Drunk on a Monday

The driver of the VW was so intoxicated that he could not remember where he lived or on which street he had been driving. Luckily the people in the other car only had minor injuries. The VW ran a red light and t-boned the Subaru which then hit the building. A DWI unit came out and processed him for me.

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The week on patrol, August 22-26, 2011

We had eleven units in the district Monday night. Early in the shift I was dispatched to check by with R on a CIT (crazy person) disturbance. According to the call slip, it sounded like a domestic disturbance called in by the male. R arrived and spoke with the female who was outside the apartment complex in a car with a friend. According to the female, she is the ex-girlfriend of the male, even though she has been staying at his apartment the last few days. Tonight, he wanted to go out, but she did not. A verbal argument started that kept getting worse until it turned physical. Things in the apartment were damaged and thrown at each other. Then he punched her in the right eye. They wrestled and somehow broke the front door. She was finally able to get away and called the police from a nearby gas station. She had a badly swollen eye and scratches all over her arms and legs. 

We went up to check the apartment for the male, and no one was inside. We asked the dispatcher to call the male and to ask him to step outside to let us into the apartment complex. The dispatcher got ahold of the male and he said he would be out shortly. A few minutes later, the male drove up and we got his side of the story. He said that the female had broken into his apartment and gone crazy. She started throwing things and hitting herself. He left the apartment to get away from her. He called the police as well. R did a criminal history check on each of them. The male had three priors for burglary and the female was currently wanted for city warrants. Quite a couple. 

R called the district attorney's office and gave a DA a summary of the events. The DA took class A assault on the male. Pictures were taken of the female's injuries and the male went to jail. I really did not know who to believe. The female had the injuries, but the male called the police as well and then returned to the scene. It is unlikely that he would return if he had just beaten the crap out of her, but people do strange things. I was glad that it was not my call, but it would have been a great training call. 

Tuesday night we had eleven units in the district. It was unusually slow, especially in my beat. I was only dispatched to one call, and that was as a back-up unit. It was an alarm call at a local restaurant. One of the owners activated the alarm. He did not know the alarm code. He said that he was going to be sleeping in the restaurant because he could not get into his residence. He said that he lives with his brother and his brother had used the upper deadbolt on the door which does not have a key to the outside. He tried to wake his brother, but did not have any luck. So, he will sleep in the restaurant. Safer than sleeping in your car.

Typically we are short handed on Wednesday, and this week was no exception. We had 8 units in the district. We have a new captain at our patrol station. Our former captain was chosen to become the chief of staff for the chief of the department. This is the new captain's first assignment as a captain, he was recently promoted. He decided that we are having too many burglaries of motor vehicles in our area. So, for the time being, every night, one unit in each district is assigned to provide extra patrol in an area that is having a problem with BMVs. I got that assignment tonight. The desk Sergeant told me to put myself out on the assignment twice during the night when it was slow. It was slow when I signed on, so that is the first thing that I did. I patrolled the area for about 30 minutes. I did not see any foot traffic at all and only three vehicles in the area. I will do it again later in the shift.  

A little later I was dispatched to a theft from a vehicle. A guy went out to a bar and parked his truck in view of the front door. When he returned to his truck in 3 hours, the back tires were missing and the truck was sitting on a small jack. The rear brakes were also stolen from the truck. All of this took place in plain view of the valet and the door guys for the bar. The guy asked the bar to pay for his vehicle to be towed home which I thought was reasonable under the circumstances, but they refused. His friend had AAA and they came to tow the vehicle to his house. It has been a few years since I have seen this type of theft in my area. I hope that it is not starting up again. We eventually caught the last group of guys doing this, but it took a few months and a lot of reports.

At the end of the shift I was dispatched to a suspicious vehicle. When I arrived I found a VW Bug sitting at an intersection, engine running with the lights on, but no one was inside. I looked to the left and noticed a male passed out leaning against a building. I think that I found my driver. I nudged him a few times with my flashlight and eventually he woke up. I asked him a few questions and he sat there mute. Finally, he told me his first name. I asked where he had been earlier in the evening and he said, "my lawyer is on the way." I said, "great, tell him to meet you at the city jail." He would not tell me his last name or where he lived. When I told him to stand, he said "why?" He was testing my patience. After I got him up, cuffed, searched, and into the back seat, I went to search his vehicle. He did not have a wallet or any ID on him. In a small backpack, I found his provisional driver's license. Awesome. I ran him on the computer and he had seven open warrants. Even better. 

Thursday night we had 9 units in the district. At roll call, we were shown the crime statistics from the past year. In my district, crime is down 20% this year compared to last. My first call of the night was to provide traffic control on a major accident. A Ford Ranger ran on stop sign and was t-boned by a Jeep. The Ford rolled onto its side. The driver of the Ford said that he could not see the stop sign because it was obscured by tree branches. I took a look and you can see the stop sign at least 40 feet before you reach the intersection. He will have that as a possible defense if he chooses to fight the running the stop sign ticket that he received. 

My next call was a burglary of a motor vehicle which was parked on the street by a club. A female, J, met me by her vehicle. J said that she came to the club with two friends and two cousins. Inside the club it came to her attention that her cousins were popping pills, Xanax and Ecstasy. This made her very mad because she assumed that they brought the pills with them and had them in her car. J confronted the cousins in the club. They argued and J ended up just walking out to cool off and calm down. The cousins decided to leave. They had left some of their stuff inside of J's car. So, to get their stuff, they decided to break into the car using a brick to break a window. Who needs enemies with family like that?

My last call of the night dropped as a suspicious person. The call slip said that a male wearing only underwear was banging on their front door yelling for help. N & K checked by and found the almost naked male before I arrived. The male told them that someone had broken in his house and he had escaped and ran for help. We met at his residence. His boyfriend was outside waiting for the police when I pulled up. He said that two men had come into their bedroom and demanded money. There was a struggle and the nearly naked man ran out of the house for help. The two suspects left the bedroom at that point and the other male got out of the house. The males never saw the suspects leave the house, so we had to assume that they might still be inside. I called for a K-9 unit to check by and the officer and his dog cleared the 3 story house for us. One of the suspects was a former roommate until about a year ago. They kicked him out after he started smoking crack. The suspects took cellphones and a wallet, but they left their cellphone in the house. They entered the house through an unlocked back door. The male said that he had lived there since the 1970's and never  had a problem so he leaves all his doors unlocked. I advised him that he might want to think about locking his doors in the future. 

I was the print unit on Friday night. We had eight units in the district. There were not any print or picture calls. The shift started out with a bunch of callers reporting that the windows of their vehicle had been shot out. The incidents occurred on the street near two different apartment complexes. There were at least 15 vehicles that had been damaged.

