The week on patrol, January 10-14, 2011

This week, I finished evaluating one rookie and started training
another rookie.

Monday was day four of evaluation with L. We started off the night
with two traffic stops, both for illegal left turns. After ticketing
the second vehicle, L wanted to document the traffic stops on our
daily work card, so he started to look for his copy of the traffic
citations. However, he could not find one of the citations anywhere.
He looked everywhere in the patrol vehicle and even drove back to
where we made the traffic stop to see if he could find it on the
ground. I think that he accidentally gave the first driver's citation
along with the second driver's citation to the second driver. I had
never seen it happen before and had no idea what to do about it. I
called the desk Sergeant and he had never heard of that happening
either. So, we turned in the one ticket that we had, and it was the
first driver's lucky night.

Later that night, we checked by with units on a burglary of a motor
vehicle in progress. The homeowner said that his vehicle had been
burglarized three times in his driveway, so he installed a camera and
a motion detector to monitor his driveway. Tonight, his motion
detector activated which set off an alarm in his house. He came
outside with a bat and found a guy sitting in his truck. The guy got
out of the truck and tried to run away. The homeowner was a little
faster because he was able to hit the suspect with the bat a few times
before the suspect got away. A short time later just a few blocks
away, other officers saw a parked vehicle with it's hazard lights on
and the vehicle's alarm was going off. The officers pulled up and a
guy got out of the car and tried to run away. He did not make it very
far and was taken into custody. Since it was so close to the scene of
the other vehicle burglary, we brought the homeowner over to see if
this was the guy that he chased and hit with the bat a few times.
Turns out it was indeed the same suspect. While the suspect was
getting identified by the homeowner, the suspect threatened the
homeowner. The suspect just took his class A misdemeanor burglary of a
vehicle case and turned it into a third degree felony retaliation
case. A few hours later, while L was still completing the report, we
heard over the radio that the same homeowner's vehicle was burglarized
again. I called the homeowner to make sure that this was a new
incident, and sure enough it was. Absolutely crazy, that was the first
time I have seen the same vehicle burglarized twice in one night. I
think it might be time for the homeowner to start parking his vehicle
inside his garage.

Tuesday was the last night of evaluation for L. We started with a
routine traffic stop of a vehicle that went through a parking lot to
avoid making the illegal left turn.

Later, we took a robbery at a local convenience store. Two guys came
into the store with what looked like guns but turned out to be tasers
and demanded money from the register. They took money from the
register and the safe. Then they tasered two of 4 males in the store.
They got away with about 500 dollars. This was the third robbery at
this store that I have worked in the last month. If I was the clerk, I
would be looking for a new job.

L did a great job during his week of evaluation. He made my job very
easy. My next rookie, was a little more challenging.

I started training a new rookie, H, on Wednesday. He was very polite
and calm and a little older for a rookie, 38. It was going to be a
difficult transition for me going from evaluating a rookie that is
relatively self sufficient, to a second phase of training rookie who
basically has no idea what is going on.

We were the print unit that night and a print call was waiting for us
when we logged onto our computer. The print call was from a burglary
of a residence that happened in a very nice part of town during
evening shift. It was a very large house and that evening, the female
owner left for two hours and did not set the house alarm. She came
home and found that the back patio door had been kicked open. The
suspects had gone through most of the house, which had to take a
little time. We found a flat screen TV which had been moved and sat on
a stairway landing. I was able to lift some finger prints from that TV
that had been moved. Once the prints are actually analyzed in a few
years, maybe we will get lucky and develop a suspect.

Then we made a traffic stop at my usual intersection. A vehicle made
the illegal left turn. It was H's first night time traffic stop, and
he did ok.

Thursday was day two with H. He started off the shift completely
preoccupied, to the point that it made me nervous and we had to talk
about it. It turned out that right before the shift, he found out that
his father had a terminal disease and was not expected to live much
longer. That would be extremely distracting. I told him that he could
go home. There is no shame in taking a night off when you have other
things on your mind. But, he decided to stay. He rallied and refocused
and did fine for the rest of the night.

We made two traffic stops that night. The first one was before I found
out about his father. H performed horribly. He was very distracted and
made numerous mistakes. Then we talked, and he rallied. He did much
better on the second traffic stop. However, I was uneasy for the rest
of the night.

Our last call was to provide traffic control for a fatal accident. A
hispanic male in a pickup truck drove the wrong way down a one way
ramp and slammed into a concrete barrier. He was wearing a seatbelt
and the air bag deployed, but you can't change physics. Too much speed
coming to a stop too quickly causes severe damage to the body.

We were the print unit again on Friday night, H's third night of
training. Our first call was an aggravated robbery with a weapon. The
complainant took an engine out of one car and put it into another car
for the suspect. The suspect kept coming up with excuses about why he
could not pay. Tonight, the suspect showed up and knocked on the door
(the complainant works out of his house). The complainant answered the
door and was immediately punched in the face by the suspect. The
suspect then showed the complainant the gun that he was carrying.
Another male with the suspect then grabbed the keys to the car with
the new motor and they drove off.

