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!
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Sunday, April 19, 2015
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.
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.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Easter Sunday/Monday On The Beat
So Easter Sunday in the Zone was a welcome reprieve from the last two Sundays which have been absolutely ridiculous. It was nice to have a breather like Sundays are supposed to be-however someone decided to break into a person's car and steal their items while they were visiting my city.
I got a call for a vehicle break in at a discount mall on my beat. I get to the location and find a vehicle from a neighboring state with two females on vacation visiting my city. They went inside for about two hours and when they got back the driver door lock was pried and their purses and one jacket were taken from inside the vehicle. One lady had about $400 for her vacation in her purse and they had their social security cards in their wallets (including one lady who had the cards for all three of her kids too). I know it had to put a damper on their vacation to my city and I did my best to help them. Shame someone had to do this, on Easter no less.
Yesterday I got a call for some kids hanging out in an undeveloped section of a gated community on my beat. When I get there I immediately noticed the smell of burning marijuana and saw three females and a male just hanging around in between two cars. I asked them for ID and if they had any more marijuana to which they replied no. One female stated her ID was inside of the car but the last thing I wanted was for her to be digging around in a car so I had her write down her information on my notepad. She was EXTREMELY nervous and kept looking down at the ground. I noticed a pile of tobacco shavings near her foot but on the other side of her foot underneath the car near the tire was a joint still smoking. I placed the female under arrest (who was 19 and her first arrest). I'm the type of officer that if you're honest with me, I'm willing to work with you. I have no consideration if you lie to me.
Later towards the end of the night we received a "hot call" about a mentally ill female threatening her roommate with a knife. Myself and two other units responded to the call and met with a Mobile Crisis Team from the local hospital (they typically respond to calls with us involving suicidal and mentally ill people. It's great to have that resource available to us where I work). Thankfully when we got on scene the knife was inside and we were able to calm the parties down. The female was able to answer all the questions to paramedics to avoid being taken to the hospital and she did not want to go willingly. That situation easily could have been worse had she still been violent with the knife when we got on scene.
I got a call for a vehicle break in at a discount mall on my beat. I get to the location and find a vehicle from a neighboring state with two females on vacation visiting my city. They went inside for about two hours and when they got back the driver door lock was pried and their purses and one jacket were taken from inside the vehicle. One lady had about $400 for her vacation in her purse and they had their social security cards in their wallets (including one lady who had the cards for all three of her kids too). I know it had to put a damper on their vacation to my city and I did my best to help them. Shame someone had to do this, on Easter no less.
Yesterday I got a call for some kids hanging out in an undeveloped section of a gated community on my beat. When I get there I immediately noticed the smell of burning marijuana and saw three females and a male just hanging around in between two cars. I asked them for ID and if they had any more marijuana to which they replied no. One female stated her ID was inside of the car but the last thing I wanted was for her to be digging around in a car so I had her write down her information on my notepad. She was EXTREMELY nervous and kept looking down at the ground. I noticed a pile of tobacco shavings near her foot but on the other side of her foot underneath the car near the tire was a joint still smoking. I placed the female under arrest (who was 19 and her first arrest). I'm the type of officer that if you're honest with me, I'm willing to work with you. I have no consideration if you lie to me.
Later towards the end of the night we received a "hot call" about a mentally ill female threatening her roommate with a knife. Myself and two other units responded to the call and met with a Mobile Crisis Team from the local hospital (they typically respond to calls with us involving suicidal and mentally ill people. It's great to have that resource available to us where I work). Thankfully when we got on scene the knife was inside and we were able to calm the parties down. The female was able to answer all the questions to paramedics to avoid being taken to the hospital and she did not want to go willingly. That situation easily could have been worse had she still been violent with the knife when we got on scene.
A Long Week Of Not Getting Off On Time-Part 3
I was en route to help another officer on the other sector who had someone detained possibly fitting a description of someone who had bailed out of a car on a 27-minute long car chase after they fired some rounds at two different schools in the area when I was stuck behind a school bus unloading kids. The school bus had its stop sign and flashing red lights meaning "Do Not Pass" when a lady in a white SUV just drives right past. I get out of my car and just look at the lady with a "what are you doing?" expression. I did NOT think she was going to stop but she did (we were on a two lane road). Since she DID stop, I walked up to her and got her driver's license and then whipped my car around. She insisted she did not run the stop guard of the bus but I had a civilian ride-along who was in my car and we were both surprised she just kept going. The lady told me her fiancé was a cop and was going to fight the ticket all the way. I told her not a problem, I would just bring the dashcam video to court and let it speak for itself.
