Photos from Spring Break

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The week on Spring Break, March 14-18, 2011

Every year I try to take off from work when Jen and the kids are on
Spring Break. This year I was fortunate enough to be off from patrol
and my extra jobs for the entire week.

I have been attending a Crossfit gym since February. Since A1 was out
of school, he was able to go with me to Crossfit during the week. A1
had a great time. I think that he really enjoyed exercising with me
and he liked feeling like a part of the group. His scores were
recorded and posted on the gym's website right along with mine. He was
motivated and worked hard.

Jen took the kids to see Rango on Monday. I stayed behind at the house
and washed my car. We went over to Courtney and Mike's house for
dinner. Mike grilled steak and chicken and Courtney steamed
vegetables. Mike's father, Alex, was in town and the kids enjoyed
spending time with him and their baby cousin, S1.

Tuesday was our annual family trip to the Livestock Show and Carnival.
Jen and I, the kids, her parents, and my parents all loaded up in the
Suburban and drove up to the Show. We arrived in time to eat lunch.
Most of the family ate Goode and Co. BBQ, while A1 and I had a sausage
on a stick. The Livestock Show is one of the few places where you can
walk around gnawing meat off of a stick and not look out of the
ordinary.

After lunch we walked into the Livestock Show. I had my camera and we
took advantage of the usual photo opportunities, kids in the rodeo
barrel, kids with the longhorn, kids riding the ponies, kids playing
on the tractors, kids petting the bunnies, etc... You get the idea.
After lots of animals and walking, it was time to hit the Carnival. A1
and A2 were told to choose three activities. A1 chose the rock wall,
an obstacle course, and a spinning / flying ride. A2 chose the kids
helicopter ride, airplane ride, and merry-go-round. After the rides,
everyone was tired and it was time for dinner. We ate at Pappacitos
and it was awesome, great fajitas and margaritas.

On Wednesday, the entire family met for dinner at Zio's Italian. A1's
choice I believe. Then we all made the drive north where The Grand
Chapiteau (big top) had been erected for the Cirque du Soleil show
Ovo. We try to go to every Cirque show that comes to town, especially
when they bring the Big Top. The Big Top seats about 2500 people and
is an awesome place to see a Cirque show. Ovo is a show about insects
and was very impressive. From the amazing costumes to the unbelievable
athletic feats of the performers, the show was mesmerizing. A2 kept
asking if there was going to be more. The show completely held her
attention. I highly recommend it.

Thursday was drain the bank account day at the Outlet Mall. My parents
graciously agreed to keep the kids all day and night, while Jen and I
shopped. A2 was in desperate need of clothes, I was told. This was our
first trip, about 60 miles, to this outlet mall and we left impressed.
All of the stores that we were interested in visiting were
represented. The mall was laid out conveniently and we made our way
through it all. We picked up things for everyone and made sure that A2
would have clothes for the summer. On our way back home, we stopped to
eat at the Perry's Steakhouse at Memorial City. The food was
outstanding, which is the norm for Perry's.

While Jen was getting her hair done Friday morning, I picked up the
kids from my parent's house. They had a great time fishing, feeding
the ducks, making breakfast, and watching the Disney channel. We did
some things around the house for the rest of the day. Jen unloaded the
bags from the outlet mall. A2 was very excited to see her new clothes.
After she was shown each item, she would grab it, say that she loved
it, and give Jen a big hug. She is such a precious child. A1 was
particularly fond of his new Nike shirt which says "My skills pay the
bills" on the front. We met Courtney and Mike for dinner that evening.

That concludes another week on Spring Break.

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The week on patrol, March 8-12, 2011

I worked four nights this week, had a partner for one, and was the
print unit on Friday.

Monday night the entire family went to the rodeo. Tim McGraw was the
musical act. He put on a good show and the kids really enjoyed the
rodeo.

P and I rode together on Tuesday. It was a slow night. We were
dispatched to a disturbance in the gayborhood. A male who was wearing
loose fitting warm-up pants lost his wallet in the bar. He claimed
that it had been stolen and was creating a disturbance in the bar. I
was sure that the wallet had just fallen out of the pants and was
lost, but he wanted a report and we obliged.