I checked by with N & K on a major accident to provide traffic control. It was an FSGI accident, the at fault driver left the scene. A silver Toyota was west bound and wanted to turn onto another street going southbound. The driver failed to yield the right of way and turned directly into the path of an east bound Ford Focus. The Toyota then drove away. It turned out that he did not drive very far away. Another officer, A, who was writing a report in a nearby parking lot noticed a silver vehicle with some damage to it park on a nearby street. The driver got out and walked away. A did not have a very good view of the damage, so she walked over to check it out. The vehicle had some substantial damage. A thought that it was probably the involved vehicle. The person that got out of the vehicle was gone. 

A called N to tell him that she thought that she had found the other involved vehicle. He told me about it and I went to check it out. As I got to the block where the Toyota was parked, I was sitting at an intersection talking to A, who found the Toyota. As we were sitting there, a black Camero going about 50 mph in a 30 mph zone blew right through a stop sign. I looked at A and said, "did he really just do that?" I activated my lights and pulled over the Camero. The driver said that he was the designated driver for his buddy who was passed out in the passenger seat. That is a great concept, but when the designated driver is drunk, it does not work out so well. I called for a DWI unit. After some field sobriety tests, the driver was arrested for DWI. The driver had turned 21 three weeks earlier. 

While I was dealing with the DWI, A was dealing with a drunk female nearby who she thought might be the driver of the Toyota from the earlier accident. After some investigation, it was determined that she was not the driver. She was just a drunk girl trying to get home. A called her a cab. Right when the cab arrived, A noticed that the Toyota that was involved in the accident just had a light come on in the vehicle. She saw the door open, a male reached inside, then closed the door and got into a nearby vehicle and started driving away. A activated her lights and pulled over that vehicle. The passenger admitted to being the driver of the Toyota that was involved in the accident. He said that his boyfriend brought him back to the Toyota in order to get his satchel out of the car. He was arrested and the district attorney took FSGI charges against him for leaving the accident scene. He was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. First, he leaves the accident scene. Then he parks his car only two blocks away from the accident scene. To top it off, he returns to his car and gets into it with a police officer in plain sight. To get a satchel! I hope that the satchel was worth it.

My last call was another check by. I went by with A on a criminal mischief. A female was having problems with an ex. Tonight he came by and broke two trees and then smashed the windshield of her Audi. She told us that he either emails or texts her every day. The relationship ended in February. He tells her that he loves her and hates her. That she ruined his life and is the best thing for him. That he wants to kill her cat and his cat. Sounds like he needs some medication. She is tired of the harassment and wants some help. A wrote her a report and it will be up to the investigators to get him into custody. 

That concludes another week on patrol.
 

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1st Day of Kindergarden

A1 and A2 in A2's kindergarten class.

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The week on patrol, August 15-19, 2011

I rode by myself this week. We were short handed again on Wednesday. Most of the interesting calls this week involved clubs or bars. 

Monday night we had nine units in the district. Early in the shift I was dispatched to an assault / delayed report at a bar. A customer had become belligerent and assaulted the bartender and doorman. He grabbed the bartender's buttocks and spit in the doorman's face. He also told the manager that he was racist because there were no black people working in the bar. They gave me a good description of the suspect. I looked for him, but came up empty. An hour later, another disturbance dropped at a different bar. The suspect's description in the call slip matched my suspect perfectly. This call slip said that the suspect had threatened to hurt the owner and blow up the bar. When I arrived on that disturbance, another officer was taking the suspect into custody. The district attorney's office refused charges on the threats. We returned the suspect to the earlier scene where the bartender and doorman positively identified him as the suspect. The suspect went to jail for a trifecta of public intoxication, assault by contact, and assault by offensive contact (spitting).  

Later in the shift I was dispatched to check by with D on a suspicious person. I arrived and the complainant told me that someone knocked on his front door at 3:30 am. Without checking a peephole or window first, he just opened the door. The knocker, a male, entered the apartment without being invited. The complainant did not know the male. The male asked for money to buy gas. The complainant gave him $40 and then gave him a ride to another location. After returning home, the complainant thought that the male was suspicious and wanted the police to find him. Suspicious? Knocks on random door at 3:30 am. Check. Walks in uninvited. Check. Asks for money. Check. I told the complainant that I would look for the male, but chances are, he will be back to your apartment because you are his new sugar daddy. 

Tuesday night we had ten units in the district. I ended up running 5 calls during the shift, an alarm, a loud noise, a criminal mischief, and I checked by on an assault in progress and a disturbance. The criminal mischief happened at a local bar where they frequently have live music. A male was upstairs by the band and equipment. He went to pick up a guitar that was not his and was asked to leave the equipment alone. He became belligerent and started making racial comments. He was escorted out of the bar by the management. As he was walking through the parking lot on his way off the property, he took out a key and scratched the hood of a vehicle. Ironically, the vehicle was owned by the person that asked him not to bother the equipment. The bar was able to provide me with his name from a credit card receipt. 

At the end of the shift I checked by on a disturbance. It turned out to be a lover's quarrel. A male came over to his ex-boyfriends house at 5 am and started banging on the door and yelling. The ex did not open the door and the male kept banging eventually waking up most of the people in the small apartment complex. We arrived and found the male walking down the sidewalk. He was extremely intoxicated and went to jail for public intoxication. 

Wednesday night we were short handed again, 7 units in the district. I was dispatched to a disturbance that had been holding for an hour. A large bare-chested male had come onto the property of an office building. He started banging on the glass. When security approached, he acted "all crazy" and cursed at them. Then he bent the antenna on a security vehicle. He decided to leave and crossed the street to a club where he assaulted a male and damaged his vehicle. Other officers responded to that location, detained him, and later transported him to a psychiatric center for evaluation. He told the officers that his name was Barack Obama.

Later in the shift a major accident dropped in another beat. A beat unit was dispatched and M & A checked by to help with traffic control. The accident happened in a nice part of town near an upscale shopping area that has a 24 hour security patrol. M & A arrived and began investigating the accident. An extra job officer working the security patrol ran over and told them that a Hummer had just driven down the nearby railroad tracks. The Hummer took out one of the railroad crossing arms in the process. M looked down the tracks and could see the Hummer bouncing along. In the distance he could also see a train. M called out over the radio for back-up and then started running down the tracks after the Hummer. About 1/4 mile down the tracks, the Hummer got stuck. Two females jumped out of the Hummer and ran back towards the road and disappeared. Two males stayed inside the vehicle until M got them out of the truck. The males were both intoxicated. Other officers began arriving and took custody of the males. M then jumped into the Hummer and freed it, getting it off the tracks before the train arrived. 

The driver of the Hummer was not very cooperative. He had no idea that he had hit the crossing arm and driven down the tracks. The other male said that he was in the back seat making out with one of the females when the truck suddenly turned sharply and started bouncing down the tracks. A DWI  unit arrived and took custody of the driver. He searched the Hummer and found marijuana and numerous pipes in the center console. A short time later, another male and female walked up to the scene. The female told me that her friend was driving the truck and that some of her stuff was inside. They had all been out clubbing together. About that time M walked over and recognized the female as one of the two that had jumped out of the Hummer. She was taken into custody. I guess she thought that she was going to be able to trick us into believing that she was not involved. Then I talked to the male that had walked up with her. He said that he was behind the Hummer when the crash happened. The two females ran up to him and he drove them down the street a few blocks. He said that the other female was a few blocks away in his car. M went down and brought her back to the scene. I ended up transporting the females to jail for public intoxication. The other male passenger went to jail for public intoxication as well. 

