying to tell me at once what was going on. Apparently, the male bleeding from his mouth was the passenger in a parked vehicle who opened the door and banged his door on the parked vehicle the woman was sitting in. The male began to walk away and the female said he couldn't leave because he hit her car. The male didn't want to deal with the female so he hopped back in the car and told his friend to drive away. The male couldn't back out because the female was behind the car so he started to maneuver in sort of a three-point turn style. The female went to approach the driver and was inadvertently hit. This caused a huge scene in the parking lot. The male passenger stepped out and yelled at the female and then shoved her. The crowd didn't like this and began to beat the male in force. The female's daughter came outside of the labor office and slugged the guy who punched her in the jaw. I placed both males under arrest (the driver ended up having two warrants for failing to appear on tickets of expired tag and a handicap parking ticket from four years ago...). I ended up giving the female's daughter a copy of charges for the disorderly conduct because to be honest, I would have done the same if I saw my own mother get hit. The driver had a jack russell terrier named Roscoe and I really didn't want to put the dog in the pound so I waited about 2 hours for someone to come pick up the little guy. Real cute dog that I walked around the patrol car for a bit to stretch it's legs.

Later Monday night, I responded to a burglar in a residence call. A person called 911 to state they saw someone breaking into the vacant house next door and when they realized they had been spotted they brandished what appeared to be a firearm in the guy's direction. The guy fearing for the safety of himself and his family fired a single shot in the direction of the perp. He didn't hit anything but that was sure a hair raising moment as we responded to a burglary in progress-shots fired. Hell of a last call for the day.

Hoverboard Robberies

So lately the new craze are these little movable balance boards that you can stand on and just move around with. They have a whole bunch of different names: hoverboard, skywalkers, etc. They're such a new craze that people are robbing folks for them and over them.

I met with two friends, both around 19, who were in the mall on my beat and saw a guy riding around on one of these hoverboards. They went up to ask him where he got his and he told them he actually sold them. They exchanged numbers and he told them to hang around the mall and he'd call when he came back with a board. They agreed on a price of $200 (they normally sell for $499). The guy called them about 20 minutes later and said he was outside. It was pouring rain so the pair ran up to the jeep where the guy was in the  backseat.

The victim started to count out his money when the guy said "you're good". The victim looked up and the guy had a gun pointed right at him. The guy snatched the money and the driver took off. What the dumb perp didn't know was that he was caught on camera in plain view multiple times throughout the mall and the robbery himself. Hopefully we'll get him identified soon.

Later on in the day I responded to a dispute with a weapon involving pepper spray and roommates. Apparently the girl who rents the apartment took in a friend who was down on her luck. The friend is in a lesbian relationship and brings her girlfriend over quite a bit. The main renter was upset that her friend kept bringing people over, however the lesbian friend had been staying with her for about four months and  was paying rent and essentially living there as well. I told her there was nothing I could do. The renter was furious but that's how it goes. The renter was the one who actually threatened the lesbian's friend and the friend said not to threaten her because she had pepper spray. It's amazing how things get twisted between what actually happens and what we get on the 911 call.

My Thanksgiving Week In The Streets

Well Thanksgiving went amazingly well for me. I was lucky enough to have the holiday off and then my regular days off of Friday and Saturday-not to mention I took Tuesday off to enjoy an NBA game (sadly my team lost). Here's my uneventful week

Sunday I was dispatched to a hot call as soon as I signed on. I was sent to a business silent alarm at a location where I had bee previously hit by burglars. I raced to load my vehicle and rush to the scene but before I could get there, the alarm was canceled. Such a rush to start the day for nothing and then nothing else happened all day.

Monday I had to make a prisoner transport. The previous Thursday, we had a domestic dispute in which a boyfriend and girlfriend were drunk and got to fighting. Somehow both parties were cut up severely all over their bodies. The male was so cut up he ended up at the hospital and passed out. I went to pick him up to take him to jail since he had been discharged. The male asked me what he had been charged with because he honestly didn't remember a thing. He told me he had been drinking vodka straight all day and then he woke up with a tube down his throat and an IV in his arm in the hospital and was stuck on a liquid diet for three days. He swore up and down that he was done with alcohol-and his girl. He was actually a pretty cool guy and joked around all the way to jail about a multitude of things and the fact that he lost all his clothes because they had to cut them all (he wore a hospital gown into jail).

Wednesday we were extremely busy. I got out of work about an hour late due to a late DUI (and I still hit the road for a 7-hour drive out of state for the holiday).  I ran call to call to call and got a vehicle break in at a suit store on my beat. The call held for about an hour (due to its low priority) and by the time I got there, the caller was gone. We tried to call him back but it went straight to voicemail on consecutive call backs. We live and work in a major city. Some crimes and calls just aren't as high on the list although they are still important. It's amazing that some people can't understand that after dealing with people on a regular basis though that wind up in the same situation.

"Just Don't Shoot Me"

So Monday and Tuesday were pretty easy going days. Monday I had a trainee on his last day in the Zone before he moved on to his next rotation of field training. It was slow so we decided to do a little traffic. We were fishing and saw a car with a broken brake light. We stopped it and the trainee felt confident so I let him handle the stop on his own.

The driver ended up being a young black female. My trainee (who is also black) asked her for her driver's license. She went to reach for it and immediately said to him that she was only reaching for ID. My trainee laughed and shrugged it off but she continued to say "Just don't shoot me, I've seen all that happens on tv.". It's a real shame that that's the impression people have of encounters with us. My trainee just let the female know her light was out with a warning and we continued on with our uneventful day.


Tuesday saw me head to a major department store at the mall on my beat. Loss Prevention had detained a female employee for making fraudulent returns to pocket money. This employee was a supervisor and would take un-purchased clothes off the floor and use the UPC on them to return them as if they were purchased. She did this all the way back from June while Loss Prevention kept investigating to try and find where the losses were coming from. This employee racked up $2,728.87 in 5 months. They pressed charges for the theft and I asked her if she had ever been arrested before and she told me she had....for exactly the same thing. It's amazing she was hired with the previous arrest to work in retail. Even Loss Prevention was surprised by her past. The lady said her son was recently diagnosed with cancer and she had no other way to come up with the money for treatment which cost around $500-1,000 a month. The store was nice in the sense that even though she was going to lose her job, they were organizing support groups for her to try and help her through the medical crisis.

Sunday Driving

 Last Sunday I responded to a call about a male passed out in a car in the middle of the street in a subdivision. An anonymous caller called it in. This vehicle was stopped way back where the subdivision was still under development. So it wasn't exactly in an area where people normally go to.

I rolled up and saw a soft top convertible with a male passed out. I knocked on the window and he didn't respond. I knocked harder on the driver's window with my flashlight and he finally woke up. He was definitely intoxicated. He immediately turned the car back on (the keys had still been in the ignition) and I told him to shut it down. The male then opened the door and started talking to me with slurred speech and glassy eyes. I asked him where he was coming from and he told me ( I live at ______). I asked him again since that's not what I asked him and he just repeated himself. I slowed down even more when talking to him and he told me he was watching football at his friend's house at 1pm. I asked him if he had anything to drink and he told me 1 beer. Clearly it was way more than that. I asked him to tell me what time it was without looking at his clock and he just stared at me, finally saying it would make him look bad if he tried. I asked him to do a field sobriety test and he was all for it.

After standing him outside of my car on the dash cam, I asked him if he had any injuries or ailments which I should know about and he said no. I started to give the directions on the walk and turn test and he immediately told me he couldn't do it because both of his knees were bad....I told him I would note that but it would definitely help him to at least give it a try. He flat out he couldn't because he would look horrible on camera. I placed him under arrest and he agreed to blow on a breathalyzer. I took him to a precinct and had an officer certified on the machine to come meet me with him. It turns out this same guy was arrested just two months prior for another DUI-this time with an accident involved on the highway. The officer who did the breathalyzer for him last time was the same one who came out THIS time. She had never had that happen before. We get all set for the test and then the man refuses to take it, wanting to know why he needed the test. His refusal ended up in him automatically losing his license for a year and he was furious because he drove 18-wheelers for a living and had to be at work at 3am. He then told me the only reason he was back there in the neighborhood was because he was meeting his girl and he didn't want his wife to know or her husband to find out. Just call it karma.....Meanwhile, the whole ride to the jail he told me I never should have arrested him because he wasn't actually driving and that I should have given him a ride home....

Young and Responsible

So last week had a lot of interesting moments.

Monday was a slow day following my vacation which meant I was out hunting. I was driving along and observed a vehicle occupied two times driving with no lights on at night. I followed behind it for a bit and then vehicle prepared to make a left turn into an apartment complex known for its drug dealers. The vehicle made its turn and I turned on my blue lights.