Another call was a domestic dispute between a husband and wife where the wife called 911 and statd her husband hit her in the mouth and busted her lip. I get on scene and another officer already has the male detained. I talk to the female who stated she got a flat tire and drove home on the flat, damaging the rim. She called her husband for help and he got upset over the fact she drove home. This particular couple had been married for five years but had known each other for over 15 years having grown up together. The female stated the male had never been violent in their entire history but when she turned around to face him he just started clawing at her and pulling her hair (she had scratches on her arms). This gave me enough to arrest the male.
I talk to the male who said that the wife spit on his face and he just lashed out in anger (clawing her) He then hit her to get away after she started punching him and scratching him also (he also had scratch marks on him). Ironically a 14 year old boy next door came up to me and told me that he saw the whole thing and that the female started it after she spit on the guy and he lost it. Well the job of a police officer in a domestic when claims are made in my state is to arrest both if you can't determine a true primary aggressor and to let the judge decide....so both went to jail.
Another call was a domestic dispute between a husband and wife where the wife called 911 and statd her husband hit her in the mouth and busted her lip. I get on scene and another officer already has the male detained. I talk to the female who stated she got a flat tire and drove home on the flat, damaging the rim. She called her husband for help and he got upset over the fact she drove home. This particular couple had been married for five years but had known each other for over 15 years having grown up together. The female stated the male had never been violent in their entire history but when she turned around to face him he just started clawing at her and pulling her hair (she had scratches on her arms). This gave me enough to arrest the male.
I talk to the male who said that the wife spit on his face and he just lashed out in anger (clawing her) He then hit her to get away after she started punching him and scratching him also (he also had scratch marks on him). Ironically a 14 year old boy next door came up to me and told me that he saw the whole thing and that the female started it after she spit on the guy and he lost it. Well the job of a police officer in a domestic when claims are made in my state is to arrest both if you can't determine a true primary aggressor and to let the judge decide....so both went to jail.
Monday, April 6, 2015
A Long Week Of Not Getting Off On Time Part 2 (Riding the Lightning)
So one of the days it was so hectic we were just going call to call to call trying to clear a pending that never cleared until the next watch came on. I received a call from a lady that she was assaulted by her ex-boyfriend. I get to the residence and she stated he struck her one time in the head before running out of the apartment and yelling on the phone while she was talking to 911 that he "didn't do anything". I asked her to describe her boyfriend and she went on to say he was about 6'8 and weight 280 lbs. He hit her so hard that she felt light headed with a severe headache. I called for an ambulance but they were so backed up I waited for an hour and forty minutes. I was lucky she didn't have a real emergency but EMS was backed up just as much as we were.
My partner gets a call over a dispute about a tree on her beat and I decided to come with her. We get to the caller's house and she stated her rear neighbor had cut a tree in THEIR yard but it had the POTENTIAL to fall in her yard and she was upset. She told me she was worried the tree was going to fall on her house and she wanted us to get their insurance information. I told the lady I can't do anything about something that MIGHT happen and they had no legal obligation to give me their information. She was stunned and asked that she was basically going to have to wait for the tree to fall to file a damage report. I told her yes. It was the same as an accident in a car. If two cars almost collide you don't call the police for a report. Only when they do. I told her to go to city hall and file a zoning dispute regarding the tree and to have a nice day. She was stunned and upset I wouldn't make her neighbors give her their information.
I had just finished typing up a vehicle accident report in the parking lot of a gas station when a citizen flagged me down telling me that security was fighting a shoplifter inside of a nearby package (liquor for those of you in other parts of the country) store. I pull up to the store and a huge crowd hurried me inside pointing inside. I walked inside with my hand on my gun and saw security struggling with a male. I helped get on top of the male with security as the male kept his hands under his chest balled up in fists. I grabbed his arm and told him to relax his arms as I put them behind his back and said ok. he then kept struggling with me. I was not going to play with this guy and pulled my tazer out and stuck it right to his back telling him to relax or he was going to get tazed. The male said ok once again but kept resisting and so....he got tazed. I had to taze him about three times before he finally relaxed his arms and got the picture. I put him in cuffs and stuck him in my car. The poor guy got pepper sprayed by security before I got there. After I tazed him he lost control of his bowels and defecated and urinated EVERYWHERE. No one said this job was clean. I called an ambulance as I took the guy out of my car and started pouring water over his face to alleviate the pain from the pepper spray.
