Week on patrol, June 8 - 12, 2010

It has been awhile since my last posting. During the week I was the print / picture unit for four days. I actually had my first print scene and I checked by with other officers on their calls, a lot. I had loud lesbians and I got to play Batman. Just another week.

The week started off slow. There were no print or picture calls on Tuesday. So, I made a few uneventful traffic stops and checked by with a few officers to help them with their calls. On Wednesday, I was asked to check by to lift prints. My first print scene, finally. The call was a burglary of a residence. The home owner was out of town and someone broke into his house. The primary unit was dispatched to an alarm at the residence and arrived to find a flat screen television sitting in the flower bed by the front door. That is a good indication that the residence has been broken into. Sure enough, the front door had been kicked in. I arrived and began processing the television for prints since we knew it had been touched by the suspects. I found a few good ones and was able to dust them and lift them from the television. Amazing. It had been awhile since I had tried to lift a print. I tagged the prints and then wrote out my supplement to the original report saying what I had done and found on the scene.

 Later that night, I checked by on a loud noise call in a small apartment complex. An older man lives on the ground floor and a couple of females live directly above him. The older man told us that he has an ongoing problem with the "lesbians" that live above him. It is a noise issue. He told us that they stay up late, walk around too much, flush the toilet constantly, and sometimes have noisy kids over. Kids, noisy? That is crazy talk. One of the "lesbians" came out and joined in the conversation. She said that yes, they do stay up late, walk around, flush the toilet, and sometimes have her nieces and nephews over during the day. That was easy. A quick confession by the "lesbian". Case closed. Wait, none of those things are illegal. Maybe this is a case of people living right on top of one another? People make noise. The longer we were there, the more it sounded like the old man did not approve of his "lesbian" neighbors lifestyle choice. We told him to go back inside and go to bed. And then we told the loud lesbians to flush their toilet a little less frequently. Maybe only once every two trips to the bathroom? Maybe not. It never ceases to amaze me what citizens call the police for. Too much flushing? Come on, take an Tylenol PM and go to sleep.

Thursday brought another opportunity for me to attempt to lift finger prints. The call was a burglary of a motor vehicle at a nearby hotel. Two business men from out of town had their rental car broken into. They had each left their laptop bags on the floorboard behind their seats. Why not just leave the laptops sitting on top of the trunk? At least that way the vehicle would not be damaged. The business men wanted the outside of the vehicle processed for finger prints. The outside of a rental vehicle. You think it gets touched very often by different people? I got out my kit and found a few good prints on the driver's side window. I lifted and tagged them and wrote the supplement. When the prints are analyzed by our finger print lab in a couple of years, maybe they will come back to a suspect. Maybe that suspect will confess and give up his burglary ring and fence connections. I doubt it, but you never know. At the very least, I appeased the business men and got some printing practice.

Friday night, AR rode with me. I drive and she writes the reports, I like that arrangement. We were dispatched to welfare check at a local hotel. A woman's family was concerned for her safety. The woman we were checking on was staying at the hotel with a boyfriend that had cut her throat 10 days earlier. The woman had her own vehicle with her as well as her dogs. We went to the hotel staff and told them the situation. We needed to check on the female. She was in the room registered to her boyfriend's father. We asked for the room number, and they would not give it to us. They called the room, but there was no answer. We pressed them, but they refused to give up the room number. Exactly what I expected. The hotel is under no obligation to give out that information, in fact it would have been against their policies if they had given us the room number. But, then there is doing the right thing. Sometimes, the right thing might violate a policy. We did not have enough evidence to get a subpoena for the information. So, we left the hotel. There was nothing else that we could do. Another officer was flagged down later that night by the hotel security guard. The guard just wanted to know why the police had been to the hotel earlier. That officer called us and we explained the situation. Unfortunately, the security guard could not get the room number. But, the officer did see a woman matching the description of the woman we were trying to check on outside walking her two dogs. So, the woman was alive and easily could have requested help if she needed or wanted it.