I approached the vehicle and the driver was EXTREMELY nervous. As soon as I got to the window, the driver apologized for texting, which I hadn't even noticed. I asked him if he had been drinking since I normally catch a lot of DUI drivers with no lights on at night. He said no and kept asking for permission every time he went to grab something since he was "worried about what's on tv". I didn't get the vibe that there were any drugs in the vehicle, I believe they were probably going to buy drugs from the complex. I let the two males go on their way and they immediately left the complex without going to visit their "friend" which they said they were there for. I definitely interrupted a drug deal that day.

Tuesday saw me respond to a roommate dispute at an apartment complex. The roommate stated his female roommate had an ongoing dispute with him. The male caller does not have a car and uses his roommate's car to get to work. The roommate lately has been calling 911 on him saying he stole her car and won't return it, however the male is always at work and cannot leave to return the car. The caller told me he's been living at the apartment for the last 6 months but wasn't on the lease. The female ended up changing the locks while he was gone and he had no way to get inside the apartment. I tried knocking on the door but the female wouldn't answer (she wasn't obligated to). The male then asked me if it was illegal to break into his own apartment. I told him the answer was no but that I definitely couldn't stay behind while he did so. I made sure to leave right about the time I saw him hop the fence to the backyard but we never did get another call back to the location.

Wednesday, I worked a vehicle accident at an intersection on my beat that sees a BUNCH of accidents. There's only a light facing three of the four sides. The fourth side is for an exit of a big apartment complex. This means that anyone trying to exit the complex can't see what color the light is from the other directions and has to chance it trying to leave. The at fault car in this case believed the light to be green opposite hers (which it was, but the light then would have changed to red).  A car coming the side adjacent to hers saw his light turn green and he continued (with no fault to him) at his regular pace without ever slowing down. The at fault car had ALMOST cleared the intersection when it was plowed into by the second car.

I've been telling people forever that I wish the city would fix the light at that intersection and install another light, however it has been the same way for the past three years and definitely longer before the beat became mine. I didn't cite the driver since she basically would have followed her light if she had one. She just unfortunately didn't clear the intersection fast enough. The second car was a brand new vehicle that really got tore up (losing its entire front bumper). Thankfully nobody was hurt. A couple of seconds earlier and both cars would have ended up in what would have been a horrible t-bone accident.


Thursday, my Friday, I was dispatched to a medical call at a home. An 83 year old woman who was watching her grandkids fell unresponsive due to a diabetic episode. The 5 year old girl at home called her parents to say that grandma had fallen. The parents quickly called 911 and responded to the house. I went along just in case the fire department had to force entry into the home. Luckily, family members arrived quickly enough to open the house for us. The little girl was so cute, talking to all of us (fire, paramedics and myself) telling us Hi! and welcome to the house. She even told us "shhhhhh grandma's sleeping". The father was holding his mother and amidst his tears and concern, you could tell he really appreciated how well the little girl was treating the situation. At one point when fire went to grab the stretcher for the paramedics she yelled out to us "Bye everybody! see you soon!" Thankfully the lady was brought back to consciousness once she was put on the stretcher. It was so great to see a little girl treat the situation well and know enough to call her parents for help at that age.

I finished up my night and week, just around the corner from the medical call on an abandoned car at an apartment complex. The vehicle had been there for over a month. The car had suspended registration and no insurance and security was worried it was stolen. It wasn't and they decided to do their thing and tow it from the property.

Not a bad week back after a much needed international vacation!

"I'm Not Watchin' Them!"

So this week I only work two days before I take a much anticipated and needed international vacation. Sunday was interesting when I was hit with an abandoned child call early in the shift.

The call remarks stated a female came home to move her stuff out of the house and found eight kids ranging in age from 1 year to 9 years alone. Obviously we treat this type of call as high priority. I arrive on scene and find out the female is a tenant and the man supposedly watching the kids is the landlord who also lives at the location (which is essentially a rooming house). As bad as it sounds, no law was broken. The man, who is the grandfather of the kids. Left the house with an adult of legal age home. The kids were never "abandoned". He just should have told someone he was leaving. The female got upset that she was de facto placed in charge of the kids and flat out told me "I'm not watchin' them!". I told her if she just left and left the kids alone, she would actually be the one facing charges in the situation.

I called the man on his phone and found out he was at the pharmacy grabbing his blood pressure medication and he told me he never left the kids alone because there was an 80 year old male tenant in the house. I checked with the male and found out he was there, but had no idea the landlord was gone. I waited around to talk to the male to let him know he needs to at least tell people he's leaving. The kids were fine and not injured but then the real story came out.

The female tenant was in the process of being evicted for allegedly stealing items from the landlord (keys and a computer). She and the landlord had been feuding in and out of court and when she realized the male was gone she called 911 to get even with him. It wasn't enough to charge her but she got a good education on the meaning of child abandonment. She gathered her items and left.

Lies and Truths

So Tuesday was insane. It honestly would have been the best day for anyone to ride along. We were given in roll call before the shift a BOLO (Be On The LookOut) for a white pickup that was involved in vehicle break-ins and had shot at victims earlier in the day. The vehicle itself was stolen out of a neighboring county and had a gun inside when it was stolen.

Sure enough, about an hour into the shift, someone spotted it. We waited until the vehicle pulled into a gas station before we attempted to make contact with it. It immediately realized what was going on and tried to ram an officer before hitting the street and taking off. The chase was on! The vehicle went all throughout our zone and into another zone before coming back in and taking the highway. This roughly around rush hour when it went onto a major interstate. We were requesting assistance from our air unit but the weather wasn't cooperating for them to get airborne. The roads were even wet and we had a nice drizzle from a passing storm. We requested assistance from the state patrol (who will chase ANYTHING until the wheels fall off). They were about 30 seconds away from joining the chase when we lost the truck on the interstate amongst the traffic. It was a huge let down to a big rush for the most part.

Wednesday, I had a ride along who was a real estate developer in my city. He's currently working on a project to redevelop a part of the zone I work in and wanted to see what goes on in the area. The day was unfortunately less thrilling than the previous day with the car chase. I felt really bad he didn't get to see anything majorly exciting. We responded at one point to a shoplifting at a convenience store where the clerk said a guy who shoplifted the day before was back inside. I found a guy matching the description walking out of the store eating a bag of chips. I approached him and asked him for his identification while another officer went in to talk to the store clerk. The guy was 35 years old and said he had never had an ID. I didn't buy it for a second and really thought he was lying to me and might have a warrant. It turns out-he was really 35 years old with no ID. He had been arrested NUMEROUS times before for dealing and possession of powder cocaine. The only way I was able to prove he was telling the truth was checking the arrest records. Crazy stuff. I can see never having a driver's license but I was shocked about not even having an ID card.

Thursday saw the first two hours of my day roped into a parking lot detail in front of a gym in the zone that has seen a lot of vehicle break-ins lately. People leaving all their bags and precious items in plain sight in their car while they go work out and come back to find their cars broken into.....I was bored out of my mind and so excited when I got relieved to go back into the fray of 911 calls. I was pulling out of the parking lot when I spotted a car with no working brake lights. I pulled the car over and approached to find a female driver and a male passenger. The female didn't have her driver's license on her and the male didn't have any ID. I had them both write down their information and when I ran it, I found out the male's name was an alias for a guy with a warrant for a probation violation warrant on a DUI charge. I detained the male and looked back at the warrant hit. It told me the man had multiple tattoos including one on his neck that had a name on it. I walked over to my backseat and opened the back door asking the male if he had any tattoos. He said no and then I went to look at his neck and there was the big ass tattoo with the name from the warrant hit. I really don't know why he even bothered to try lying to me. I charged him with lying to me on top of the warrant he had. Meanwhile I did ask the female driver (his girlfriend) what his name was and she kept running with his fake name. I didn't take her to jail for lying to me too because she was pregnant. She did however get tickets for not driving with her license on her and the brake lights not working.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Hey all, it's been a wet last few days in the city.

Sunday it was good to get back on the streets after a little vacation. My athletic shoe store that got robbed a few months back called 911 to say they had a weird teen in the store. The teen apparently was under the influence of lean (codeine, sprite, and sometimes alcohol) and was acting like he might rob the store. They asked him to leave but he brought back a group of about 10-15 teens and they just hung at the front entrance. They locked the doors and waited for me to get there to clear them out. It didn't take much. I arrived, put the blue lights on, and just posted up. They didn't want any attention and started to wander off.