We were told that there were not enough units for P and I to ride
together Wednesday night. Which was odd since Wednesday is not
typically a busy night and officers were allowed to ride together on
early side. I checked by with Jeff on a disturbance in a very nice
apartment complex. Once we found the correct apartment, we also found
a male sitting in the hallway crying. He had flown in from Atlanta to
visit his girlfriend. Tonight, they had gone out, had a good time, and
gotten drunk. Upon returning to the apartment, they got into an
argument. She got tired of the argument and started ignoring him.  He
did not know how to respond and completely flipped out according to
her and her roommate. Being reasonable officers, we gave him the
option to leave. Through the tears he took that option. Over and over
he kept saying, "it hurts." As we were walking out, he wanted us to
carry his suitcase down 1 flight of stairs.  We advised the weak
momma's boy to carry his own suitcase. We advised him to stay away
from the complex and gave him a trespass warning. He declined our
offer to get him a taxi and walked away from the complex. As you can
guess, he came back an hour later and was banging on the door. He left
before the officers arrived and they could not find him. And he
returned again at 6:15 AM. This time he was found by dayshift officers
and went to jail. Unfortunately, sometimes it is easier to just take
them to jail in the beginning.

I was solo on Thursday. The night was filled with lots of illegal
parking calls. I was dispatched to the same illegally parked vehicle
three times. It was called in by different wrecker drivers each time.
I put a parking ticket on it the first time. The wrecker drivers were
hoping that J would get dispatched because he still tows on occasion.
Not me, unless it is blocking a private driveway, the roadway, a
sidewalk, or fire hydrant, I will ticket the vehicle and leave it
there. To me, it seems like a conflict of interest that a wrecker
driver can call in an illegally parked vehicle in which he stands to
make a financial benefit. I know it is their job and they have the
right to make a living, but it still seems shady.

It was a slow Friday night and I was the print unit. I checked by with
J on a burglary of residence call. The call was unusual for a number
of reasons. First, the residents were at home when the burglary took
place. A vast majority of burglaries take place when the residents are
not at home. Burglars do not want to confront people. Secondly, the
suspect came into the townhouse through an unlocked sliding glass door
which could only be accessed from a second floor balcony. Neither J
nor I could figure out how a suspect could get onto the balcony
without a ladder. Thirdly, the male resident was laying down on a
couch which was right in front of the sliding glass door listening to
music on a set of headphones. The male was awake and never saw the
suspect. Fourthly, the female and her dog, who were asleep in the
bedroom, were startled awake and saw a figure in the doorway. She
thought it was her boyfriend, and told him to quit messing with her.
However, it was suspect. She said that he casually turned around and
left the doorway. Then he walked down two flights of stairs and picked
up a set of keys. Then he went into garage and stole her car. As he
was leaving, he used the garage door remote to shut the garage door
behind him.  It would take one very calm and cool customer to be seen
by the homeowner, and then to just turn around and casually walk out
of the house stealing a car in the process. That stuff happens in the
movies. J and I talked about it afterwards, and he was convinced that
it was some sort of an insurance scam or that they had wrecked the
car, abandoned it and were now reporting it stolen. It was a very odd
set of circumstances.

That concludes another week on patrol.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

The week on patrol, February 28 - March 4, 2011

I evaluated J the first four nights of the week and was the print unit
on Friday. During the week, I was able to get J into a few challenging
situations that allowed me to really evaluate his abilities in the
three categories that he failed, safety, control of persons, and scene
management.

Monday night started with a traffic stop. While we were sitting at a
traffic signal, a female driver ran the red light right in front of
us. Her reason, because she was following someone and they ran the
yellow light. So, I guess that is supposed to make it ok to run a red
light? I don't think so.

We volunteered to run a family disturbance in another beat. With
family disturbances, you never know what you are getting yourself
into. It can be a very volatile situation and good safety practices
are mandatory. At this disturbance, a male and female were arguing.
They both admitted to pushing each other a few times. He claimed that
she swung a chair and tried to hit him. She said that they have their
differences, then added that she grew up Mormon, while his mom is a
divorced lesbian who was abused by his dad. They certainly grew up
under vastly different circumstances. There were no signs of injury to
either person. The district attorney's office refused to accept any
charges on either person. The male volunteered to spend the night at
another location. They were an embarrassed regular couple that just
let an argument go too far.