Saturday night was relatively slow. I was talking to B when he was dispatched to a vicious animal call. I volunteered to check by with him. We arrived to find a nice three story townhouse. We were met at the garage by a very distraught middle aged female. She said that they were awakened in the middle of the night by a bat inside their house. This happens on occasion in the area. There is a bat colony that lives under a nearby bridge. She led us upstairs to the bedroom. We found her partner on the ground using a comforter to block the bottom of the closet door. The bat was in the closet trying to get out by crawling under the door. The bat would shriek every time the light in the closet was turned on. We got the partner away from the door and I slowly pulled back the comforter. At first, there was nothing there. Then we saw the bat stick a leg and a wing under the door and tried to squeeze out. The bat was too big to get out that way. The ladies brought us a bucket. I told B that I would take the bucket and trap the bat in the closet. The floors were wood. So, the bat reached a leg out again and B started pushing the door open. The bat got stuck under the door. He was sliding on the wood floor. We got the door open wide enough for me to get in the closet with the bucket. I told B to shut the door quickly. I had the bucket ready. B shut the door, freeing the bat as I dropped the bucket on top of it. The bat started bouncing around in the bucket. The ladies brought us a flat cookie sheet that we slid under the bucket, trapping the bat inside. The ladies asked what we planned on doing with the bat. I said that bats do not make for very good tacos, so how about I just set it free outside? Not really, but this is the fourth time that I have removed a bat from someone's home, and every time they expected me to kill it. I picked up the contraption and took the bat outside. I set it free across the street from the ladies' townhouse. Playing Batman to B's Robin was the last call of the week. Maybe B will wear the green tights next time?

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New ink for A1

Courtsey of Schlitterbahn and a few dollars.

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H1 getting her face painted

A1 & A2 have mean parents who did not let them get their faces painted. They got toys instead.

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Jen & A2 on a river tour

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The Alamo

It has been years since I have been here. It is amazing how small this place really is.

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A2 relaxing in a window display

Day number 1 of our summer vacation. We made it safely to the outlet mall. So far, the kids are doing great. The parents are tired and it is HOT outside!

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Week on patrol, June 2-6, 2010

The week started off with an interesting call and ended with an interesting call. The three days sandwiched in the middle were very boring. I have received a few questions about my current 30 day rotation assignment. I am still part of patrol and am still working my same shift and hours. I am responsible for taking pictures and lifting latent fingerprints at crime scenes in my station's patrol area. I do not respond to every scene, just when called by the primary patrol unit. When I am not doing that, I have been running traffic and checking by with other units.

I rode patrol with AR on Tuesday. Even though we rode together, I was still responsible for the print and picture calls. A short time into the shift we were dispatched to a sexual assault, delayed report. The call slip said that the incident happened on the previous Sunday. We were met on the scene by the female complainant, N. N stated that a few friends came over to her condo on Sunday afternoon to party. The suspect, J, arrived with the other friends. N did not know J very well, but they had met before.
 
Soon after they arrived, the drinking started. Shots were taken and beers and vodka were consumed in large quantities. A few hours later, all of the friends left, except for N. The friends said that he was "cool" and left him there with J. J and N continued to drink. Then J started to make sexual advances towards N. N told him "no" numerous times. She resisted and J attempted to force things. N's clothes were ripped in the process, a shirt, shorts, and bra. A sexual assault occurred, but J was not able to perform according to N. This allowed N to get some other clothes on and to talk N into leaving the condo. N drove J to a pool hall where J had left his motorcycle earlier in the day. J decided that he wanted to get some food, and N did not follow him, but returned home.

The following day, N spoke to some of her friends. She was not sure that she had been sexually assaulted. She was not sure if she should report the incident. Her friends assured her that she had indeed been assaulted, even though J needed the little blue pill. N then called J. J did not apologize and told N that she had been asking for it. This made N mad, and she called us. AR gathered all of her information. N had some bruising on her. So, I took pictures of the ripped clothing and of her bruises. Hopefully, J will get charged with a felony. No means no, even when everyone is drunk.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were very uneventful. Only one unit called for prints and it was on a burglary of a motor vehicle in the rain. So, no prints on the outside of the vehicle. After talking to the complainant, I did not think that the suspect even went inside the vehicle. He shattered a window, grabbed a bag within reach, and took off. So, no reason to spread black powder everywhere inside the vehicle either.

Saturday night started off slowly. I made a few traffic stops and then about 12:30, things went a little crazy. A shooting just occurred call dropped. A unit was dispatched and a few other units started heading in that direction. A unit had been very close to the scene when the call dropped and he arrived on the scene very quickly. A citizen told him that the suspects had just left in a black sedan. The unit turned around and put that information out on the radio. He quickly caught up to a black sedan and once another unit was with him, did a felony traffic stop on the vehicle.