Yesterday, my first call of the day was a domestic dispute. This lady and her sister were transplants from Hurricane Katrina to my city. She can't afford an apartment but her sister gets Section 8. Her sister started to date a guy who recently beat a charge for shooting a guy 8 times. and is a known drug dealer. She started to ignore him for about 2 weeks and he clearly didn't like that. He blew up her phone all day as she slept in. She awoke to all the messages asking him to leave her alone. He replied he was on his way to beat her up, calling her a "dirty bitch".

He arrived at the apartment and both sisters met him at the door telling him to leave. He pushed past the partially open door and punched the sister he wasn't dating. He then, with the help of his buddy, wrestled the girlfriend to the floor and began kicking her repeatedly before they took off. He's a dangerous guy and has multiple warrants from a neighboring state with extradition. The older sister (the one not dating the guy), is trying to find everyone a place to live because she has kids but she's afraid of finding a shelter because she was sexually abused in one post-Katrina. She's also afraid her baby daddy will find out because one of her baby-daddies is an NFL player who would take the kid away in a heartbeat if he knew his kid was in danger. It's a shame because the older sister is trying her best but the little sister is making all the bad decisions.

A Lot In One Week

So this week has been pretty decent since I last spoke to you. I've been incredibly busy so this is an account from partially last week until yesterday.

I saw a vehicle with a cardboard tag stating "tag applied for" with a random October date. In my state this isn't a valid tag at all, so I decided to stop him and see what was up.

I approached the driver and he showed me a bill of sale from way back in August but he told me that wasn't the official bill of sale and that the real one was from last week. The title for the car also had the date of this "unofficial" sale date. The insurance was also on the car as of the August date. He bought the car from a dealer, so the state says he has 30 days to register the car. We were approaching 60. This guy tried to pull a fast one on me...but I've been doing this WAY too long. He got a ticket.


While trying to knock out some paperwork in a gas station parking lot, I was flagged down by a guy who stated there appeared to be a guy passed out on the sidewalk near the bank on the other side of the gas station. I drove around and saw a Hispanic guy sprawled out on the sidewalk. Before I could step out of the car he took a beer out of a black bag and took a sip before trying to hide it. I walked over and just put him in cuffs. He tried to tell me he just had one beer but he was so drunk he couldn't tell me where he lived. Thankfully his neighbor drove past him and collected his personal belongings to give to his wife. He was a happy drunk, laughing all the way to the jail.

The trainee and I were almost out of the clear when about 10 minutes before the watch was called we get a call for a guy who lost his wallet at a wing shop. I can almost GUARANTEE that his wallet was stolen after he left it on the counter. It seems that everybody carries their social security card in their wallets. This is the WORST thing to do. Please put your social security card somewhere safe and only bring it out when you need to. This guy just didn't have his card but his girls'  card also. If someone gets ahold of your info it can seriously mess your credit up. I don't know why people take this risk.

Now anytime you have a vehicle that you operate on a city street or state highway in my state or in most states for that matter, you MUST have insurance on that vehicle. If not, the state can impound your vehicle as a penalty for no insurance. I ran a tag on a car that already looked pretty beat up. It came back with no insurance so I stopped it. I also found out that none of the brake lights worked either... The driver told me that he was living inside of his car and was there any way I could avoid towing his car. I really wish I could have worked with him but I could incur a huge liability if I let an insurance-less vehicle back on the road. I told him how to help take care of every ticket that I wrote him at the least to try and help him.

I ended up having a robbery before the day was over. A guy was walking down the street in broad daylight while listening to his headphones. He wasn't paying any attention to his surroundings when he felt a gun in his back. He started to turn around and the guy transitioned to his front demanding his wallet and his phone. The then told the guy to "walk and don't look back" as he walked away. The guy was new to the city as he was staying with a friend to cope with a pending divorce. Once again the guy had his social security card on him and his paycheck card and basically all the money the guy had. Hopefully we'll get the guy soon. He has committed two more robberies in the area...

Catching Up

What a week it has been. I ended up in the hospital while at work for an unrelated episode. Thankfully it was nothing serious.

Early in the week, I got a chance to drop in and show some presence at a basketball camp run by Dwight Howard. It's always good to see stars give back to the communities and less fortunate kids to make something better of themselves.

The next day I went to a house for a 13 year old feeling suicidal. A partnered team of child suicide crisis specialists were already on scene and had worked out a short stay at a mental health facility for this teen. She had already tried cutting herself earlier in the day and I could still see the cuts on her wrists when I got there. It's sad to see a teen that young want to end life before it has truly began. Her mother and brother also have mental issues but nothing to the point of suicidal thoughts. I always say the two systems that need help in every state are mental health and child protective services. It really is a shame that those two agencies (which are extremely important) are often the most neglected and in shambles...

The next day I responded to an audible alarm at a house. I arrived and checked the back door of the house and found it unlocked and partially open. The house was undergoing renovation and that made me suspect someone possibly went inside to steal copper or other construction materials. I called for another unit and we searched the house room by room clearing as went. The alarm tripped again while we were inside and this house had the loudest alarm I or the other officer had ever experienced in our careers. The house was very extensive, having been built around the turn of the last century. I would love to have a house like that one day I could renovate.

I received another call about our good old friend Sarge. He was hanging around the liquor store where he typically always does. When I found him, he was asleep out front with a hat over his head like the stereotypical image of the Mexican taking his siesta. I woke up Sarge and had him walk across the street with the help of a citizen to avoid locking him up (which I hope I never have to do again).

The week ended off for me with a child locked in the car at the mall. I've dealt with a bunch of these which happen maliciously but this happened on accident. Mom was loading her 2 year old in the car while the keys were on the seat. As she prepared to load the stroller in the trunk, the doors (which were locked) closed locking the poor girl inside. While we stood by for the Fire Rescue to open the vehicle, the poor girl wanted nothing more but to be in mom's arms. She clearly knew something wasn't right.

We'll see how this week goes!

A Slow Week In the City

This week was incredibly slow. You know it's going to be slow when a lady calls to complain about kids throwing rocks at her car, which happened....a WEEK ago. The dispatcher ended up holding the call for about an hour and a half due to the un-important nature of it. Needless to say, she wasn't there when I got out there but it definitely set the tone for the week.

The next day we were running pretty short and my buddy left early because he had firearms qualification in the morning.  As soon as he signed off I got a call on his beat for a hit and run in the parking lot of a gym. I was inspecting the damage to the car (which wasn't much) and dreading about writing this report when the caller tells me that the lady who hit him was standing by for me. This was the greatest news in the world at the end of my shift because it went from an automatic hit and run report to a private property accident where the two parties would exchange information. In my state, I can't write traffic tickets for private property accidents and I can't assign blame leading to no report. The man was stunned he couldn't get a police report. I told him how he could get a form off online to send in to his insurance company but that he wasn't getting a report. Meanwhile, I was just happy I didn't have to take a report that belonged to my buddy and could get off in time.

The next day, I got another held call for another hit and run to a parked vehicle, this time at an apartment complex. The call was held for about two hours due to us being short and the priority of the call. When I arrived, I had my trainee for the day talk to the lady who was a visiting home-care nurse. She stated she had been running around all over the city since 730 in the morning and really didn't know where or when the damage occurred but was just glad that she noticed it where she did because she had just come from a much rougher part of the city (still in my area). As soon as she said that we received a call for a person shot as the result of a carjacking in the area she had JUST mentioned. More irony in the city...

And to top off my slow non-exciting week. I was hanging out at the fire station near my beat due to the slowness. The fire truck was out of commission due to a bad alternator so they had a Fire/EMS unit at the house. I was with them when I got a call to assist fire with a forced entry situation. A stove had caught fire at an apartment and the owner was nowhere to be found with the front door locked. Thankfully by the time I arrived, the owner returned and Fire was able to douse the flames. I arrived to a VERY loud reverse fan which was sucking all the smoke out of the house.

A very-uneventful week. We don't have those often but I'll take it!

Shots Fired at the Police!

Lately in the news, it's pretty clear that people don't like us. They also don't like going to jail. When you put the two together you can realize just how dangerous our job really is.

Tuesday an officer on the other squad went to a criminal trespass call at a house. The caller stated a black female was refusing to leave the house. When the officer arrived at the house he encountered not a problem with the female but with her boyfriend. The boyfriend went to a back room and retrieved a pistol and fired three shots from within the room. The officer requested assistance from additional units and just about everyone came. The officer gathered the family members out of the house while the suspect ran into the basement. We figured we had a pretty good perimeter set up but the man wasn't in the basement when we checked. We secured a larger perimeter around the house and even called in the air unit to check for the male from the sky. Sadly, the perp got away but the fortunate part is that the officer was ok. The suspect will just get caught another day-they always do.