Then we made a couple of traffic stops. On the second traffic stop, I
heard a new excuse. Asthma. We watched an Escalade make the illegal
left turn. The driver was acting normally. We pulled him over and as
soon as J approached the driver's side door, the driver started
coughing. And coughing. And coughing. He coughed out that he could not
breathe and that he was having an asthma attack. Ok, those can be
serious. J started trying to calm him down. But, the driver was really
bringing the drama. So, I asked him if he wanted medical assistance,
and he said no. J went back to the patrol vehicle and wrote the
ticket, illegal left turn, no driver's license, and no proof of
insurance. J returned and had him sign the ticket. After getting the
ticket, the attack magically stopped. A new cure, a ticket.

Tuesday was day three with John. We started with a criminal mischief
call at a hotel. On video footage from the parking lot, a security
guard saw a truck drive around the parking lot a few times. The truck
stopped by another truck and sat there for a few minutes. The guard
could not see this area very well. Then the truck drove off. The
security guard went over and looked at the truck that was still in the
parking lot and thought that it might have been damaged. To top it
off, the security guard could not find the vehicle owner. So we could
not ask if it was old or new damage. Outstanding. Since we needed a
report, J gathered the available information, which was not much, and
dutifully completed the report.

Then it was traffic time. We made three stops. The first driver was
from Washington state. We stopped him for making the usual illegal
left turn. He told us that he has not been down here very long and
that there are not traffic signs like that in Washington state. Oh
well, here in Texas, if there is a sign with an arrow pointing left
with a big red circle around it with a slash through it, that means
don't turn left. Welcome to Texas.

The second stop was uneventful. Then while we were watching the
intersection, a vehicle stopped at the red light. Then got tired of
waiting, and just drove through the red light. When J asked him why he
went through the red light, he said that he was not familiar with the
area because he is from The Woodlands. So, were we to assume that
there are not any traffic signals in The Woodlands? There seemed to be
a disconnect in our communication, so J wrote him and we moved on.

We started Wednesday, day 4 with J, with two uneventful traffic stops.
Then we volunteered for a family disturbance. The husband is a local
bar owner. He came home drunk and set off the house burglar alarm.
That woke up his wife and their three young kids. She quickly came
downstairs to see what had set off the alarm, and he had already
opened a bottle of wine and was partaking. They began to argue. She
did not want him at home if he was drunk. They yelled at each other
and then he threw the wine glass and wine bottle at her. Luckily, he
missed her and the bottle and glass just shattered against the wall.
Next, he grabbed a sturdy wooden dining room chair and shattered it on
the ground. Anger management issues? Then he drove off. We found him
at his bar where we took him into custody. Since he had not harmed
her, the district attorney would not take any charges. So, we took him
to jail for public intoxication.

Thursday was day 5 with J, the end of the evaluation week. We took a
burglary of a motor vehicle report from another officer. The vehicle
owner left a large bag in plain view in the vehicle. The lock had been
punched out and the bag had been stolen. We did one last traffic stop,
and J's safety was fine like it had been all week.

Our last call was a person down in car at a nearby convenience store.
The call slip said that she had been passed out in the vehicle for
over an hour. We arrived and J tentatively approached the car. I
noticed that the vehicle was on and in park. J knocked lightly on the
window. The driver woke up. J told her to open the door and she did
not. At that point, J looked at me for guidance. He had no idea what
to do from there. Our Sergeant had checked by and she stepped in. She
started yelling instructions to the suspect and banging on the window.
In response, the suspect reached down and put the car in drive. Wrong
choice. At that point, breaking the window would have been justified.
After some further instructions and encouragement from us, she took
the vehicle out of drive and eventually opened the door. She was
greeted with handcuffs and charged with DWI. She said that she had
been at a club and realized on her way home that she was not safe to
drive and pulled over into a well lit parking lot to sleep it off.
Good decision. However, putting the vehicle in drive when we are
instructing her to open the door, bad decision. It is generally a good
idea to listen when a uniformed officer tells you to do something.

