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!