We had nine units in the district on Thursday night. A few hours into the shift I was dispatched to a suspicious person at one of the nearby clubs. The call slip said that the male that assaulted the caller two weeks ago was inside the club. A couple of units checked by with me and we spoke with T, the caller. T said that two weeks ago she had gotten into a verbal argument with K and his friend M at this same club. That night, K and M had made fun of T because she was wearing cow print pants. The argument became heated and K and M were kicked out of the club. A few hours later, T was walking to her car and K and M were walking to another club. They encountered each other in a nearby parking lot. The argument resumed. Then, T said out of nowhere, K punched her in the face. T fell to the ground and hit her head on the curb. K and M ran off. 

T went to the hospital and was told that she had a concussion. At the time, she did not know the identity of K or M. T went to the same club the following night and spoke to the DJ. She described the males and the DJ said that it sounded like K and M. T got on Facebook and did a search using the names that the DJ had given her. Sure enough, K was the male that had punched her and M was his friend. Tonight, she came back to the same club and saw K and M inside. We followed her inside and pulled K and M out of the club to hear their side of the story. They both said that they were making fun of T because of her cow print pants. K said that T had pushed him and then he hit her in the face. M said that he did not remember T pushing K. He did remember K punching T in the face and T falling to the ground. I called the district attorney's office and they took class A assault charges against K. K also had 4 city warrants. 

My last call of the night was a person down. A white female was passed out in the grass in front of some condos. An ambulance arrived before I did and they told me that she was fine and did not need any medical treatment. I walked over to her and she told me that she was fine and did not need anything. Then she told me that she was homeless. She did not look homeless. But, she got up and started walking away. She said that she would go sleep in the park. Fine with me. 

I rode my regular numbers on Friday night. Our normal print unit was here working for another officer. We had nine units in the district. My first call was to check by with N and K on an assault in progress. The call slip said that a fight was going on across the street from a club. A male was on the ground and a group of other males was punching him. We all arrived and the fight was over. We found a few males that looked like they had been in a fight. One was not wearing a shirt, one had a torn shirt, and another was covered in blood. They said that one of their friends had gotten into a fight with someone in the club. They were kicked out of the club and the fight continued across the street. Their friend had been knocked unconscious by another group of males. They came to his defense and broke up the fight. We could not find the victim, the unconscious friend. About 10 minutes later, a unit found the victim. He was stumbling around trying to find his car. He was conscious and drunk, but had a torn shirt, was bloody, and had a huge knot by his left eye. The suspects were all long gone. The victim was transported to the hospital. We never found out what the fight was about or how it started. 

I little later I was dispatched to an assault in progress in the back parking lot of a pub. The call slip said that one of the suspects had a pistol and had fired a round into the air. By the time officers arrived, the suspects had fled the scene. The incident began with an insult. Three males at the pub had all been part of a wedding earlier in the evening. They were all still wearing their tuxedos. An asian male insulted one of them by saying that they all looked gay since they were dressed alike. Instead of just blowing it off, one of the tuxedos decided to pursue the asian male outside and punched him in the face. The tuxedo then went back inside the pub. The asian male went and got his friends. They waited outside for the tuxedos to leave the pub. Once the tuxedos came out of the pub, the asian and his friends started threatening the tuxedos. At this point, they were all separated by about 20 feet and a car was in between them. It was all verbal and looked like it might stay that way until one of the tuxedos decided to run up into the face of a suspect. Once he did that, another suspect ran over and punched him in the face knocking him backwards into a wall. Another tuxedo jumped in and was punched in the face a few times by a suspect. While this was going on, another suspect took out his pistol and fired a round into the air. After the gun shot, everyone stopped fighting and the suspects got into a vehicle and left. A witness had the entire incident on video that he shot with his iPhone. I asked the tuxedo why he turned the verbal argument into a physical one by running up into the suspect's face. He had no answer, he just said that he got hit in the face. Sticks and stones. I bet the tuxedos are a little less eager to get physical the next time they are insulted.

That concludes another week on patrol. 

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The week on patrol, July 4-8, 2011

The week started off with a city holiday. A and I were only allowed to ride together one night and we are short handed on late side. 

Monday was the 4th of July which is a city holiday. I was ordered in to work, which surprised me. I figured that I had enough seniority to observe the holiday, but that was not the case. Officers with 5 more years on the department than I from my station were ordered into work. Luckily, I am now late side so I avoided most of the traffic coming into downtown for work because of the Freedom Festival. The festival takes place in my district, and we were very short handed. It was crazy until about 2:30 AM. When I signed onto the computer, there were almost 3 pages of calls holding from my district. Most nights, there might be a call or two holding. Most of the calls were loud noise disturbances, minor assaults, and minor accidents. 

My first call was a code 1 assault in progress in government housing. Initially, I did not have any back-up, because everyone else was busy. I pulled into the housing complex and activated my lights and sirens. Everyone scattered. My conservative estimate is 500 people were clogging the street when I pulled into the complex. I left the lights on and drove around for a few minutes while the crowd dispersed. I did not find any bodies on the ground and no one attempted to flag me down.  

Later, I was dispatched to a loud noise disturbance at a high rise apartment complex. There was a party on the roof and it was too loud according to the call slip. I made my way to the roof and they had just shut down the party when I arrived. Everyone had moved into an apartment on the 10th floor. I spoke to the resident of that apartment and he decided to shut down the party. For the next 20 minutes, party goers flowed out of the 600 square foot apartment. They must have been stacked on top of each other inside the little apartment. Lots of interesting people wearing interesting outfits came out. If I did not know better, I would have thought that it was a Halloween party. 

Tuesday night A and I rode together. We finally had decent number of units. We were dispatched to a trespasser call early in the shift. The call slip said that a homeless male was sleeping on a bench by an office building. As we arrived, we were flagged down by a security guard. He told us that he had asked the male to move, and he had refused. We drove over to the male and shined the spotlight on him. I told him over the loud speaker that it was time to find another place to sleep. He sat up on the bench, but did not stand. A gave him the option to find a new place to sleep or go to jail, and he chose jail. As I walked toward him, he said, "the police do not help people anymore." So, I asked him what we could do to help him. He said that he needed a bus ticket back to Oklahoma. He told us that he had hitch hiked here from Oklahoma City. I told him we could give him a ride to the bus station, but he did not have any money for a ticket. I asked if he was interested in going to a shelter. He said that sounded good. I searched him and then we transported him to a Salvation Army shelter. He was appreciative. 