Overall, J did well for the week. His safety, control of persons, and
scene management were fine, until our last call with the drunk female.
He passed for the week, and knows what areas he needs to work on to be
a more effective officer.

I was by myself on a slow Friday night. I was the print unit, and
there were not any print of picture calls. So, I checked by with some
officers on their calls to help out.

That concludes another week on patrol.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

The week on patrol, February 21-25, 2011

I was off on Monday, our friends were still in town, and I had a
rookie for the rest of the week.

Tuesday was day 2 with E. Our first call was a burglary of a motor
vehicle. It was the same old story. On the way home from work, a man
stopped at a cigar bar. He left his briefcase on the back seat in
plain view. The man came out of the bar a short time later and found
his door lock had been punched and his briefcase had been stolen. At
least he did not have to clean up shattered safety glass.

Then to complete the training categories, we did a traffic stop.
Another Illegal left turn and another happy citizen. Quick side note,
it is amazing how many times my rookie or myself am thanked after
issuing someone a ticket. I stress to the rookies to treat others like
they would want to be treated, unless they give us a reason to treat
them otherwise. I would unscientifically say at least 75% of the time
we are thanked, which is nice. It would be rude not to respond. But,
how to respond? No, thank you for helping to balance the city's
budget? Poor choice. Peace out? Not professional. Please come again?
Might be taken the wrong way. Your welcome? That sounds a little
contrite or condescending. I know they are not thanking us
specifically for the ticket, but rather for the job we do or how we
treated them. So, when they say thank you, I respond with "be careful
going home."I just think that sounds better than the other choices.

Our last call of the night was another burglary. This one was of a
residence in the other district. A man came home to find another man
walking out of the apartment complex with his tools. He yelled at him
to stop, and then chased him but lost him. Then he tells us that he
leaves his door unlocked. Why is that? Because many people sleep in
the same apartment. It is like a commune or hostel. Any day laborer or
worker can just come and go. Odd. Amazing that anything of value does
not walk off on a constant basis.

Day 3 with Emily was Wednesday. We started with a robbery / delayed
report. Delayed report means that the crime is over and the citizen
wants to report the crime. That makes it is a lower priority call for
us. Or it can be robbery / in progress which gets us there is a hurry
with lights and sirens, because the crime is still occurring. This
time, it was a delayed report, really delayed, but for a good reason.

In this instance, the man that was robbed made a couple of bad
decisions. It does not excuse what happened by any means, but it could
 have been avoided. He was at a gas station late at night. Bad choice
#1, try to fill up during daylight hours, it is  much safer. While he
was in line at the window to pay, three males walked up and wanted to
cut in line. He did not let them. Bad choice #2, it is not smart to
make a stand when you are outnumbered 3-1, unless you are Batman or
have other "special" skills. Let it go and live to fight another day.
He paid and started walking back to his car. On the way to his car,
the three males jumped him. They hit, kicked, drug, and basically beat
the crap out of him. He crawled to his car and drove himself to the
hospital. There, they stapled his head and face back together. He
called us 5 days later, once he was released. He said that he wanted
to make sure that he knew where the robbery took place, in case they
had video of the incident. He was lucky to survive.

Later we responded to another smash and grab burglary of a vehicle.
This time they broke a window and stole the GPS which was still
mounted to the windshield. We finished the night with two traffic
stops.

There were no calls holding when E and I started Thursday's shift, day
4 together. So, illegal left turn, he we come. Our first two stops
were uneventful.

On our third traffic stop, warrants came back after we ran the license
plate. When warrants come back on a plate, it gives us a name of the
driver who was ticketed driving that vehicle. That is who we look for.
Our driver was a female dressed in heels, short-short shorts, and a
bustier. She was wearing a wrist band from a club on her arm. She told
E that she did not have an ID with her. Then how did she get into the
club? Then she claimed that she was just out picking up a drunk friend
from a bar, being a good citizen. Dressed like she was, she expected
us to believe that she was just hanging out at home when her
distressed friend called for help. So, she threw on heels, tiny
shorts, and a bustier to pick her up. Not likely. E asked her for her
name and date of birth. She gave us a fake name and DOB. She kept
changing her birthdate. After being cuffed, put in our backseat, and
some crying, she finally gave us her correct info. E found her state
ID in her purse. It turned out that she was not wanted, she did not
have any warrants. She was just scared. E wrote her two citations and
someone came to pick her up. Emily did not want her to driving since
she did not have a license. It is always interesting.