Yesterday was much slower for me however. The most exciting thing for me was a suspicious male banging on doors of various hair salons without trying to get in. Nobody would pay enough attention to see where the man went because they were afraid of him. I kept getting the call but he was never there. Just chasing ghosts....

Trash Talking the Police

So the week ended off with a good story. Wednesday I wrote a ticket to a guy who had an expired tag for over a month. He said he honestly forgot because he had been traveling for work the last month. He was actually appreciative of the job we do and was really sincere with me. However, that is not the story I want to tell you about. This story involves someone the complete opposite of this guy.

It was nearing the end of the shift. I was hanging out with an officer at a little stop and shop trying to get an energy drink in since I was planning on working overtime following the shift when a guy walks into the store. Almost immediately he begins arguing with the clerk. The clerk tells us he wants the man to leave. I walk up to the man and tell him to leave. He starts to refuse so I push him on the shoulder in the direction of the door and tell him to leave. The man starts to argue with me so I emphasize that if he doesn't leave he goes to jail. I get him in the parking lot and start to tell him that he has to head to the sidewalk since the parking lot still belongs to the shop. The male says I'm harassing him, pulls out his cell phone to record me, saying he wants my name and badge number along with that of the officer with me. I told him I would give it to him as soon as he hit the sidewalk and got off the property. He steps off onto the sidewalk and I give him the information he wants. He then goes to yell "Fuck 12! Y'all ain't shit! You can't legally trespass me!".

I stood there watching him as he walked off just waiting for him to do something stupid so I could have a reason to approach him and go from there but nothing happened. Not even a second after he disappeared out of sight, a 911 call came in from the gas station next to the stop and shop saying a  male wearing exactly what the guy had been wearing had caused a disturbance at the gas station, threatened the clerk, and threw items all over the store.

I hopped in my car followed by the other officer in her car and we caught up to the guy. Immediately placed him in handcuffs letting him know he was being detained for a disturbance at the gas station (which was in the direction of where he had walked from prior to entering the stop and shop). We relocated and the other officer walked into the store to look at the video and find out what happened. She confirmed we had the right guy and I walked inside to see the video for myself. The guy walks in and starts a confrontation with the clerk. He starts throwing gallon jugs of water all over the place (his pants were wet when I searched them) and then throws up gang signs and tells the clerk "I know what time you get off" before leaving. The man had been drinking all day and while he was intoxicated he wasn't really drunk. If he hadn't been giving me a hard time at the store earlier, I never would have paid that much attention to him.

This just goes to show that trash talking the police never leads to anything good.

Stopping While You're Ahead

Sunday was a busy day. It was the first NFL Sunday in the states and I expected it to be relaxed as people watched football....I was wrong.

I was driving around just before it got busy and noticed a stalled vehicle in the middle of the intersection. Everyone was just driving around the vehicle and not paying any mind to the person inside. I pulled my vehicle up behind them with my blue lights and helped push them out of the way. I was almost done when a man joined in to help me. He told me he was surprised that nobody stopped to help them or me in pushing their vehicle out of the way.

Just after that I went to my favorite tag reading spot and ran a tag that came back with two pages worth of license suspensions for the registered owner. I initiated the stop with my blue lights but the vehicle did not stop right away. We were in the parking lot of the mall and the driver went all the way to parking space just near our mini precinct at the mall. Due to the fact that it took the driver forever to stop, I called for another unit to help me out.

I approached the car and asked the driver if he had his driver's license. The driver said he left it at home and so I had him write his name and DOB down. He asked me why I stopped him and I told him the registered owner had some issues going on with his license. The guy told me he knew the owner but that it wasn't him. I did not believe him. I had the guy step out of the car and went to put him in handcuffs. The driver demanded to know why he was getting arrested. I told him he was just being detained since he was operating a vehicle without a license on him (a potentially arrest able offense). The male had a cigarette in his hand that he did not want to drop before putting his hands behind his back. I basically had to force him to drop the cigarette and place him in cuffs. I then told the guy that I was going to fingerprint him to find out who he was. He seemed nervous but tried to play it off. I sat him in the backseat of my car and ran the information he gave me which---surprise! didn't come back to anything. I then told him he should better tell me who he really is and he told me he was the owner of the car. At this point he was under arrest so I went to search the vehicle. I quickly located a small bag of marijuana in the center console and a gun in the glovebox. I had the other officer run the gun while I went back to talk to the male.

I asked the male if there was anything else I needed to know about besides the weed and the gun. The guy said no, so I had him step out so I could search him. As he got off the backseat, I saw another bag of marijuana underneath him which he tried to ditch and say was already there.

Around this time, my backup officer told me the gun was stolen, I asked the man who the gun belonged to and he said it was his mother's. When I told him that it was stolen, he then told me that he didn't know who the gun belonged to. I went to clear the firearm and make it safe and was having a little trouble because the slide was jammed. Without asking the man any questions, he told me how to clear the gun that he said was not his.....Meanwhile a criminal history check showed the man was a convicted felon and shouldn't have had a gun anyways.

Yesterday, I hadn't even signed onto my computer when I received a high priority call for a child left inside a vehicle in a grocery store parking lot. Thankfully the weather has been dropping lately because this mother left her two year old inside of a vehicle with the windows up and the engine off for 59 minutes. Not to mention, the mother parked her car in the furthest parking space away from the store and away from all the other vehicles which were parked. It was as if she did not want anyone to see that she had her child in the car. A security officer patrolling the parking lot happened to see the child sweating profusely and broke the window on the car to rescue the child. Thankfully, medically, the child will be fine. Mom was arrested-on what happened to be her birthday. The media ended up showing up on scene and knew no personal space as they tried to stick a camera practically in my patrol car to get to mom. With all the child deaths in the news and people stealing cars, there is just NO excuse for leaving a kid in a car.

A Lot of the Bad

Some weeks are good and some just plain aren't. Both for you and for the streets.

Tuesday saw a slow period come about which meant I was hunting running traffic. I was at my favorite spot to run tags when after quite awhile of not getting anything, I saw a small sedan with a blown headlight. I decided to follow after it and stopped it. Inside of the car were three kids and a mom. I asked the mom for her license and I quickly found out it had been suspended for the last three months. I had the mom step out of the car where I walked her back to mine. I absolutely HATE putting parents in handcuffs in front of their kids if I can help it. I soon verified the license was in fact suspended for a violation of my state's Super Speeder law. Mom was going to take a ride.

The car turned out to be a rental car from a buy here/pay here place which meant I couldn't release it to anyone and it was going to be impounded. I was now taking a car away from a hard working mom and her three kids. We ended up calling the grandparents to come pick up the kids from the side of the road. Not every arrest is a good arrest but every arrest you choose to make is an arrest you need to stand by. If I wrote this lady a ticket there's no telling if she would continue to drive an possibly get in an accident where she might hurt or kill someone when she never needed to be on the road in the first place.

Now Wednesday I saw something happen that every police officer that every has worked in the modern era has experienced. The supervisor request. You cannot go a career in today's time without someone demanding to see a supervisor. In my particular case I had a private property accident in the parking lot of a grocery store. I cannot determine fault in a private property accident, I can't issue tickets, and a report is essentially a he said/she said deal. I arrived on scene and one lady was upset because apparently the other lady had moved some debris to make the accident look less in her fault. Based on both stories they were both at fault (both backed out of a parking space at the same time and hit each other). I told the lady that the moved glass really didn't matter. They just needed to exchange information and file the appropriate claim with their insurance companies. Both parties agreed but the lady was still upset over the little piece of glass and demanded my supervisor. My lieutenant ended up coming out and explained the same thing that I did. He asked her what would make her happy. Her response- a report stating the lady moved the glass. That was exactly what she got. A 3 sentence report stating the glass was moved before I got there.... Sometimes you just have to play the game as well.

Thursday saw me on a homicide. I've had my beat for roughly two years. During my time I have never had anyone shot on my beat. This ended Thursday. For sake of the investigation, I won't say too many details but this poor man who shot and killed over a fight started by second graders. The father ended up rushing his own son to the hospital after he was shot in the head. Medically, he really had no chance. Seeing the homicide investigators come to the scene and do their work really made me focus on how I'd love to do that job one day. Homicide is the ultimate crime. My proudest arrest out of 343 total is the guy I caught with a homicide warrant. By the time the scene was cleared, the detectives already had a solid idea of what had happened. It was good to see that I helped play a role and I got a "good job" from the lead detective.