At the end of the shift, we checked by with P who had been flagged down about a fight in progress. When P drove to the fight location, he found 10 males fighting. Most of them scattered, but two stayed behind. They both went to jail for public intoxication. We transported one of the males. He was drunk and high and demanding to know why he was going to jail. I told him for public intoxication. He said that he was not intoxicated and that he had a right to a breathalyzer test and a drug test before going to jail. "I know my rights." Sure you do. On the way to jail, he told us that we were going to get sued, that we were racists (he was white), that this would be on TV and that he was a "dumb hill billy", his words. It is always interesting in my beat. 

I was by myself Wednesday night. We had decent number of units in the district, but late side was thin with only three. I ran 5 calls throughout the shift. A suspicious person, loud noise, disturbance, checked by on an assist, and finished with an alarm. 

Assists are always interesting. An assist is when an officer gets on the radio and says that he needs units code 1. That means lights and sirens and any nearby officer will drop everything and get to the other officer as fast as possible. Usually it will be an officer that is in a physical fight. Tonight, this officer got on the air and said that he had a fight in progress and needed units code 1. He then gave an address. When I arrived, there was nothing at that address. I continued in the direction that I was going and found him a couple of blocks away. I got on the radio and fixed the location so that the other units could find us. The officer was just finishing getting three males into custody when I arrived. It turned out to be a fight between three drunk friends. Two of them got into it and the third one went to separate them and they all ended up fighting and then going to jail. 

Thursday I was by myself again. A and I were told that we were too short handed to ride together. But we had to have two units assigned to do DWIs. We already have a DWI task force and a bunch of DWI overtime units. We only had 6 units in the district to run calls. It does not make any sense, but those in charge do not ask for my opinion.

My first call was a loud noise at a club. It was not an every night call, but it does drops frequently. The club had live music playing inside and then they had the windows open. I spoke with the bartender and he closed the windows and turned down the volume on the band. 

Later I was dispatched to a theft / delayed report. A male thought that he had secured his bicycle to a pole outside of a bar. He told me that a friend came into the bar and told him that he had watched someone mess with a bicycle outside and then ride off on it. The friend did not know who owned the bicycle. The male went outside and his bicycle was gone. Apparently he did not secure the bicycle very well.

Towards the end of the shift I checked by with another officer on a domestic disturbance at an apartment complex. A neighbor heard a commotion next door. The neighbor was concerned, so she knocked on the door. A female answered the door with a bloody nose. That prompted the neighbor to call the police. We arrived, knocked, and a male answered the door. Beyond him, we could see that the apartment was in shambles. I went inside to speak with the female while the other officer took the male outside to speak with him. The female told me they had been dating for 3 years. Things had been great until she got into law school and they moved to town about a year ago. This was the third time since they moved here that things had gotten physical during a fight. Tonight, they had met at a bar. An argument started. She grabbed his cell phone and found text messages on it to another female. She then flushed his cell phone down a toilet. She then left the bar with two male co-workers. When she made it back to their apartment, he was already there. The argument continued and somehow they started pushing and wrestling. Things were thrown and a glass coffee table was shattered. She would never tell me exactly what happened during the fight or how she got a bloody nose. I asked her if she was afraid of him, she got this incredulous look on her face and said, "of course not." The look on her face said, "I can beat his ass if I need to." The district attorney declined to take any charges against either person. A report was written, and hopefully they will separate before they really hurt each other. 

On Friday I was print unit. Once again, I was told that A and I could not ride together because we did not have enough units. However, I was told to ride the print unit, which is not in the call for service loop. I only follow orders, not make them. 

I ran three loud noise calls, one narcotics complaint, a traffic hazard, and a person down, not a print or picture call in the bunch. The person down was a male who was passed out behind a bar. When I arrived, the manager of the bar told me that he had tried to help the male, but the male was belligerent and rude. I woke up the male and had him sit up. He told me that he had been out drinking with his wife and a group of friends. They left a different bar, started walking, and somehow left him to pass out behind this bar. He said that his wife had his cell phone. I tried to get a phone number from him, but he could not remember it. I then asked if he wanted to take a cab home and he liked that idea. The problem was that he could not remember his address. The first three times that I asked for his address, he gave me a phone number. Not a good sign. Then he said that he had recently moved into a new house and could not remember the address. I was able to get an intersection out of him and gave this to the cab driver who took him. He either is a very annoying drunk or he needs to get new friends. I can not imagine being left or leaving someone to pass out behind a bar.

That concludes another week on patrol.  

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The week on patrol, June 27 - July 1, 2011

This was my first full week back from my vacation. A and I rode together two nights and were told that we could not ride together on two other nights. Strange. Right now there are different rules for different officers.  

On Monday I was by myself. We were a little short handed with only 8 units in the district. Call volume was normal with mostly mundane calls such as  illegal parking, suspicious people, loud noise, and alarms.

A few hours into the shift, R asked for units to check by with him code 2 which means "get here quickly". He had a disturbance with a white male that claimed to be a psychic and was seeing a man that had died a month earlier. I spoke to his roommate. He said that he was asleep and all of the sudden, the suspect just started freaking out. The roommate was in fear and kicked him out of the apartment and told him to go to his grandmother's house. The psychic went down a block to his grandmother's house and immediately started trashing the place. The grandmother could not hold him down and called us. He had calmed down by the time we arrived. He was checked out by an ambulance, and R decided to leave him with grandma. A few hours later, I got dispatched to a disturbance on the same block and I arrived to find the same psychic man and his grandmother covered in blood. The psychic had decided that he wanted to go back to his boyfriend's house and grandma followed him. On the street, they were both jumped and robbed by two males. While the robbers were hitting the man, grandma jumped in to try to protect him. They do not live in the best part of town. The man was transported to the hospital and the grandma went back inside after getting treated by an ambulance.  

A and I rode together on Tuesday. We were dispatched to a disturbance at an apartment complex. The call slip said there was a male inside an apartment refusing to leave. I knocked on the door and a 6'5" black man wearing a dress answered the door. There was another, shorter, black man dressed as a man in the apartment as well. Turns out this was called in by an estranged lover who was trying to create drama for the cross dresser. Like a cross dresser needs any more drama. As we were dealing with this disturbance, another one spilled out into the courtyard of the complex. So, we finished up with the cross dresser and headed downstairs. They had slammed the door shut by the time we got down there, so I knocked. A female holding a young child answered the door. I could see at least 5 other people inside the apartment. I asked if everything was alright, and she responded, "we are having a family *&%$^&%$." The last word was complete gibberish. I said, "a family what?" She said a family discussion. Oh, a discussion. Because to us it sounded like a family yelling match. Everyone inside the apartment was ok, so we asked them to keep the "discussion" a little quieter.     

We went to the Chevron to use the rest room and to get a drink and there was an officer making a traffic stop in the parking lot. It was an officer, M, who used to work with us and he was out working DWI overtime. He arrested the driver and asked A if she would she her for him. A did the search and found about $100 in cash on her in various pockets. She showed her all of the money and then put it all in her back right pocket. A few hours later, M called and asked A where she had put the money since they could not find it on the arrested driver. A told him exactly where she had put the money. M had checked his patrol car and the areas where the suspect had been and could not find the money. M took her to jail and told the jailer that she had the money on her person somewhere. So, the jailer strapped on some gloves and went and did her job. She found the money. The suspect had taken the money and hidden it in her vagina. The suspect told the jailer that she was scared that the money would be stolen from her in jail. Doubtful. We think that she was trying to hide it and then later drop a complaint blaming A for stealing the money as a way of deflecting attention away from her during her DWI trial. Crazy.