For our report for the night, we did the offense report part of a fail
to stop and give information 2 vehicle accident for Amy. A guy slammed
into back of a truck. He stopped then took off. He was seen going the
wrong way on another street by another officer who pursued. The chase
was on and he ended up crashing into 3 homes before stopping. Luckily,
no one was injured. He turned a traffic citation for failure to
control speed into a felony evading.

I was the print unit on Friday and had a new rookie, J. He was on
phase 6, the last phase of evaluation. It was either pass or get fired
time. So, as you can imagine, his stress level was OFF the charts. He
had failed three categories during his initial evaluation, all were
safety related.

We started with traffic stops. They give me lots of things to look for
in regards to safety. From how he parks the car to how he approaches
the car to how he controls the driver etc. He exhibited good safety
and control on the stops and was off to a good start.

We did not get dispatched to any print or picture calls. We checked by
on a few scenes and then answered a loud noise call. He did fine
showing good safety and control of people at all times.

That concludes another week on patrol.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

The week on patrol, February 11-15, 2011

It was a very short and sweet work week. I was off on Monday for
Valentine's Day and I was off on Thursday and Friday to hang out with
some great friends who were visiting us from NoCal.

Tuesday night I was riding solo. We had plenty of units and the
streets were quiet.

I was assigned a new rookie, E, on Wednesday. She is 6'4", very nice
with a lot of snap. I will only train her for three nights. Her
trainer went on vacation for 3 weeks, so I am helping out to get her
finished and onto evaluation.

As usual, I started off the new rookie to me, with traffic stops. She
stopped two vehicles for making the illegal left turn. Her safety was
excellent and the traffic stops went very well.

Our report call for the night was a burglary of a residence. The
location was a high rise retirement / hospice home. The complainant
was a crazy lady saying that people were coming into her apartment and
moving things around. We actually get those types of complaints from
people quite often. Usually, because they are a little nuts. She said
that her door had not been forced open, but somehow people were
getting in and moving her things. Later, she added that pain
medication, a pair of slippers, and a few rings had been stolen. She
has had a hard life, kidney and stomach bypasses along with a lung
transplant. She was in her 50's but looked 85. I thought it was all an
elaborate ploy to get more pain medication. She had just gotten a
prescription filled earlier that day, and now she was reporting all of
it stolen. It was a learning experience for E to try to get the
necessary report information from someone that was not entirely
coherent.

That concludes a short week on patrol.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

The week on patrol, February 7-11, 2011

It was another cold week on patrol. Whenever it is cold, it is usually
slow, and this week was no exception.

I called in sick with a sinus infection Monday night. I went to the
doctor earlier in the day, and followed his recommendation to take the
night off.

Tuesday night I was riding solo and it was painfully slow until 3 AM.
Then a citizen chasing a suspect call dropped in another beat. Those
beat units were not available, so I was the lucky one to get
dispatched. The citizen was on the phone with a dispatch supervisor,
so we were getting real time location updates. The citizen and the
suspect ended up leaving my district. Usually, when this happens, a
Sergeant will get on the radio and tell us to disregard and will
instruct the dispatcher to send the call to the units that cover the
new area. However, this time, a Sergeant and the original beat units
got on the air and said that they now have the vehicle stopped. I
arrived a short time later and they just dumped it all on me. The
suspect ended up being intoxicated. She had struck the citizens
vehicle and driven off, which is why they were chasing her. I took her
to a DWI van where they processed the DWI while I did the accident
report.

What I found odd about the entire situation was the original beat
units. They were all tied up doing other things when the call dropped,
which is why it was sent to me. Then, conveniently, they are all able
to become available and check by with me. They eventually caught up
with the suspect and stopped her, which is a good thing. She needed to
be stopped. But, if a call drops in my beat and another unit from a
different beat gets dispatched and then I decide to show up and catch
the suspect, I am going to offer to take the call. That just seems
like the right thing to do.