I watched the security footage and saw the male took a 25 oz beer and stuck it down his pants and tried to walk out when security confronted him and he started fighting. This guy had been arrested 68 times (including this arrest). He had been convicted of shoplifting 13 times before and was a convicted felon. Due to his history the $1.61 beer became a felony as he got other charges for fighting and resisting and then lying to me about who he was and fighting with security. Just a career criminal. His first arrest came from before I was born. When I got home I could still smell this guy as I had to deal with him for about a few hours due to the type of arrest. This job gets dirty and not everyone can do it....
My partner gets a call over a dispute about a tree on her beat and I decided to come with her. We get to the caller's house and she stated her rear neighbor had cut a tree in THEIR yard but it had the POTENTIAL to fall in her yard and she was upset. She told me she was worried the tree was going to fall on her house and she wanted us to get their insurance information. I told the lady I can't do anything about something that MIGHT happen and they had no legal obligation to give me their information. She was stunned and asked that she was basically going to have to wait for the tree to fall to file a damage report. I told her yes. It was the same as an accident in a car. If two cars almost collide you don't call the police for a report. Only when they do. I told her to go to city hall and file a zoning dispute regarding the tree and to have a nice day. She was stunned and upset I wouldn't make her neighbors give her their information.
I had just finished typing up a vehicle accident report in the parking lot of a gas station when a citizen flagged me down telling me that security was fighting a shoplifter inside of a nearby package (liquor for those of you in other parts of the country) store. I pull up to the store and a huge crowd hurried me inside pointing inside. I walked inside with my hand on my gun and saw security struggling with a male. I helped get on top of the male with security as the male kept his hands under his chest balled up in fists. I grabbed his arm and told him to relax his arms as I put them behind his back and said ok. he then kept struggling with me. I was not going to play with this guy and pulled my tazer out and stuck it right to his back telling him to relax or he was going to get tazed. The male said ok once again but kept resisting and so....he got tazed. I had to taze him about three times before he finally relaxed his arms and got the picture. I put him in cuffs and stuck him in my car. The poor guy got pepper sprayed by security before I got there. After I tazed him he lost control of his bowels and defecated and urinated EVERYWHERE. No one said this job was clean. I called an ambulance as I took the guy out of my car and started pouring water over his face to alleviate the pain from the pepper spray.
I watched the security footage and saw the male took a 25 oz beer and stuck it down his pants and tried to walk out when security confronted him and he started fighting. This guy had been arrested 68 times (including this arrest). He had been convicted of shoplifting 13 times before and was a convicted felon. Due to his history the $1.61 beer became a felony as he got other charges for fighting and resisting and then lying to me about who he was and fighting with security. Just a career criminal. His first arrest came from before I was born. When I got home I could still smell this guy as I had to deal with him for about a few hours due to the type of arrest. This job gets dirty and not everyone can do it....
Friday, April 3, 2015
A Long Week Of Not Getting Off On Time Part 1
To say this week was busy is an understatement. As it is, I don't earn any overtime in the current setting of the department I work for. This is definitely a job you do because you want to do it. Not a job you do for the money. No one ever truly became rich from policing itself. This will be a long entry for an extremely long week that I'll break down into several parts. These little stories will be in no particular order from the events as how they happened:
I was on my way back to the precinct from my beat because I had run out of traffic citations and needed to sign out another book. I'm driving on the highway with only one other car near me (in this case right in front of me) when all of a sudden I start smelling burning marijuana come right through my car. I look up at the car in front me and notice both males are smoking something. Through my excellent detective skills and deductive reasoning-they can only be smoking one thing. I put my lights on and pull them over as both of them toss out what they're smoking and proceed to light up cigarettes (as if I didn't notice). I call for another unit and approach the vehicle.
As I'm talking to the driver, I can clearly tell he's been smoking marijuana. The driver and passenger are both extremely nervous. I tell them what I saw and ask if there was any more marijuana in the car. They both stated there wasn't and you could clearly tell they were telling the truth. I asked the driver if he knew he could get a DUI from driving under the effects of marijuana and he was stunned and became increasingly more worried. I asked him how long he had been smoking today after telling him I wasn't going to be taking him to jail but was more concerned with if he had the ability to drive safely. After feeling confident since he told me he had just lit up the joint which had cost him he last bit of money since he had to toss it out, I sent him on his way with a lesson about impaired driving. This driver easily could have been impaired if had continued to smoke. People don't realize that marijuana can still have the same effects on reaction time as alcohol can which makes it increasingly dangerous to drive high.