Labor Day Weekend in The City

So it was one wild Labor Day Weekend in the City. The city had officers working 12 hour shifts all weekend long to bolster staff with all of the events going on in the city.

As a result, there were plenty of patrol cars on the road and officers doubled up. My particular watch was assigned to just be targeted enforcement in the area- not having to worry about answering 911 calls. It left plenty of time to be proactive. Sum that up as plenty of time for traffic and suspicious persons stops.

I stopped a vehicle after discovering that the owner had a possible warrant out for his arrest for a failure to appear (FTA on a traffic charge). I stopped the vehicle and it was indeed him. I detained him and placed him in the car. His tag was suspended, he didn't have his license on him, and he wasn't wearing a seatbelt. The warrant took a long time to verify and they ended up not taking him due to being too far away for the original agency to extradite from. We ended up having a long talk about football, Tom Brady, and the opening game. I told him exactly what he needed to do to fix all of his tickets minus the seatbelt ticket and let him on his way. He said he really enjoyed the talk about football and realizing that we (officers) were all just regular people doing a job.

Another stop called me for assisting a traffic unit on a vehicle with no insurance where the driver was acting fidgety. The man was very upset and didn't believe us that his insurance was cancelled. I pulled up a state website and was able to show him in person where his insurance had been cancelled and was able to calm him down.

I had a stalled vehicle on the highway where it was leaking transmission fluid pretty bad. We were in a bad spot and her in-laws came by to get her enough fluid to try and get off of the highway. We started to move before the engine gave out completely and she had to move to the side of the road. I had to brake and hit my blue lights very quickly to alert the other cars on the highway as to what was going on. There was an SUV behind me that was following too closely and he slammed on his brakes. He avoided hitting me but was struck from behind by a pickup truck. By the time we got to the area where the engine gave out, we had exited the city limits. I approached the accident and found that nobody was hurt but that unfortunately I couldn't help them with the accident report. The county police arrived and the responding corporal tried to tell me the accident was on him (which happens a lot between agencies near their borders). He checked with his sergeant who confirmed I was indeed right and they took the accident. It took a long time for the lady's roadside assistance to arrive on scene and she had some little kids. I went back to my car and brought out a stuffed animal to give to the little girl who absolutely loved the toy and helped to stop her crying. It's the little things that make a difference and especially to the little boy who said he wanted to be a police officer when he grew up.

Sunday, I was paired up with a rookie officer who is definitely a go-getter. Great guy who has a ton of potential. There was a car show going on in the parking lot of the discount mall on my beat where the wave of marijuana smoke was just blowing over the whole event. My partner saw a vehicle where the driver looked like she was smoking a blunt and passing it to the passenger. The security officer from the discount mall happened to be in front of the vehicle so I had my partner walk up alongside the driver side and approach the security officer like he was saying hello. Meanwhile, I walked up along the passenger side and nobody saw me since they were paying attention to him. The front seat passenger was trying to dump baggies of marijuana into a black trash bag. I knocked on her window and she was VERY surprised to see me. I had her hand me her ID and she stepped out where I placed her under arrest. They had plenty of Smirnoff Ice bottles in the vehicle. We ended up recovering around 35 grams or so of marijuana and they went to city jail for that and the alcohol. The car show emptied out quickly as we made the arrest and we had to dodge a beer bottle or two being thrown in our direction as we made our exit. We both agreed that if we could have seen where the bottles came from-the throwers would definitely have gone to jail.

Labor Day itself saw me responding to the Macy's in the mall on my beat. Loss Prevention was following a male who was acting drunk and suspicious as he walked around the store with his hand down his pants. Loss Prevention thought he might have been stealing while sales associates were just plain getting scared of him. The male quickly walked into the fitting room after grabbing a random pair of jeans off a rack and left the door open. The camera caught what came next perfectly on video since the door was open. The male drops his pants and begins masturbating while peering around the door and watching people shopping. You really can't make this stuff up. The male was placed under arrest but all he could say was that it wasn't illegal because nobody was right in front of him while he was masturbating.....

Well Labor Day came and went. Let's see how the rest of the week goes as Summer begins to wind down.

The Out of Towners

So as police officers, we have a good working relationship with security officers. They're extended eyes and ears for us on the street, often with the power to detain. On my beat I have a discount mall which is EXTREMELY shady. There's a security officer there who really means well but often takes things a little far at times. Sunday I got a call stating he had two males "in custody" at the location.

I arrived on scene to see what type of situation this security officer had come into and found two males detained (albeit not in cuffs for once). Apparently the males had organized a game of chance (similar to find the Queen in the cup) with another male who ran off. As long as the males came back fine after their information was ran I was planning on letting them go. I ran the information to find out that one of the males had a couple of warrants from a neighboring state-with no extradition from my state. I joked around with the man that he was free to leave as long as it was to any state but that one.

Yesterday I had a call at the shopping mall for a vehicle broken into. I arrived on scene and security was standing with some people from out of state who had their suitcases stolen from the trunk. There was a discarded suitcase on the ground next to their vehicle that did not belong to them. The security officer told me that he saw a male driving away in the parking lot with a bunch of suitcases piled up in his vehicle. The security officer told me that he thought it was weird but not enough for him to remember the vehicle the male was driving......While on scene with the victims, the victim from the found suitcase showed up and stated his car (the same model as the first) had been broken into and his suitcases and that of his wife, were taken from the trunk. Unfortunately the vehicle type both sets of out of towners had is a pretty common vehicle to break into. It doesn't take much effort, even from an unskilled perp. It's never a good feeling to welcome tourists to your city that way!

A Simple Stop Goes a Long Way

I ended up the week on Thursday with a fresh relief. I pulled a traffic stop on a vehicle with a handwritten tag showing a purchase date (which is illegal in my state and technically not even a tag).

There were three black males in the vehicle and I asked for ID from all of them. The backseat passenger was extremely nervous and could not get the information on his ID right after I had ran the name and date of birth that he gave me.

I asked for another unit and I was watching the body language of everyone in the car when he pulled up. The two front seat occupants were fine but the guy in the back became even more nervous and began to run his hands through his hair. I walked to car and detained him and told him I was going to bring a fingerprint machine out and find out who he was. He told me he was being honest but was only nervous because of everything that was going on in the news. I put him in my backseat and told him I was only verifying who he was and as soon as I did so he would be going on his way.

I talked to the driver who asked me if he could step out. We ended up having a 20 minutes or so conversation as we waited for my lieutenant to show up with the fingerprint machine. He asked me how I felt with everything on the news and what had been going on around the country. We progressed to basketball and football and how he coaches kids in school and the community to keep them from straying off the path. We came to common ground about how we both wanted to make a change in the community.

Eventually his friend came back to who he said he was and everyone went on their way. It was a simple stop but it led to so much more. Nothing that can be counted on in a stat but that goes a long way to building trust and relationships between the police and the community.

Baby Mama Belt Beatdown

So I've been horribly exhausted for whatever reason this first week getting back to work after vacation but I'm so glad to be back.

Monday saw me assisting an officer on a domestic dispute. A baby daddy went to town on a baby mama with a belt and left her pretty beat up. The argument started over something ridiculously petty from what I was told. I've been single for a few years and I know when I finally DO get into a relationship again that I would really appreciate the one I'd be dating. Especially if they were the mother of my child. I wish more people out here actually felt the same way too....

Wednesday was  a day that went smooth until right about the time I was supposed to get off shift. A call came in for a person down of a male lying down on a bridge. By the time I arrived on scene, the beat officer for the area where the call came in had a juvenile detained. When the officer first got there, the kid took a fighting stance before running to a telephone pole and attempting to hit his head repeatedly. The officer placed the kid in cuffs so he couldn't hurt himself anymore.

When the ambulance arrived on scene, the paramedics suggested we take the kid to the hospital but we would have to find the parents first to give consent. The kid stated he ran away from home because his mother is always drunk and her boyfriend constantly uses drugs. We hear stuff like that from kids all the time but when we arrived at the house it really looked like a dump. The front porch had nothing but trash and empty Bud Ice cans littered all over the place. Mom finally came out and when we brought her to the ambulance to talk to her son we found out the real issue.

The kid stated he was tired of living in the conditions in which he was. That he was upset at his mom for her choice in men and was actively job searching at 16 to help better the family and that his mom needed to do better. That was actually a very touching moment in policing to see a kid tired of his bad conditions and willing to work hard and do whatever it takes to better himself and his family.

Yesterday I got a call at a movie theater parking lot in reference to a Mercedes Benz that had the driver door damaged while the owner was inside of the movies. The caller waited a grand total 0f 12 minutes after first calling 911 to say she wasn't waiting around for police anymore. Ironically, I got the update JUST as I was pulling into the parking lot. One less report I had to do that day. With all the big problems in the city there are just a little more important things than a scratched door.