Later we were asked to check by to take a few pictures of a scene for
the primary unit. Two guys broke into a business close to our police
station. They took a wheelbarrow and a generator. Then they decided to
push the wheelbarrow containing the generator down the main street
right by our police station, not the brightest bulbs in the package.
That raised the suspicion of an officer passing by and after a brief
chase, they were stopped and taken into custody. The primary unit
wanted pictures of the burglary scene, along with the cut fence and
the cut locks, so I took care of that for him.

It will be interesting to see what the next 12 nights with H bring.
That concludes another week on patrol.

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The week on patrol, January 3-7, 2011

Wow, am I behind in my writing. Time to try and catch up.

Monday night was a City holiday. I rode with B. We were very short handed that night and the only unit in our beat. We ran a lot of calls, most of them were crap, but three stood out.

A disturbance was called in by a neighbor. Another unit was dispatched and we checked by. We found the front door unlocked and a screen door open. We knocked and there was no answer at the door. Since the caller had said that it sounded like a fight was taking place, we opened the front door and announced ourselves. There was still no answer so we began searching the apartment for anyone. In the bedroom, we found a male passed out and bleeding on the bed. At first, he tried to play possum, acting unconscious. Eventually, with some gentle encouragement, he woke up and decided to talk. He said that everything was fine. He did not need or want any medical assistance and the people that assaulted him were gone. So, we left and locked the front door on our way out.

A short time later, we were dispatched to another disturbance. This time, it was person refusing to leave an apartment. At the same time the suspect calls and says that he is being held and can't leave the apartment. When we arrived, the complainant met us outside of his apartment. He told us that he picked up the other male at a bar and brought him home. Once they got inside, the male started smoking crack. Not a big shocker. When we got to the apartment, he was sitting in a chair. He did not appear to be there against his will like he had claimed. He was not chained or cuffed, even though he may have wanted that. He just did not want to leave. After making sure he did not have any crack left, we told him that he was leaving. As he was leaving he demanded an "escort". That made me laugh. I said you are getting an escort, right off the property. Then he said he wanted a ride back to where he had been picked up. Unfortunately for him, our cars do not say taxi on them.

Our last call was for a male destroying his own apartment. When we arrived, he was gone. His mother and girlfriend were in the apartment. The apartment was in shambles. About 10 minutes later, he returned. His biggest concern was about a baggie that he said was in his pocket that he was holding for someone. His pockets were empty. Then he said that he had consumed 20 beers and had Xanax in his system. He was bi-polar and diabetic. He was in a manic stage and definitely a threat to himself. So, we took him to the psychiatric hospital and did an emergency detention order. Hopefully he will get back on his prescribed medications and be able to function.

On Tuesday I was up at the Academy for an in-service class. It was a low light shooting class. Very practical, since I mostly work at night. I always enjoy shooting someone else's ammunition.

Wednesday night was my first night with a new rookie, L. It was his first week of evaluation. I always try to start off evaluation with a mundane report call. It helps to settle down the rookie. They are VERY nervous, and need to relax. Reports are generally easy and allow them to ease into evaluation. Our first call was a basic burglary of a motor vehicle. The guy left his GPS in plain view, and it was gone when he returned.

Next was traffic stops. We did three. Two for passing through a parking lot to avoid a traffic control device and one for an illegal left turn. L did a good job with the traffic stops and his safety was excellent.

Our last call was another report. This time, it was for a criminal mischief. Someone had used shoe polish to tag a guys '94 Pontiac Fiero. He said that he thought a former female "roommate" was the likely suspect. The vehicle was also tagged on Monday night. There was definitely more to this story that he was not willing to share while his current girlfriend was standing next to him.

Thursday was day 2 of evaluation with L. We started with a simple theft call. A female could not find a diamond pendant. The last time that she knew she had it was mid November, 6 weeks earlier. Tonight, she looked for it and could not find it. She wanted to report it stolen for insurance purposes. The entire thing sounded strange and I was skeptical. Her apartment had not been broken into and nothing else was missing. I think that she lost it, and was just making something up to attempt to get insurance money.

Our last call of the night was a CIT (mental illness) disturbance. A group home called us to take a guy to the psychiatric hospital. They told us that he broke curfew at the home and their plan was to call us and have us take care of their problem. The male would not speak to us at all, not a peep. Eventually we spoke with the manager of the facility who agreed to let him back in for the night. The psychiatric hospital would not take him from us. He either has to check himself in or be a threat to himself or others and he was neither. There was nothing that we could do.

Friday was day three of evaluation with L. We were the print unit. We did not have any print or picture calls that night. We made two traffic stops. One driver went through the parking lot where we were sitting. He drove right next to our vehicle to avoid the illegal left turn signs. The driver was from Saudi, and claimed that he did not know that what he did was illegal. L told him that ignorance of the law was not an excuse and wrote him a ticket. It was awesome.

That concludes another week on patrol.

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A1, A2, and Avery ready for bed

A1 & A2 are sharing a bed while Nana is staying with us. Avery joined them tonight.

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Tea party time!

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