While driving on my beat around the mall, a call came in for a kidnapping. The remarks stated an uncle was calling in that his niece had been kidnapped by a couple of males a few days ago but that no report was made (first question mark moment). The call went on to say that the uncle was shopping at the mall and saw his niece and wanted to get the police involved but that the uncle was waiting across the street from the mall at a laundromat (second question mark moment: If it was my niece I would have stayed near her to let police know where she is). Being a possible kidnapping, the call is a pretty important matter. I got to the laundromat pretty timely after I received the call but the uncle was nowhere to be seen. I had the dispatcher call the male back but it went to voicemail. A second callback had the uncle state it was a false alarm and the girl was not his niece. Wasted call but sometimes that's just how it goes out here.
I received a call from a leasing manager at an apartment complex on my beat in reference to some drug activity from a resident. When I get there the manager called me into her office and told me they discovered scales, bags of drugs, guns, and tons of money in an apartment and she wanted me to go in and seize it all. While I would have loved to have done that I would have been violating the rights of the resident. I told her if she wanted to go in an take the drugs to seize on a violation of the lease that was on her but I recommended the alternative of letting our Crime Suppression Unit know about the apartment and letting them conduct their own investigation or with narcotics doing so. Ultimately she listened to the voice of reason and I gave her the contact information to supply the unit with the tip. As much as I would like to just "go and get the bad guy", everyone has rights as well and I can't just violate that.
I was on my way back to the precinct from my beat because I had run out of traffic citations and needed to sign out another book. I'm driving on the highway with only one other car near me (in this case right in front of me) when all of a sudden I start smelling burning marijuana come right through my car. I look up at the car in front me and notice both males are smoking something. Through my excellent detective skills and deductive reasoning-they can only be smoking one thing. I put my lights on and pull them over as both of them toss out what they're smoking and proceed to light up cigarettes (as if I didn't notice). I call for another unit and approach the vehicle.
As I'm talking to the driver, I can clearly tell he's been smoking marijuana. The driver and passenger are both extremely nervous. I tell them what I saw and ask if there was any more marijuana in the car. They both stated there wasn't and you could clearly tell they were telling the truth. I asked the driver if he knew he could get a DUI from driving under the effects of marijuana and he was stunned and became increasingly more worried. I asked him how long he had been smoking today after telling him I wasn't going to be taking him to jail but was more concerned with if he had the ability to drive safely. After feeling confident since he told me he had just lit up the joint which had cost him he last bit of money since he had to toss it out, I sent him on his way with a lesson about impaired driving. This driver easily could have been impaired if had continued to smoke. People don't realize that marijuana can still have the same effects on reaction time as alcohol can which makes it increasingly dangerous to drive high.
While driving on my beat around the mall, a call came in for a kidnapping. The remarks stated an uncle was calling in that his niece had been kidnapped by a couple of males a few days ago but that no report was made (first question mark moment). The call went on to say that the uncle was shopping at the mall and saw his niece and wanted to get the police involved but that the uncle was waiting across the street from the mall at a laundromat (second question mark moment: If it was my niece I would have stayed near her to let police know where she is). Being a possible kidnapping, the call is a pretty important matter. I got to the laundromat pretty timely after I received the call but the uncle was nowhere to be seen. I had the dispatcher call the male back but it went to voicemail. A second callback had the uncle state it was a false alarm and the girl was not his niece. Wasted call but sometimes that's just how it goes out here.
I received a call from a leasing manager at an apartment complex on my beat in reference to some drug activity from a resident. When I get there the manager called me into her office and told me they discovered scales, bags of drugs, guns, and tons of money in an apartment and she wanted me to go in and seize it all. While I would have loved to have done that I would have been violating the rights of the resident. I told her if she wanted to go in an take the drugs to seize on a violation of the lease that was on her but I recommended the alternative of letting our Crime Suppression Unit know about the apartment and letting them conduct their own investigation or with narcotics doing so. Ultimately she listened to the voice of reason and I gave her the contact information to supply the unit with the tip. As much as I would like to just "go and get the bad guy", everyone has rights as well and I can't just violate that.
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