Flash Mob Mayhem

So yesterday was my first day back after a nice and well deserved 30 day vacation. I was gone so long that I couldn't even remember the password to sign into a city computer and had to get it reset. I guess that means it was a long vacation right?

The day went pretty smooth to say the least. Actually being slow for a Sunday. I guess that helps when school is back in session-to a point at least. Now that's where this story comes in.

I answered a 911 call at a dollar type store at the mall on my beat to a group of teens attempting to shoplift. I arrive on scene and security is following a group of about ten teens as they run away from the store. The kids apparently walked in and after they realized they were being watched by store employees-started to cause a huge disturbance. The kids started knocking down all the displays in the store all over the floors before running out.

Even if I had caught the teens it only would have been a slap on the wrist and they would not have even gone to jail. You have to love juvenile justice systems across the country.

Back On the Grind After a C.O.P.S Hiatus

Hey everyone, it's been 8 weeks since I last wrote but I have a good reason. The popular police television show COPS was riding with me and I figured I would let the show explain some of the wild moments we experienced. It'll air sometime in the Fall and I'll be sure to let you know when it does.

This week was something else. It was a four day week for me as I took Sunday off to enjoy time with some coworkers (especially after one was involved in an officer-involved shooting during a car chase just two days prior). It's always good to get out and enjoy non-cop stuff to free up your mind from all that we see.


Monday was a day of thin patience. My first call of the day came up as a dispute with a weapon call (my backup a little further away from me on this call). The call remarks said that a mother and daughter were in a dispute and the daughter pulled a knife on the mother.  I get there and quickly find out that of course no weapon was involved. People often call 911 and say there's a weapon just to get us there faster (don't even start me on that). Apparently this whole argument started because the adult daughter ate the mother's can of beans.....Mother wanted daughter out of the house and I quickly established that daughter didn't live there so she had to go. Of course daughter wanted a supervisor to come out because I was making her leave. I had let the daughter tell me her entire side of the story without interruption and now I was listening to mom. Daughter kept interrupting and I warned her that if she kept interrupting her mom who let her tell her own side of the story that I would arrest her for disorderly conduct. Her response:  a very sarcastic "oh wowwwwwwww". I walked over and grabbed her arm and ordered her to stand. She refused and I had to pull her to her feet and use a little force to get her into cuffs. Of course then mom (who originally called because daughter allegedly threatened her with a knife", wanted a supervisor too because she never wanted her daughter arrested. Some things you can't make up. Now this woman I arrested had very small wrists and I put the cuffs as tight as I could go but I could still move them all the way up to the woman's elbow. Her complaint: they were too tight. That was not the way I wanted to start off my work week....

Tuesday saw me welcome a new trainee who had recently been sworn in. This new officer had come Florida after being a track coach in high school. She seems to have a good head on her shoulders and she already is showing signs that she'll do well. We responded to suspicious behavior call at an apartment complex. A lady called saying that her front door was opened while she was asleep and someone had tried to enter her home but maintenance said it wasn't them. We arrive and there's no answer to the door. I had the dispatcher call them back and they told them they were coming to the door. We waited another five minutes when a car pulled up in the parking lot. I quickly told my trainee that this had to be the caller and that she probably didn't think we would show up so fast. The lady exits the car and immediately says "hey officer, I'm sorry, I didn't think you would show up this fast..." There was nothing we could really do in this situation and the caller herself said she left the door unlocked. I quickly gathered she was tired of living at the complex and was just looking for a police report to say she felt unsafe at the complex and wanted to break her lease. She wasn't getting that from me.

Wednesday saw me with a civilian ride along. Let's just say I think this individual walked away with a new found sense of what we go through on the job. Our first two calls were related to mentally ill people. My state in my opinion does not have a system in place to adequately deal with mental health. It's a long work in progress. The second call involved a man who walked to his friend's house and told him he wanted to kill himself. I talked with him and he was all for going to the hospital but then he thought I was going to take him in my police car and that meant he was going to jail. A mental health team from the local hospital system came out but he insisted nothing was wrong. They offered to set him up with an appointment he could go to on his own (his friend even offered to drive him) and he quickly agreed to go that route again.

Here is when things changed that day. It was time to head back to the precinct when a traffic stop came through from a traffic unit. Someone took off running from the stop and the officer requested help. I immediately said I was en route and we took off to help an officer in need. While en route I was explaining driving safety to my ride along. Whenever an officer needs help we typically drive faster than normal, I explained, but we have to do so safely. Not arriving at all is not helping anyone. Not even ten seconds later, an officer yells over the radio "I'm hit" followed by another officer saying there was an officer involved accident and they needed an ambulance for an officer who was trapped in the vehicle and not looking good. We re-directed to the accident and proceeded to block off highway on ramps to prepare for the escort of the ambulance.We typically do this for officers shot in the line of duty. I've done it before for an officer who didn't make it and it's always nervewracking when it happens. Thankfully three officers involved in the accident will go on to make a full recovery. The ride along definitely saw a night in which we as a police family bonded together.

Friday saw the end of my week rescuing a poor little dog. An off duty officer working as courtesy officer at a complex on my beat called stating that someone had recently been evicted from the complex and left a dog behind. I arrived and quickly found the apartment to be that of the gentleman I mentioned in a previous blog entry who impersonated a police officer. We draw our weapons just in case the dog decided to be unfriendly and clear the apartment. We found a brown pitbull cowering in a corner with its ribs clearly showing. The poor dog had been in the apartment alone for three days. It was so scared. Animal control showed up to the take the dog. Hopefully we can go after the guy who left it that way.

Well it was good to write again! Hope the weekend treats everyone well.

Encounters with "Sarge"

Yesterday was another decent day. I ended up with a felony arrest for a female that felt she could fight a police officer. While I was busy doing paperwork for the District Attorney's Office, an officer requested another unit to give him a criminal trespass warning. I told radio I was on the way to help him out.

I arrive on scene to see the officer with Sarge. If you remember from previous posts, sarge is a regular "homeless" ( I say homeless in quotes because he has a home but choose to stay at an intersection for the majority of his waking hours) and habitual drunk. Sarge has been issued a criminal trespass warning from every business in the area of the intersection which he frequents. He always causes disturbances and we try to avoid arresting him for sanitary reasons but we're not always lucky.

On this day, Sarge found himself the furthest east anyone had ever seen him. He was harassing the clerk of a gas station and....surprise!- the clerk wanted him issued a trespass warning. This officer I was assisting is actually preparing to move back home to another state. I was joking around that he'll definitely miss moments with Sarge and his oh-so familiar stench.

Staying Late--Never Fails

So yesterday was a pretty good Sunday. All signs pointed to getting off on time to start my week.....then at a little short of 30 minutes before I'm supposed to head back in I get a call for a vehicle accident involving a fire truck.

I arrive on scene and see the fire truck blocking about two lanes with debris in the road. Apparently Fire was heading to a call lights and sirens when they came up on two vehicles ( a car and a white SUV). The car moved to the right (as you're SUPPOSED to do), while the SUV froze up and stopped. The fire truck went to move into the opposite lanes of traffic to go around the SUV when all of a sudden the SUV crossed the double yellow lines and ran right into the fire truck.

The SUV sustained heavy damage to the driver side and the fire captain even said it looked like the front axle was broken from the way it wasn't really turning around. For whatever reason, the SUV took off at a high rate (or as high a rate as it could) speed and fled the scene. We searched nearby areas for the SUV as it couldn't have gotten to far, but were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, Fire's Internal Affairs and a battalion chief came out to the scene to conduct their investigation. I had to wait forever for our crime scene technician to come out and take photographs of the city damage to the truck.

If you ever see an emergency vehicle coming up on you remember this: SLOW DOWN AND MOVE TO THE RIGHT. This really is the safest way for us to navigate to important calls.

I ended up getting off work at midnight as opposed to 1030pm...

"That's a Big Boy!"

Hey all, sorry I haven't written in awhile. I had a trainee during a very busy week and then went on vacation for a bit to the beach. The beach getaway was nice and I got a chance to see two of my friends get married in a beautiful ceremony.

My trainee was really good to say the least. He has to work on his radio skills but he has a lot of potential. His father is a retired professional wrestler ( I thought that was pretty cool). He hadn't really done any traffic stops with his previous Field Training Officer, so we managed to get a lot done. I didn't want to focus so much on writing tickets but just dealing with people on stops. He handled himself very well.