On Wednesday A and I rode together and we were short handed with only 6 units in the district. We were dispatched to a littering complainant at a local no-tell motel. The called said that another tenant had dropped trash in front of the caller's door. She confronted the litterer and did not get any satisfaction. When we arrived, there was not any trash in front of her door. A told her that there was not anything that we could do since it happened on private property. We advised her to call the hotel front desk to get some action. 

Later, we were sent to a criminal mischief / just occurred at a nearby fast food restaurant. We arrived and the manager came running out to tell us that 3 males had assaulted another male in the drive through line. We got a description and started looking around for those involved. A few minutes later we were flagged down by the victim who was in his vehicle. He told us that he was in the drive through line when three males walked up to his vehicle and started talking trash to him. He said that he had never seen the males before and had no prior contact with them. He told them that he did not want any trouble. Then one of the males broke out a window of the victim's vehicle with his palm. At that point, the victim drove away. We gathered his information and then returned to the restaurant where they told us that they had the incident on video. We noted that in our report. 

On Thursday I rode by myself. We were short handed again and this time they would not let us ride together. I ran a bunch of calls, and only one of them was interesting. I checked by on a CIT (crazy person) disturbance where the call slip said that a male was yelling and screaming and punching walls. When I arrived, the crazy male was sitting on a curb talking to a friend. The friend told me that the crazy male was not crazy, just drunk. The problem was the male had been taken back into his apartment twice already and had returned outside yelling and screaming while wearing less and less clothing. When he came out this time, he was only wearing a t-shirt, no pants, no drawers, no shoes. While he was sitting, he got tired and decided to lay on the ground, in the fetal position, with his rear pointed towards two female officers. They were not amused. It was difficult not to laugh. I asked him where he lived and he gave me 6 different apartment numbers. We were finally able to find his correct apartment to get him some pants. His roommate was home and the roommate agreed to take custody of him for us. We assured the drunk male that if he returned outside, he would go to jail, pants or not.

I was the print unit on Friday. The desk sergeant told A and I that we could not ride together. We were told later in the shift that A and I could have ridden together. At times, it seems like the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. 

I received one picture call during the shift. It was a domestic disturbance. The male told me that he and his girlfriend had just moved into a new house. Tonight, they went out to celebrate. According to him, on the way home, she freaked out and started yelling at him. A few blocks from home, she stopped the car and screamed at him to get out of her car, which he did. He walked home and once he went inside, she started yelling at him again. He sat down to take off his shoes, and she attacked him. She bit him twice on the leg and once on the arm drawing blood while leaving teeth impressions. He was able to get away from her and called the police. She went to jail for assault and I photographed his injuries. 

That concludes another week on patrol.

    

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

The week on patrol, August 8-12, 2011

I rode by myself all week. We were short handed on Wednesday and I was the print unit on Friday.

On Saturday night, my part time partner, A, switched to early side. Hopefully things will work out for her on early side. I rode solo Monday night. We had ten units in the district. My only interesting call was a criminal mischief report. The caller told me that her Explorer had been damaged three times in the last week. She then showed me the damage to her vehicle. Someone had taken something like a key and scratched two panels of the truck. The initial "A" was carved in the door. Tonight, her dogs started barking and her husband went outside on a balcony to investigate. He saw the suspect walk by the truck with something shiny in his hand. The suspect was walking a dog so he probably lives nearby. I asked her if she had made someone angry recently or had any type of ongoing dispute with someone but she could not think of anything. Strange because this seemed a little personal.

I was solo again on Tuesday. We had nine units in the district. As soon as I signed on, I was dispatched to check by with D on a code 1 assault in progress at a club. Code 1 calls are our highest priority calls. I was not close but got there in under 5 minutes. I was the first to arrive. I found a large crowd in the street with more people in a parking lot and even more streaming out of the club. Five bouncers from the club had a man, F, handcuffed and on the ground. All of F's friends were yelling at the bouncers and it was close to getting out of hand. As soon as I stopped my patrol car, people flooded in my direction. That was a little odd, normally when the police arrive, the crowd scatters.

At first, I tried my calm voice and demeanor, but quickly abandoned that and started yelling and pushing people back. Drunk people do not listen, and everyone wanted to talk to me at the same time. Since F seemed to be the center of attention, I got him off of the ground and put him into the backseat of my patrol car. Then I continued to try to separate people because F's friends were still trying to fight the bouncers. After about 5 minutes of dealing with this, I began to wonder where the primary unit was and why was it taking him so long to get there. He finally arrived and we were able to restore a little calm to the situation.

After speaking with everyone, I learned that F owns a new bar in the area. He took all of his employees out for a night of fun. F's son got a little too drunk and passed out on a couch. It is illegal to sleep where alcohol is being served. So, a bouncer went to wake him up. The drunk guy had a startled reaction to being awakened and hit the bouncer. The bouncer claimed that he was kicked in the testicles. Then it was game on. The bouncer thought he was being attacked so he went nuts and all of his fellow bouncers jumped in. F and all of his employees came to the defense of F's son. Chaos ensued. Girls were jumping on bouncers backs and then getting thrown to the floor or put into choke holds. Luckily no bottles or chairs were used as weapons. The bouncers finally got F out of the bar and that is about when I arrived. The bar did not want anyone to get arrested. They understand that these types of things happen in bars. A few of the girls were upset that they had been pushed. If you don't want to be pushed or choked, don't jump into the middle of a bar fight. We took statements from at least 10 people for the report. F was arrested for public intoxication. He was out of control. The amazing part was that no one was injured. There were a few bumps and bruises, but nothing significant.

My last call of the night was a disturbance at a nearby restaurant. The call slip said that a white male wearing aping shirt had been rude and had gone into the women's restroom. When I arrived, the male was outside in the parking lot by his car with his friends. The caller walked out of the restaurant to speak with me. She said that the male had tried to grab her butt and when she did not appreciate that, because belligerent. He then followed his lady friends into the women's restroom. Later he told her that the food was not fit for dogs and he told other customers that his food had been spat in. Sounds like a great guy. Of course, he had a little different story. He said that he never went into the women's restroom, only stood by the door. He said that he might have stood a little too close to the waitress when she was counting her money. He did admit to saying the food was not fit for dogs. Strangely, he had a "to-go" box filled with the food when he said it. The waitress did not want to pursue anything, she just wanted a report and for him to leave and not come back. I advised him to leave and gave him a trespass warning.