I was by myself again on Wednesday. It was still very slow and very
cold. I checked by a few times with other officers, but that was about
it.

H came back to work on Thursday. He had called me on Saturday to let
me know that his father had passed away. I told him to take as much
time off as he needed and that I would call the desk Sergeant and take
care of it for him, which I did. By Thursday, he had been off for 6
days. We did our end of phase meetings with the field training
Sergeant and he will start phase three of his training on Saturday.

It was still very cold on Thursday. We ran two loud noise calls that
night. The second loud noise call was LOUD. It was the loudest that I
had ever heard that particular bar. This bar sits right across the
street from a huge apartment complex, one of the benefits of no
zoning. The manager came outside and had this incredulous look on his
face that the police would have been called about the noise. I mean
the music was stupid loud, rap concert, Lolapalooza, jet engine loud.
We encouraged him to turn it down a bunch, which he did. They kept it
down as well because we did not get a return call.

At the end of the shift, we got a burglar alarm at a local tire store.
It turned out to be a good alarm, which means that someone actually
broke into the business. The suspect had drug a tire cart which had
been left in the parking lot over to an overhead door. Then he broke
out a window on the overhead door and crawled inside. The only thing
that he stole was a cooler filled with water bottles. So he risked a
third degree felony charge for a few water bottles. Not a very good
risk versus reward scenario in my opinion.

I was the print unit on Friday, and yet again it was cold and slow. I
checked by on a few scenes, but it was an uneventful night.

That concludes another week on patrol,

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

The week on patrol, January 31 - February 4, 2011

This week I finished training H and was off on Friday night. The week
was bitterly cold and we had icy streets Thursday night.

Monday was day 12 of training for H. We started with a double traffic
stop. A Mercedes Benz followed a BMW that made an illegal left turn.
We got behind and stopped the BMW since it was the lead car.
Fortunately for us, the Benz stopped right across the street. So, I
crossed the street and dealt with the Benz while H focused on the BMW.
I wrote the driver of the Benz a citation while H wrote the driver of
the BMW. I had the driver of the Benz sign his citation first, and
then we walked up to the BMW. H approached the driver's door and I
stayed a little behind. I do not think that the female knew that I was
there. She then decided to use all of her womanly charms on H in an
attempt to avoid the ticket. It was entertaining to watch. H did a
good job of staying focused and accomplished his task.

Our first call of the night was for credit card abuse. A woman was
notified that her credit card was used at Macy's in NYC. It was used 4
times in an hour and it was physically swiped every time according to
the credit card company. The crazy thing was she was still in
possession of her credit card. So, someone got her card number and
made a fake card that worked when swiped. That is a little scary.

Later we took theft in progress call. The call came in as a guy trying
to steal a bicycle. We pulled up and sure enough, we saw a guy trying
to free a bicycle from a bicycle lock around a pole. I almost had to
scream at H for him to get out and snatch up the guy. He looked like a
deer caught in headlights. He had no idea what to do. Luckily for us,
the guy did not run. It turned out that it was his bike, which
explained why he did not run. His key had broken in the bike lock and
he was using some tools to try to get the key out.

Tuesday was day 13 of training with H and it was bitterly cold. Our
report call for the night was another burglary of a motor vehicle. At
a local bar, a guy left his backpack in plain view on the backseat of
his car. The backpack contained a pistol. He came out a short time
later and was surprised to see that his vehicle had been burglarized.
Maybe next time he will leave the pistol at home, or will leave the
backpack at home, or will leave the backpack in the trunk, or etc...

We made two traffic stops that night. Both were for illegal left turns
and both had expired inspection stickers. Like shooting fish in a
barrel.

It was still very cold on Wednesday, day 14 with H. We made two more
traffic stops for illegal left turns.