I arrived as they were making the traffic stop and I noticed that the primary unit was there as well. That meant that no one had gone to the scene of the shooting. I kept going, and was the first unit on the shooting scene. I arrived at the apartment complex as the fire department was covering a body with a sheet in the parking lot. There was an ambulance, fire truck, and medic truck on the scene. There was also a large crowd of bystanders all around the parking lot. The primary unit arrived a short time later.

I got out of my patrol car, and walked towards the body. The fire department had taken out some crime scene tape and had begun securing the scene. I then asked for witnesses. With this many people outside and being right in the middle of a huge apartment complex, someone had to see something. A few citizens raised their hands, and the primary unit and myself separated them from the crowd. In these situation, we place the witnesses by themselves in patrol cars. We do not want them talking to each other. We want each witness to give us their own story, instead of them all talking about it and giving us one group story. We ended up with six witnesses in six different vehicles.

Other units arrived quickly and began dispersing the crowd. The media was already on the scene. With the scene secured, the crowd dispersed, and the witnesses separated, we began looking around the area for evidence. We found four shell casings, one spent bullet, a set of keys, and some sunglasses. We marked everything with cones so that nothing would get disturbed until it was collected by the crime scene unit that would process the scene and collect the evidence.

The homicide investigators arrived and began their investigation. I ended up transporting one witness to the homicide division where he gave a video recording of his statement. Two other witnesses did the same thing, while the other three witnesses gave statements on the scene to the investigators. After returning to the scene with the witness that I transported, I was able to head to the station to unload my gear. I had been on the scene for four and half hours and when I left, they were not done processing the scene.

During our time on the scene, we were able to surmise what had happened. The suspect, W, went and picked up the victim, A, earlier in the afternoon. They began smoking dope in W's apartment. Four other friends arrived later and they all continued to smoke. Around midnight, W's wife came home and she did not like the fact that everyone was smoking in her apartment. She wanted everyone to leave, and got into an argument with W, her husband. The four friends left the apartment. A decided to stay and talk to W. A tried to explain to W why his wife was mad at him. This conversation did not go well. W and A began fighting in the apartment. The fight ended and A left the apartment and walked outside to the parking lot. A short time later, W came outside to the parking lot and shot A, killing him.

About that same time, W's father arrived on the scene in a black sedan. He hopped out of the sedan and yelled at W, asking him what had he done? Then they both got into the sedan and drove off, only to be stopped a short time later and taken into custody. All of this was over smoking marijuana. The suspect and victim had known and been friends with each other for years. Just senseless. Very little respect for human life.

My first week as the print/picture unit was about what I expected. It was a nice change. I am not sure that I would want to do it permanently. I think on a part time basis, it would be great. Once my rotation is over, the powers that be will make a decision. Until then, I will enjoy the rotation.

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The week on patrol, May 25-29, 2010

This was a long week for me (I am spoiled). I had training on one of my regular days off. I finished evaluating TV and I started a new 30 day rotation on Saturday.

I made the long drive out to the academy early Monday morning for a training class. It was a mandatory class for all field trainers. It was a training refresh class. In the morning, procedures were emphasized, especially ones that had recently caused problems in the training program. The afternoon was spent with academy personnel. They gave us a brief overview of what they are teaching and how they are instructing the cadets to perform certain tasks. We had a chance to ask questions as well. It helps if the academy and the field trainers are on the same page.

Tuesday was day three of evaluation for TV. Our first call was a burglary of a motor vehicle at a hotel. The man came into town with all of his earthly belongings in his Tahoe. He took out what he needed for the night, and left everything else in the truck. He came out to the truck a few hours later to get something else, and discovered that everything else was gone. He had left a laptop, camera, cell phone, and other items in plain sight in the vehicle. When are people going to learn? Do not leave stuff in your vehicle.

Then TV volunteered for a minor accident. We arrived to find two vehicle in a gas station parking lot. One of the driver's could not speak english and handed TV a Korean driver's license. Luckily, a friend of his came to the scene and translated for us. The Korean had been in the middle lane and wanted to turn right. So, he just turned. He did not look to his right to see if anyone was there. He told us that it is ok in Korea to turn from the middle lane. Sounds like it can be dangerous to drive in Korea.

Wednesday night start off with a robbery in an apartment complex. A male drove into the complex and noticed a vehicle follow him in through the gate. So, he stopped his vehicle and the other vehicle stopped behind him. Two males got out of the trailing vehicle and walked up to his door. They opened his door, pulled him out of his vehicle, robbed him and assaulted him. what can be learned from this incident? Lock your car doors and if you notice people get out of the car behind you and begin walking up to your car, drive away.