We were short handed again on Wednesday night. We had six units in the district and only two on late-side. Luckily, the call volume was low again. My only interesting call of the night was an auto theft report. The call slip said that she had found her stolen vehicle. The location was an intersection. I found the complainant, J, sitting in her sister's car. J told me that her baby's daddy whom she lived with for 4 years had assaulted her and stolen her vehicle about a month ago. At that time, she went to a police station and reported the assault and she thought the auto theft. I could find the assault report, but it said nothing about the auto theft. She had received instructions from the officer to send a demand letter to her baby's daddy requesting the return of the vehicle. The letter had to be sent certified and if there was not a response after 10 days, the vehicle can be reported stolen. That is the case because the baby's daddy had previously had permission to drive the car. So, he did not steal the vehicle, he just did not bring it back on time, in the eyes of the law. But, a police report has to be generated to get the ball rolling. That should have been done a month ago, but was not. I took her information and took care of that for her.

The vehicle was parked at a nearby bar where the baby's daddy works as a bartender. I asked her if she had a set of keys, because it is her vehicle and with keys she could just take it back. But, he had the only set of keys. Her father is a wrecker driver and was nearby. She asked if he could pick the vehicle up. I said sure, it is your vehicle. It would be a private tow between you and your dad, the police would have nothing to do with it, because it is currently a civil matter and not a criminal one. She liked the tow idea, but her father was nervous about towing the vehicle. The baby's daddy is apparently a tatted up gang member and not a very nice person. He did not want to risk retribution to get a '93 Toyota Camry back for his daughter. After that plan fell through, I left. Hopefully for her the demand letter that she sent will be all that she needs and an auto theft investigator will report it stolen soon.

Thursday night we had 10 units in the district. Early in the shift I was dispatched to a home invasion / in progress. The call slip said that a white male was trying to open the caller's front door. Other units arrived before I did, and they found the white male knocking on the door. He did not try to run away when the officers arrived. I arrived and spoke with him. He said that he had been drinking at a nearby bar. He started talking to another male and that male invited him to his home to drink a little more. So, they started walking to his house which was a few blocks away. Somewhere along the way, the white male lost sight of his new friend. He walked up to the house where he thought his new friend had gone. He knocked on the door. The white male was intoxicated, and only 4 blocks from his apartment. He said that he lived with his girlfriend. I was not sure that I believed him. Chances are he was either trying to score drugs or wanted to try out an alternative lifestyle. I decided to take him to his apartment and left him in the care of his girlfriend.

Later, I checked by with N & K on a minor accident. They requested a unit for traffic control. A brand new with dealer plates Hyundai Equus had slammed into 3 parked vehicles and scattered debris everywhere. A witness said that the vehicle was going at least 80-90 mph when it reached the curve in the road and did not quite make the turn. It slammed into a full size extended cab truck which was parked along the outside of the curve and moved it 30 feet into a silver Toyota. Then the Hyundai kept going and hit a Ford Ranger and moved it 15 feet. The Hyundai came to a stop about 20 feet away from the Ranger. In the process, the Hyundai lost the front bumper, the steel bumper underneath, and the rear door on the driver side. None of the airbags had deployed. The driver left the scene before we arrived. He left a TX driver's license, an empty flask, and two empty beer bottles behind in the vehicle. The sticker for the vehicle was inside the glove box and it said $65,000! For a Hyundai! Ouch.

On Friday I was the print unit. It was a typical Friday night with lots of calls involving intoxicated people, clubs, loud music, and disturbances. I ran a few calls, checked by on some others and did not have any print or picture calls. I checked by an assault in progress at a club involving extra job officers. The call started out as a wagon call, but the suspect decided to fight the officers. It took all 3 of the extra job officers to get this guy on the ground. They were still struggling with him when our units arrived. The suspect then tried to punch one of our officers. The suspect was finally hand cuffed and placed in leg restraints. He went to jail for assault on a public servant. A large crowd came out of the club and started advancing toward the officers as they were dealing with the suspect. More units arrived and pushed back the crowd. The decision was then made to shut down the club for the night. A few club goers went to jail for public intoxication. It took about an hour to get the club cleared and everyone out of the parking lot. I am not sure you could pay me enough money to work an extra job at a club.

That concludes another week on patrol.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

The week on patrol, June 20-24, 2011

This week we returned from our Disney vacation. I worked two nights and was off the rest of the week. 

Wednesday night I rode with A. We were flagged down on a person down in a vehicle. We went to the location and sure enough, a guy was passed out drunk in his van. The van was off and parked in a parking lot. P came by to habla for us. The drunk guy decided that getting towed home was a better alternative than going to jail. A wrecker picked up the van and took him home. A few days later, I found out from another officer that a few hours later, the guy drove back to the location and tried to steal some outdoor chairs from a nearby restaurant. They had it on video. Idiot. I have found that the vast majority of the time it is easier and safer to just arrest the drunk person rather than be nice.

A little later, S on viewed a road rage incident. A guy cut off a truck. The truck honked at him. The guy threw something at the truck and took off. The truck followed. S saw them flying down a major road going at least 70 mph. S caught up to them. When he caught them, the truck was in front of the other guy's car and his car was going backwards. We checked by to help out. The guy turned out to be drunk and was charged with DWI.

On Thursday, I was the print unit. 1 district was short handed with only seven units. I ran a few mundane calls, loud noise, illegal parking, BMVs etc...

I volunteered for a suspicious person call. The call slip said that a man knocked on the door and asked for Cindy. There was not a Cindy at that address. The male then went to his red Celica and got out his laptop computer and started doing something. This made the caller very nervous. I found the suspicious male. He was from out of town and just had the wrong address. He used his laptop to find the correct address. Crime solved. 

My only picture call of the night was late in the shift. J, who I trained got an alarm call. When he arrived he observed a male crawling out from under a fence. J quickly snatched him up and then saw a flat screen tv on the other side of the fence. The male had broken into a nearby seafood restaurant that is surrounded by a tall fence. He found a hole in the fence that gave him access to the next door business and found another hole in that fence that gave him access to the street. He cut himself up going into and out of the broken window. I took pictures of the suspect, the scene, the tv, and a bloody shirt. 

That concludes another week on patrol. 

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

The week on patrol, June 6-10, 2011

This was a very short week for me on the streets. The only night I
worked was Tuesday. I needed to help Jen get things ready for our trip
to Disney World. We left on Friday. I did work my extra job on Tuesday
(filled in for A), Wednesday, and Thursday.

Tuesday night I was by myself. A and I were told there were not enough
units to ride together. Three officers called in on early side in one
district and we were already short handed because of officers off for
in-service training.

At the start of the shift, I checked by on a code 1 assault in
progress. I found the apartment complex quickly but it was like a maze
inside. Other officers arrived and it took us awhile to find the
correct apartment. We really need maps of the complexes on our
computers that come up when we are dispatched to an address. It should
not be that hard to implement and it would reduce our response time.
The door was answered by a young Asian female. She said that nothing
was going on and that everything was fine. Being trained investigators
:^) we noticed a broken phone on the floor and other signs of a
struggle. She explained that a "friend" that she has been getting
together (booty calls) with for two years broke the phone. We asked
why? She could not remember why. Then she remembered that they had
been looking at dresses online and he became enraged and freaked out.
No other explanation or reason was given. I guess he had a very
visceral and emotional response to a dress. The downstairs neighbor
had heard the commotion and knocked on the door. The Asian female
asked the neighbor to call the police. Then the male left. It was a
little strange.