Later we were dispatched to an assault at a bar. A male assaulted the
door guy and a bartender when they would not let him go upstairs to a
"special" room. We tried to get some clarity about the "special" room,
but they were VERY vague with details. The males had two outside
witnesses that observed the assault. It was a little ironic that both
witnesses just happened to be escorts when the assault was about a
"special" room. I am sure that you are wondering, how did I know they
were escorts? Because they gave H their card identifying themselves as
escorts. No shame in their game.

Thursday was day 15 with H, our last training day together. It was
still very cold, but the night had the added bonus of freezing
precipitation.

We were dispatched to an assault / criminal mischief that happened
earlier in the day. The original report had already been completed,
but the complainant had some new information. Normally, the
complainant will call the division investigating the offense to add
information to the report. But, since we were training, I decided to
let H get the new information and supplement the original report. This
was a cat fight between employees at a beauty salon. One girl hit
another and then the one that was hit went outside and damaged the
other's car. H gathered the new information and we were on to other
things.

A few hours into the shift, the roads started to get slippery. By the
end of the shift, most overpasses were covered with ice and
impassable. We had to venture onto the freeway when we were dispatched
to a major accident on the freeway. A red truck slowed down going
uphill toward an overpass. A PT Cruiser coming onto the freeway was
driving way too fast for the conditions. The Cruiser slammed into the
back of the truck which then slammed into the wall. By the time we
arrived, another accident had taken place in the same area. There were
wrecked cars all over the freeway. Eventually, we got the freeway
cleared and H completed the accident report. That morning, a few day
shift officers were able to make it in to work, and we were given
permission to go home. It took me over an hour to make my usual 25
minute drive home. The roads were a mess.

That concludes another week on patrol.

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The week on patrol, January 24-28, 2011

This was a very slow and uneventful week on patrol. I trained H the first four nights and we were off on Friday. 

 

Monday was day 8 with H. We were the print unit and it was raining. There were no calls holding so we started off with a traffic stop. We waited for someone to make the illegal left turn and then H preformed a good and safe traffic stop. That was our only stop of the night because stopping traffic in the rain is miserable.  

 

A little later, we checked by with Anna. She had made a traffic stop and had an arrest, so she needed her prisoner searched. I needed to cover training categories and H needed the practice, so H searched her prisoner. He did not find any contraband or weapons. 

 

We were the print unit again on Tuesday, day 9 with H. We made two traffic stops to start off the shift. The first driver made an illegal left turn, had an expired registration, and right as we stopped him, threw a cigarette butt out of his window. That is a big pet peeve of mine, littering. I see it all the time driving on the freeway, but I am never in a patrol vehicle. On the rare occasion that I am working and witness the littering, I enjoy giving that ticket. So, H gave him a ticket that included three violations.

 

The second traffic stop turned out to be an officer. He was polite and apologetic, which is not always the case. It was a good opportunity to teach H about professional courtesy.   

 

Later in the shift we were dispatched to a minor accident. A guy was paying attention to his cell phone and speeding on a road with a few big curves. Luckily, he only ended up hitting a curb and a pole which flattened his right side tires. After he had given us his initial statement, he said that another car must have hit him since there was damage on his right rear bumper. We went to look at the bumper, and there was a scratch, just a scratch. There was no chance that another vehicle hit him and caused this accident. It was all on him. But, since that was his statement, we had to put that in the report as well. We still found him at fault. It is amazing how frequently people lie on accident scenes. I guess they think that they are pulling one over on us and are getting away with something. Where is the integrity? 

 

Wednesday was day 10 with H and almost a carbon copy of Monday night without the rain. It was cold and there was almost no vehicle traffic. We were able to make one illegal left turn traffic stop. Then we had some free time, so we went over some things in his training book that we had yet to cover.

 

Thursday was day 11 with H. We volunteered for a FSGI accident in parking lot. A BMW 650, which had been parked by a valet was hit by a large SUV. The valet saw it happen. He stopped the SUV. The SUV was being driven by an intoxicated male. The male got out of his SUV and slapped the hand of the valet as he tried to write down the license plate number of the SUV. The valet was able to get us a good plate number which came back to a SUV that matched his description of the vehicle. At least it was something for the hit and run investigators to use.

 

That concludes a slow week on patrol.  