One of the days that week, we responded to the parking lot of the shopping mall on my beat for a vehicle break-in. We arrive on scene and there's an elderly lady who stated her gun was stolen from her car. The lady normally carries her .40 pistol in her purse but had recently hurt her ankle and the extra weight was too much for her. She placed the gun in between her driver seat and the center console (it was left visible from outside the car). In a rush to get into the mall however, the lady left her car doors unlocked and the pistol was stolen. The lady was very appreciative of the things we do everyday and thanked us for doing our job in such hard times and even went one step further by thanking us for dealing with the crazy juveniles that are out causing the crimes. She shared the story of how she brought back her grandson from the streets and how he's a very productive member of society (he was in the car with her).

Toward the end of the week we ended up arresting a juvenile for shoplifting. I walked my trainee through the extensive and tedious juvenile process. We were at juvenile court dropping off the arrest paperwork when an officer asked for another unit to deal with a hostile male off his meds. We weren't exactly close to him but we started to head that way anyways. In the background we could hear the male going "Fuck you man!" on the radio.  The backup officer arrived and keyed up going "This is a big boy! We need more units! This guy is HUGE!". After hearing that, I hit my lights and showed the trainee some first hand tips about driving safe and fast amid a tense blood pumping situation. We arrived on scene and I hopped out of the car (narrowly missing another officer arriving on scene---that could have been bad). We rush to help get the male under control as paramedics loaded him on a a stretcher and restrained him with physical restraints. I was curious walking back to the car about what the original call was. When I looked at my MDT I noticed the man was 15 years old. I was shocked. He was about 6'7 and easily 300lbs and he was 15 years old. Thankfully everything went safely and the kid was taken to the hospital for a much needed mental evaluation.

Officer Needs Immediate Assistance!

   So this week started off with a good slow Sunday. Normally the state highway patrol takes care of our accidents on the interstate during the week. Unfortunately on the weekends, they become our problem-and part of my beat is on the interstate. I got sent to an accident call that had been holding from the previous watch for over two hours. When I finally get there, I think both parties had had enough of waiting. It turns out a 16 year old brand new driver followed too closely and slammed into the rear of a company vehicle from out of state. What a way to start your driving career. Thankfully nobody was hurt and both vehicles were still drivable.


Monday was where the excitement really peaked. My beat partner had to stand duty outside of the mayor's house. Meaning I had to take care of calls on her beat. While I'm taking care of calls (in particular at this time- a missing adult) on her beat, a fight with a weapon call pops up on my beat. The caller stated a male with no shirt on was in a dispute with another male and had a pistol in his hand. While on the call with 911 the male fired a single round into the air. The dispatched officer arrived on scene and went to make contact with the male who then fled on foot.

  The officer gave chase and called it out on the radio. Due to the fact that the male had a weapon in his hand the call was upgraded to an officer needing immediate assistance. When a "help call" goes up like that, everything you're doing gets put on the backburner and every officer in the city starts racing to where you are to help you. The officer jumped several fences and ran through several backyards before losing sight of the male around a house.  At this time I arrived on scene and we knocked on the door of the house. An elderly female came to the door and we asked if a shirtless male ran into the house and she said yes. She then called for him to come to the room and he was detained. The male started complaining he could not walk and could not breathe. We carried him to the patrol car and an ambulance was called to check him out as a precaution. The elderly female (who turned out to be the male's aunt and owner of the house) started yelling at my sergeant, asking if "all these" police cars and people were really necessary. My sergeant looked her dead in the eye and said "Why yes ma'am THEY ARE.". She started giving us a huge verbal buffet and she was detained while we finished our investigation and calmed down.

Our next focus was on trying to find where the gun went since the male did not have it on him. The male told us he ditched the gun in some bushes. A K9 unit was called out to help in the search but we managed to find the gun under a bush at the next door neighbor's house. Our crime scene investigation unit came out and processed the gun, which was a revolver. Inside of the cylinder was one spent shell casing. The gun actually came back stolen from a case handled by the ATF and the suspect was a convicted felon. Hopefully he'll actually see some good time.

Not too long after helping that officer out with that call, I was dispatched to a possible burglar in a residence. A lady was coming home to her apartment with her young daughter and stated when she went to push open her door it felt as if there was someone on the other side preventing her from opening the door. My partner and I raced to the location and using the callers keys cleared the apartment room by room. Nothing was disturbed and when we went in, in fact, we ended up setting the alarm off ourselves. It was good to help put the lady's mind at ease but crazy how nothing was actually what it appeared (which tends to happen a lot with this job).

After the events of the day, I was backed up on reports and stayed late to get them finish. I was in the parking lot of a beauty supply store on my beat within eyesight of a dollar store when a call came in for a commercial robbery at the dollar store. At this time of the night there were not many cars and I immediately pestered the dispatcher for a suspect description and direction of travel since I was already right there. She couldn't provide me with any of that and I made my way to the store. It turns out the attempted robbery occurred about 20 minutes prior to the 911 and they had just decided to call (after almost waiting until the morning to call.....).

A male was outside of the store waiting for a female to walk her home when a white car with tinted windows pulled up. Two black males exited the vehicle with handguns and approached the male. They told him to face the wall, not move, not look at them, and not say a word. One man kept the gun to his head and the other tried to get in the dollar store. Fortunately the doors were locked (it was after closing time) and they could not get anything. Both males then hopped in the car and took off. I would have loved to have gone after them if I had known about it earlier....

A Week of Foolishness

So last week was pretty eventful around the country with everything that was happening in Baltimore. You can be mile away and still get the same animosity from certain people for things you were not involved in.

On Sunday, I backed up my partner on a dispute call at a gas station on her beat. We get there and this guy won $500 on a scratch off ticket. He was upset and could not understand that the gas station did not have $500 on hand to give him to claim his prize....so he called 911. This particular guy does nothing all day but drink beer and buy lotto tickets. We were able to talk and calm the guy down and let him know that if he came back in a few hours they would be able to pay him his money. I can guarantee this money will just go towards beer and lotto tickets. Oh the things I would do with $500 cash....

Monday I got a chance to put my child victim skills to use. We received a call about a 7 year old boy who was molested by his father. Typically in these types of calls we do not speak to the children as what they experience are traumatic events. It takes a trained person in my state to interview the child in a forensic interview where the environment is extremely child friendly.  We arrive on scene and the mother is hysterical. We try to ask her what happened and she insists we talk to her son. I try to explain to her that we need her as the adult to explain to us what happened. She started to break down in tears as she stated she was in the room as the boy's father was groping and basically masturbating the son under the covers. We called for an ambulance who escorted the mother and her three kids to the hospital for evaluation and the interview with detectives. I asked the mother if I could go inside of the apartment to get pictures of the crime scene and she refused. I contacted the detective and told them the mother refused and I was told to secure the entrance of the apartment for a search warrant. I ended up waiting two hours before the detective told me I was ok.

Tuesday, I got sent to a late call a few minutes before I was supposed to go home. An elderly female at a senior high-rise called 911 to say over $4,000 worth of jewelry was stolen from her apartment. This particular female is wheelchair bound and has a nurse come in every day to help take care of her and dress her for the day. She stated this was the only person who came in her apartment. I asked her when the last time she saw her jewelry was and she told me two months ago....I felt bad but this was more than likely a case of dementia and it was changed to a lost property call.

Wednesday, I responded to a call on my beat at the mall. A lady stated she received a phone call from someone claiming to be a magazine company. She gave them her name, date of birth, social security number, and telephone number. About an hour or two after giving her this information she started receiving text message alerts from the bank stating her account was being accessed. They people managed to take almost $300 out of her prepaid card account where her tax refund was put into. I would NEVER ever give personal information to anyone over the phone unless you initiate the call and know exactly who you're talking to. In today's day and age you just have to be smart about that stuff.

Thursday (my Friday for the week), I went to a call on my beat at the grocery store. An elderly man was in a heated verbal dispute with a younger gentleman. He told me he was sitting on a motorized scooter at the entrance to the store when the guy came up and started yelling at him that he didn't need to be on the scooter. The younger male tried to get the scooter away from the elderly male to use for his grandmother. The guy felt scared so he started calling 911. I talked to the security officer at the store who stated the elderly man blew the argument out of proportion and it was really a big deal over nothing.

Oh the things people call 911 for..... While finishing this up, I received information that A New York Police Officer shot in the head during a suspicious persons encounter on Saturday has died. He was 25 years old with 4 years and 10 months of service. Rest In Peace brother: Police Officer Brian Moore.

Just Trying To Leave

   So I was in training for most of last week (trying to learn more about child crimes like sexual and physical abuse, sex trafficking, and child pornography) which was really interesting. I did get to work Sunday and Monday before class goes and here's how those days went.