Later I Checked by with A on a loud noise after she got on the air and
said that she had one male in custody. He was intoxicated and did not
know where he lived. He said that he worked for Radio Shack and lived
in a hotel. We used his phone to call a friend who came to pick him
up. Right after the friend arrived, the drunk guy started acting
stupid. He would not listen and started resisting. So, he got placed
nicely on the hood of the patrol car until he relaxed again. I am not
sure what else was in his system, but it was something other than
alcohol. He calmed down quickly and the sober friend willingly took
custody of him.

That concludes another week on patrol.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

The week on patrol, May 30 - June 3, 2011

This week started off with a holiday, Memorial Day. I was the print unit three  nights and rode with A twice. 

Memorial Day is a city holiday so we were on minimum staffing. The regular print unit officer was observing the holiday so the desk sergeant asked me to ride the print unit. My first call was assisting N & K on a major accident with a roll-over. I was very close. A female driving a Nissan Murano ran a red light and hit a Ford Escape Hybrid which then flipped over onto its roof. The driver of the Escape was transported, but she did not appear to have any major injuries. The driver of the Murano admitted to drinking beer all day by the pool, but when she was given the standardized field sobriety tests, she passed.  

Later, I reluctantly checked by with D on a fast vehicle. I only went by because I was very close again. D said that a Toyota 4 Runner was going about 100 mph down Richmond. The 4 Runner finally pulled over just as I arrived. D walked up yelling at the driver to stick his hands out of the window. D cuffed his hands while they were sticking out of the window. The driver was intoxicated and his shorts kept falling down once he was out of the vehicle. D told him that he needed to buy a belt instead of beer. The driver could not step into the back seat of the patrol car because his shorts had fallen again, so D shoved him head first and then picked his legs up and slammed the door. I made sure that D did not want any other help and then made myself available quickly after that. It is always an adventure with D.

My last call was checking by with N & K on a BMV in progress. I arrived and the reportee yelled at me that the suspect had just gone north and then east. I drove that way and there was no one. We searched the area but came up empty. 

Tuesday night I was the print unit again. It was completely dead. I think everyone was still recovering from the holiday.

I rode with A on Wednesday. Our first call of the night was a suicidal female. She is a regular customer, but this was my first experience with her. She is a 50 year old depressed alcoholic that gets lonely and calls for an ambulance. Then they call for us. She said that she wants to hurt herself but has no plans to do so. We took her to a psychiatric hospital and I did an Emergency Detention Order. They will evaluate her and keep her for three days. 

We checked by with D on a rollin stolen. We were very close. The vehicle stopped once D activated his emergency lights, and then took off on us once we started walking up to the vehicle. She led us on a 7 mile high speed chase in a Chevy Tahoe. She cracked up (crashed) and then ran into the woods where she was taken into custody. She resisted us a short time later and had to be leg restrained. Her wiglet fell off in the struggle. The vehicle had been left running at a laundromat where she jumped in and took off. That night I posted a video of the vehicle burning. 

A and I worked a little overtime on Thursday. We wrote some tickets. Then we rode together that night as well. We were dispatched to check by on an assault in progress at a piano bar. A female walked up to another female and yanked her to the ground by her hair. This caused her to strike her head on the ground. It turned out that the victim had slept with the suspect's boyfriend a few times while they were dating. They are now broken up, but the suspect obviously still harbors some anger. She went to jail for class A assault. The victim was EXTREMELY dramatic and drunk. She was  breathing hard and almost hyperventilating, 45 minutes after the assault. It was very hard to get any information out of her. She was really working it. 

Friday night I was the print unit again. My only print call for the night was holding when I signed onto my computer. It was a burglary of a residence. The suspect had broken a window by the back door and then unlocked the back door. They then went up to the master closet and took jewelry. No electronics were taken and there were electronics everywhere. An iPad was on the counter right by the back door. I advised the home owner to get two sided keyed dead bolts for all of the door locks that are by glass. I could not find any liftable prints on anything that had been moved. I am not CSI material. 

That concludes another week on patrol.  

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

The week on patrol, August 1-5, 2011

We were short handed late in the week, but the call volume remained relatively low until Friday. I rode with A three nights and was the print unit on Friday.

Monday was my first night back in 10 days. We had nine units in the district, but two of them had hospital assignments, so we really only had seven units to run calls. My first call was a check by. N and K were dispatched to an assault in progress. The call slip said that a mother was beating her children. It was a regular call. I have been to the apartment at least three times in the last month. The complex has thin walls and the woman is loud. Each time the call has been unfounded. This time was no different. The kids had been crying and yelling, but not from a beating. Instead of beating the kids, she makes them stay in a sitting position (like if they were in a chair so they are supporting their body weight) against a wall or in the up position of a push-up. When she first opened the door, we saw one of the kids in the sitting position. All of the kids were fine, no marks or bruising, and they all had the same exact story. The woman was tired of us coming out and we are as well.

My next call was a CIT (crazy person) disturbance with a weapon. The caller was the crazy person. She claimed that a man with a small gun was sawing up through her floor. The only problem was that she lived on the first floor of her apartment complex. So, unless the man was a tunneler or a mole, she had nothing to worry about. We talked to her for a little while and did a little checking around to make her feel better. She was not a danger to herself or others, so we left her there.

My last call of the night was a disturbance. This was the fourth time tonight that the same complainant had called the police. Initially he called to report that he had been robbed and his vehicle had been stolen. The next three calls were to tell us that same basic information. He always added a little something like he had just seen his vehicle in the area or the guy that robbed him was standing on the corner. The problem was it was not a legitimate robbery. The guy had given his vehicle to someone in exchange for crack and wanted us to get it back for him. Outstanding.

A and I rode together on Tuesday. We had nine units in the district. Our first two calls were loud noises in another beat. Each time we were disregarded from the call when a beat unit became available. Nice. We were disregarded from our third call as well. We were dispatched to a traffic hazard. A car was disabled in an intersection. As we were enroute, another unit got on the air and said that he would take care of it.

We were finally dispatched to a call that we had to run, no one disregarded us. The horror. We were sent to a disturbance at a CVS. A homeless person went inside and was refusing to pay for items. The homeless person left the store before we arrived without stealing anything. The store personnel wanted us to find him and tell him to not come back to the store. We found him across the street at a gas station. I told him not to return to the CVS. He asked why and I said because they do not want you there. His exact response was, " Well, you can tell them to go f@&$ themselves." Then he stormed off. It was amusing.

Our last call was a person down. An elderly male was laying against the side of a business. An ambulance arrived first and they decided to transport him to a hospital. He had his medication with him, but he was disoriented and did not know where he was.