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The week on patrol, January 17-21, 2011

This week I started off solo and then trained H for the last four
nights of the week.

Monday was a city holiday, so all of the rookies were off since the
City does not want to pay them the overtime. That means that I was
riding solo that night. My first call was a CIT (mental illness)
disturbance. At the location, there was a 49 year old white female
having an "episode". She was mentally retarded and in the custody of
her older sister. The older sister had recently moved her in with her
because at her last placement she was getting abused. Years earlier
she had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by her brother-in-law.
Today, she would not get out of the car. She had been in the car since
5 PM, and it was now 1 AM. The sister wanted to get her help. She was
not a threat to herself or others, so there was not much that I could
really do. I was worried that if I tried to use force to get her out
of the car, she would freak out and we would have bigger problems. So,
I tried to talk to her. But she just kept telling me to go away and to
leave her "the shit alone". Afterwards, the sister said that was the
longest time that she had talked to a stranger and that she was amazed
that she talked to me at all. We agreed that leaving her in the car
was the best option. The sister and I decided to get her some things
to make her more comfortable in the car. The car was in a secured
parking garage, so she was safe. After the sister returned with the
items, I gave her a blanket, backpack, pillow, and her dog. She let me
put the blanket on her and I put the dog in the driver's seat. I told
her that her sister would check on her every few hours. According to
the sister, MHRA was coming to the apartment at 4 PM that day to begin
services. The sister felt bad, but I told her that it sounded like she
was doing the best that she could. She was trying to get her the help
that she needed.

Tuesday was day 4 for of training with H. Our report call was a
burglary of motor vehicle. Three vehicles had been broken into at a
local bar. All were parked close to each other, all had broken
windows, and all had a bag visible from the outside. Two guns, a
laptop, and an iPod were stolen, while a set of golf clubs were left.
I guess the suspect thought that it would look strange to be walking
down the street at night with a set of golf clubs.

Our traffic stop was for an illegal left turn. The two females in the
vehicle were on the way home from work, they were strippers. They were
cited for an illegal left turn, expired registration, and no
insurance.

The last call of the night dropped as a girl running down Montrose
wearing only her panties. After she sent the call to us over the radio
and read the details, there were quite a few volunteers to check by.
The call sounded like a sexual assault, but it was not. It was just a
girl that had some kind of drug in her system. She had flagged down a
car on Montrose, and that vehicle had brought her home. She had some
difficulty getting inside, so we used her keys and got her safely
inside. She was belligerent and very lucky that she did not go to jail
for PI.

Wednesday was day 5 of training H. We started off the night by
checking by on burglary of residence in progress. It ended up being
male / female disturbance. They got into an argument and he left the
apartment to go to sleep in his car. He made the bad choice to return
to the apartment a short time later. She had thrown the upper dead
bolt and he could not get into the apartment. She would not let him in
either. So, he kicked in the door (which is legal, since it was his
door). Anger issues maybe? She said that he had never gotten physical
with her. H ran his TDL and he had a few traffic warrants. Bingo. He
went to jail for his warrants and we knew that she would be safe all
night.

A burglary of a residence was our first call on Thursday night, day 6
of training for H. This house has been burglarized 4 times in the last
two years. I wrote a report for the homeowner about 4 months ago. This
time the suspect went in through a back window. They stole a small
flat screen TV. The homeowner had an alarm installed since the last
burglary, and I think that scared him off.

Then we checked by on a train versus car accident. The car had a
female driver with a male passenger. According to the train's
conductor, the car crossed over the tracks, and then backed up onto
the tracks right in front of the train. The conductor said that the
driver looked up at him as the train was bearing down on them. Very
strange. Sounded possibly intentional. The car was pushed along the
tracks for 1/2 mile. She suffered a broken pelvis, femur, tibia,
fibula, and had a concussion. We learned later that she ended up
losing a leg.

Friday was slow. It was H's 7th night of training. We made two
uneventful traffic stops and H cited both drivers. Our report call for
the night was another burglary of a motor vehicle. The vehicle owner
left a GPS unit up on the windshield. The suspect broke the window and
took it. When will people stop leaving valuables in plain sight??

That concludes another week on patrol.

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