Sunday I helped my beat partner out on her beat with a boyfriend-girlfriend dispute (not the first time we've been to this particular apartment for this couple). The boyfriend was finally (!) fed up with the girlfriend and just wanted to get his stuff and leave. The girlfriend refused to let him inside to get his things and when he asked just to get a little bit of things out of her car she still refused. This particular female just loved having this little bit of control over the guy. It was very petty. It's sad when you actually have someone trying to just move on and the other half just won't let him.

Monday started my day off with traffic court. I wrote this older gentleman a ticket for making an illegal U-turn at an intersection that A) has a sign saying no U-turn but B) just doesn't have enough room to safely make a U-turn. I don't know how you fight a ticket like this one- I think he was just hoping I wouldn't show.

Well after waiting an hour in court, the guy sends a message into the court saying he was stuck at the VA hospital and couldn't make it because if he left for court he would have to wait another four months just to get an appointment with a doctor. The judge made a comment saying she hopes that was the real deal and he wasn't faking being a veteran and using the VA as an excuse. She let me reset the court date to a day of my own choosing. Let's see if he shows up or not!

Crying Over Milk And It's Not Even Spilled

So last week was an interesting week of testing out some new body cameras for the department. I'm a huge proponent of them. We're already being filmed by the public so might as well film situations from the beginning and from our perspective.

Sunday saw me responding to a suicidal person call. A third party caller from the VA hospital said a drunk veteran was tired of life and threatening to shoot himself in the face. I arrive on scene with three other officers and we step inside the apartment. I ask the female in the residence where the guy was and she stated he was in his room packing some stuff. Myself and another officer went to the hallway and peeked around the corner since we did not know if he was armed or not. I asked the other officer if he could see the male and he said no (I couldn't see him either). All of a sudden the woman just walks down the hallway into the room. I had no choice but to walk into the room with her in case the male was armed. I walk into the room and see a rather large white guy facing away from me with his fists clenched and he's pacing in place as if he's marching. I ask him to walk with me to the living room but he says no and starts to tense his arms in a fighting stance. I glove up and grab his arm and try to guide him to the room. He starts to come along but states he's not leaving without his backpack. I get another officer to quickly check the bag for weapons as we move to the living room.

The man starts yelling at us "Who are you motherfuckers!? Where are you taking me?". We told him we were the police and there to help him and that the paramedics were going to take him to the hospital soon. The guy then says the last time he went to the hospital they just left him there and forgot him. The paramedics show up and explain to him that maybe he should try a different hospital. The guy started yelling that he would only leave if it was to the VA Hospital. Unfortunately the ambulance service doesn't transport to the VA nor does the VA accept patients at that time of night. I was still holding the guy's arm and told him to have a seat and let the paramedics take his vital signs. The guy tensed up again and said I want to hurt people. The paramedics asked him if he wanted to hurt himself and he said no just other people. He then looked me in the eye and said "I want to fucking  hit you". I looked him right in the eye and said "that's not going to happen and even if it did-I wouldn't let it happen."I already had the hood down on my taser and was ready to go hands on at any time. Eventually we got him calm and ready to head to the ambulance. As we walk down the stairs his neighbor beneath him is standing outside watching everything and the guy (still being held and guided by me) starts yelling he wants to go fight "that motherfucker (his neighbor)". We had to send another officer over to "talk" to the neighbor to calm the veteran down. We finally got him inside the ambulance and the paramedics gave him a sedative to calm him down.


On Monday I rode with a supervisor as we tested the body cameras. I got a 911 call at a fast food fried chicken restaurant about a former employee complaining that she did not get her paycheck. The employee had quit and was demanding her check with she states is normally paid on Mondays. I spoke to the manager who said that while technically they get paid on Mondays that officially payday isn't until Tuesday and that since she was no longer an employee that corporate would send her the paycheck on a debit card of sorts sometime on Tuesday. The lady was furious when I told her what was said and she did not want to hear me try and explain the Monday-Tuesday situation.

Tuesday I came across a car driving with a dealership drive out tag that just had the name of the dealer on it (not a legitimate tag). I pulled over the car and saw a female driver with headphones on driving. I asked her what the situation with the tag was and she told me the vehicle was a loaner car with loaner agreement. I didn't feel like writing her for the tag violation when it was clearly the dealership's fault so I wrote her for wearing headphones while driving. In my state, you cannot wear headphones that cover both ears while driving. You can have one in and one out and you're good but both can limit your ability to hear important things like sirens or honking horns.

Wednesday was a fun day where I got to go to the range for four hours and get paid to shoot. I took advantage of the rest of the day off to catch up on much needed sleep.

Thursday ended with some baby mama-baby daddy drama. I got a call saying a baby daddy had just threatened the caller. I get on scene and the guy is already gone. The caller told me he was upset that her elderly mother gave the 2 month old baby some milk. He started yelling at the mother so she yelled back at him to stop disrespecting her. He shouted "Don't be surprised when I come back and shoot the place up!". The caller told me the guy already had two prior convictions for aggravated assault so she was taking the threats seriously. It's amazing how the little things can cause arguments  to get pushed so drastically.

When You Try To Be Nice.....

  So there I was, running tags trying to find something since the day was slow. I ran a tag on a car and discovered it had no insurance. I pull the vehicle over and sure enough, the vehicle did not have insurance on it since back in February. The driver asked me if she could get on the phone on the spot and put insurance on it. Now, the law in my state actually prohibits that, stating since the vehicle was on a city street at some point without insurance it must be impounded.

I informed the lady she could not do so and immediately requested a supervisor. I called my lieutenant on the phone and he said he wouldn't be opposed to giving her the opportunity to but if that the wrecker got there before it reflected on the state system-tough luck. I told the driver and she got to work on the phone. Well the wrecker showed up 12 minutes later and I asked the lady if she had insurance and she told me to run the tag. I ran the tag and it still showed up "no valid insurance". I told the lady that unfortunately I needed her to step out of the vehicle and gather her belongings. She refused to get out (with her two kids in the car) and demanded my supervisor to come out. My lieutenant arrived on scene and ordered her out of the car. He told her that normally we do not even extend the courtesy of the opportunity to try and get her a chance to put insurance on the car and by law we really shouldn't have. She threw a fit stating 12 minutes wasn't enough and completely ignored what we were saying. The lady was cited for the no insurance which is an EXPENSIVE ticket in my state and her car was impounded. She gathered my name and my lieutenant's name and vowed to complain against us. It wouldn't have been the first time that I've heard that and surely won't be the last.

I was training a rookie officer 9 days out of the academy when we responded to the parking lot of the shopping mall on my beat for a vehicle accident. Accidents on private property mean there's nobody who will get cited and nobody is technically at fault. You don't need a license, seatbelt, insurance, or a license plate, hence why people typically learn to drive in parking lots...and that brings me to this story. This guy was learning to drive in his friend's sister's car when he panicked while turning and hit the gas as opposed to the break and SLAMMED into another car. Both cars were still drivable but the poor guy was so shook up and worried. I have no idea how hard the guy must have slammed on the gas to cause that much damage. Lucky for him he couldn't get a ticket and start off his driving record on a bad note. However, him getting insurance might be a little tricky going forward....

Now this next little tidbit in my life on the streets is a thorn in my side since about December. I have a couple living in a house on my beat. The male fell down 6 flights of an empty elevator shaft and is paralyzed from the waist down. The wife, in my personal opinion, is only with him to drain his accounts and abuses him. She refuses to let him speak to anyone and when she leaves the house she takes away his phone and locks him inside of the house with burglar bars on it. She always calls about him inviting his "mistress" over and wants me to remove her from the home (which I cannot do since he a resident and the husband has invited the guest over. I have to have a crime to remove the person). She called again and I told her once again it was a civil matter if she called 911 again over the same thing I would arrest her for abuse of 911. I should mention all of this happened with her refusing to open the door for me.

While I'm speaking to her through the closed door, I can hear the husband yelling from inside the house for her to open the door so he can speak to me. She refuses and slams the door shut.

I walk back to my car and the "mistress" dials his number and gets me on the phone with him. As I'm talking about whatever he wanted to fill me in on he starts screaming and I can hear a tussle: "Stop! Stop! Get your hands off me! Stop!" and then the phone drops. I'm doing my best to get him back on the phone and finally he does stating his wife attacked him to prevent him from talking to the police. I was able to have another officer sweet talk our way into the house where we arrested the wife for domestic battery. In my state, if you're arrested for domestic violence you don't get a bond for 48 hours. The husband told me he was going to take advantage of the 2 days to get his divorce finalized. I really hope he does.