Next, a male called the police for a theft. He told us that he was drunk. So drunk that he passed out at a bus stop after leaving a club. When he woke up, his wallet was missing. Really? A bus stop? He was lucky that he was not kidnapped and sold for parts in Mexico.

Then we had a stupid driver award candidate. We were turning left with a green arrow at an intersection. A vehicle coming from the opposite side of the intersection, had a red light and without stopping turned right, directly in front of us. We stopped him and he said, "it slipped my mind to stop at the red light." When that is the best excuse that you can up with on a traffic stop, just keep your mouth shut.

TV made another traffic stop a short time later. It turned out to be the driver's birthday. TV is still young and sensitive. He let her go with a warning since it was her birthday.

Our last call of the night was a person down. The call had been dispatched a few times already, but no one could find the down person. TV found him. The male was bleeding profusely from the head and informed us that was HIV positive. Wonderful. After TV puts his gloves on, he searched the male and then held him up so that the paramedics could look at him. The male started to fall, and TV, being young and sensitive caught him. TV did not get any blood on his uniform, but did get some on his arm. It just so happened that TV also had a recent mosquito bite on the same arm as well. TV was worried that the virus could be transferred through the bite and into him. So, I did some online research and everything said that HIV can not be transferred through an insect bite. TV was happy to hear that.

Thursday night was the last night of evaluation for TV. We had the usual property crime report and then we did a few traffic stops. Our last traffic stop involved two females on their way home from a club. The computer told us that the driver was wanted for two class C warrants out of a nearby jurisdiction. TV called and confirmed the warrants and then arrested the driver. As you can imagine, she was less than happy. I told the passenger to call a friend to come and get her. She did not have a driver's license. Otherwise she might have been able to drive the vehicle home. While I was inventorying the vehicle since it had to be towed, the passenger said, "sometimes I hate you guys". She had no idea why we were arresting her friend. I then explained to her that her friend had warrants out for her arrest. She said "oh" and apologized.

On Friday night, AR and I rode together since I was not training. We responded to lots of loud noise and suspicious person calls. We had a person down call that said a male was laying in a driveway bleeding from his head. We arrived and sure enough, he was there and blood was pooling around his head. He was conscious and breathing and very drunk. He said that his girlfriend got mad at him for dancing with her sister at the club. On the way home, she was driving and they began yelling at each other. He decided that he had heard enough and jumped out of the moving vehicle. His head absorbed most of the fall and he was transported to the hospital.

Our last call was for five suspicious black males looking into vehicles while walking down the street. We drove around for awhile, and finally found five black males walking down the street. Bingo. I shined the spotlight on them, and they all stopped. Their story did not make any sense, so we checked them all on the computer. Two of them turned out to be runaways. We released the others. We were unable to contact the runaways' families, so we took them to a county youth facility.

I started a new 30 day rotation on Saturday night. I am the print / picture unit for our station on night shift for a month. I am not in the calls for service loop. I can take calls or check by and help or do traffic or whatever. I am responsible for all of the requests to take pictures of scenes or to attempt to lift fingerprints from scenes. After I helped out on a few calls, I went to my usual traffic spot. A vehicle pulled up and told me about a male laying in the grass at a nearby gas station I went over and found him. He was a regular looking male in his 20's that was passed out in the grass. Once I woke him up, he was able to tell me where he lived. It was less than a block away on the other side of the street. He had been out at a bar with friends and they drove him home. Only they did not get him home, they got him to a gas station and dumped him out. He was polite and was able to stand and walk, so I took him home. He was very appreciative. He needs better friends.

I was called out to two scenes to take pictures. One scene where a male was assaulted by another male with a knife. It was not nearly as bad as it sounds. The male had basically two scratches on his arms. Thorn bushes do more damage. The other scene was an attempted sexual assault. The female had some scratches on her and during the struggle she yanked out some of the suspect's hair. I photographed her and the clumps of hair on the ground. Then I uploaded the photos and wrote a brief supplement to the report.

It was a good week with some interesting people. TV did well while finishing evaluation. He will make a good officer. We are fortunate at my station, for the most part we get good rookies. I am looking forward to the print unit rotation. It may become my permanent spot. I am definitely not CSI worthy, but I am willing to learn.

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