Saturday, April 2, 2011

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.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

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