We had six units on Wednesday night. A and I rode together again. Our first call was a major accident.Three wreckers, an ambulance, and ourselves looked for it and could not find the accident. It was called in by an anonymous person who did not leave a name or call back number. Therefore, there was nothing else for us to do. We cleared it GOA, gone on arrival. 

We ticketed two illegally parked cars after being dispatched to the scene. A wrecker driver had called in the illegal parking. Then we checked by on an accident with a disturbance and were disregarded by the primary officer as soon as we arrived. Our next call was another major accident. Once again, no one could find it and we cleared it GOA. Our last call was an alarm in an upscale shopping area. It was false.

Thursday night we had 8 units. A and I rode together again. Right after roll call we checked by with N & K on a sexual assault of a juvenile in government housing. While the mother was at the store, her 15 year old daughter let 3 boys into the apartment, a 17, 15, and 12 year old. The 15 year old girl promptly disappeared into the bathroom with the 17 and 15 year old boys and did who knows what. While that was going on, the 12 year old boy cornered the 15 year old girl's two younger sisters, who are 10 and 12 years old. The 12 year old boy then pulled down his pants and told the girls to "suck his stuff." The 12 year old girl then grabbed a phone and said that she was calling her mom. That scared all of the boys and they ran out of the apartment. The 15 year old girl ran out as well before the mom got home. The young girls did not know where the boys lived. We drove around a little but did not see anyone out walking around.

Then we checked by with W on a disturbance at a hotel. It turned out to be a cluster. The call slip said that a husband had assaulted his mother-in-law. The family is from Phoenix and are here because some one is getting treated for cancer. There were at least 10 people staying in one regular hotel room. After hearing everyone's story, which were all different, we did not think that the mother-in-law was assaulted. However, the male suspect, told us that his daughter had gone missing the day before and that he had located her. She is 14 and was with a 20 year old male. Then we found out that he had a fight with the 20 year old male when he found them together. The 20 year old started telling the father what he had done to the daughter and that she was no longer a virgin. Then the 20 year old took out a large screwdriver to use as a weapon. The father got a bat out of the truck. Do not bring a screwdriver to a bat fight. The 20 year old was not there to give his side of the story. The father told me that he has 10 kids with three different women. His oldest daughter got pregnant at 15. We were not the primary unit, thankfully. This one was all over the place. The primary unit ended up supplementing the missing person report and then generating a new report to document everything else. No one went to jail.

Our next call was checking by with M on a person down. A male was passed out in the grass just off of a major street. An ambulance arrived right after we did. We tried to wake him using a sternum rub. At first it was ineffective. With a little more pressure, it started to have the desired effect. I would rub, and he would scream. We would ask questions and tell him to open his eyes and he would scream and spew profanities. This went on for a few minutes. The ambulance crew had seen enough and realized that our jail would not take him since he could not walk. So they grabbed their stretcher. We picked him up, placed him nicely onto the stretcher, and secured him to the stretcher. He had some minor injuries and did not have a wallet in his pocket. To us it looked like he might have been tossed from a vehicle, but he was so uncooperative, there was nothing else that we could do.

Then all was quiet until 6 AM when we were dispatched to a disturbance. The call slip said that a young male wearing shorts and no shirt had just walked into someone's house. Wonderful. We arrived at the house and the female caller met us on the street. She said that he was still there. We walked up to the house and found the male sitting in a chair on the porch smoking a cigarette with the female's boyfriend. A took the lead and started asking him questions. It went nowhere quickly. A asked him where he lived and he responded with "earth." He would not tell us his name. He gave us at least 6 different addresses. At one point he said that he was homeless (he smelled homeless), then said that he lived with his parents. He had no idea where he was or how he got there. Then he got a little belligerent and we thought that we were going to have to fight him. Then he calmed down again. He seemed to be cycling up and down. We wanted to get him to his parents if possible. That seemed like the best alternative. He gave us an address that was close and a description of the house. We took him to that address and the description he gave us matched the house. We were hopeful. Our hopes were dashed when no one answered the door. He continued to be evasive and gave us no real information. We had enough. From the way he looked and the answers that he gave us, it could be easily articulated that he was high on some substance. So, we put him in jail for public intoxication. Once we arrived at the jail, he decided to cooperate and gave me all of his real information that I was able to verify on the computer. The entire call was a little surreal.

Friday night I was the print unit. I checked by with A on a person down and then I was asked to check by to lift some prints from a vehicle that had been burglarized. The owner of the vehicle had left his briefcase in the backseat and then gone inside to eat at a restaurant. Shockingly, when he returned to his vehicle, the window had been smashed and the briefcase was gone. The primary unit asked me to try to lift a few prints from the outside of the vehicle. I lifted a few, but they were all smudged. Prints on the outside only prove that a person touched the vehicle, not that they burglarized it. But I did not mind making the effort.

Then from 2:30 AM until the end of the shift, things went a little crazy. There were drunks, disturbances, loud noises, alarms, people down, with everything else mixed in as well. Some of the calls were interesting, and some were not. A few of the interesting went like this. I was the first to arrive on a person down to find a male shirtless passed out in the hallway of an apartment complex. His shirt was a few years away from him. The call slip said that the male was trying all of the door handles in the hallway. I used my flashlight to give him a sternum rub in an attempt to rouse him. He stirred a little, so I rubbed a little harder. This did the trick and he opened his eyes. He sat up and I noticed that he had a tattoo on his back, the logo of the NY Yankees. Interesting. He kept trying to stand and I kept having to force him to stay seated where we wanted him. We asked him where he lived and he said, "right there." Over and over, no matter how we asked him, he gave the same answer. We asked for street name, street number, apartment number, roommates, and he kept saying "right there." That earned him a trip to jail. He had just turned 21, and apparently had not yet figured out how to handle his alcohol.

I volunteered for another person down call because all of the beat units were tied up on other calls. This one involved a male passed out behind the wheel of a car. It was called in by a wrecker driver who was hoping to get a tow out of the deal. I found the male and he was passed out but breathing behind the wheel of a car. The motor was on, but the car was in park. The vehicle was parked legally in a parking lot. After consulting with a supervisor, I decided to let the male sleep. I had no way to know if he was drunk, but if he was and he decided to stop in a parking lot to sleep it off, I was not going to punish him for that decision.

My last call was a picture call. J and W called and asked me to take a few photos of their scene and suspect. They had been dispatched to a burglary of a motor vehicle in progress. They were searching the area and saw a male that matched the suspect description from the call slip. They jumped out of the patrol car and the suspect took off. He ran to the nearest apartment complex and the first apartment door he tried was open and he went inside and slammed the door shut. J was right behind him in pursuit so he did what he should have and kicked in the door. The suspect was on the floor in the living room after having dropped his gun by the door. They took him into custody without further incident. I took pictures of everything since the district attorney's office asked for them.

That concludes another week on patrol.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

The week on patrol, May 23-27, 2011

This week, manpower was all over the place. We were short handed, then
had plenty, then were short handed again. Luckily, the call volume was
low for the week.

On Monday I rode by myself. We were short handed as compared to a
normal Monday night. The night was very slow until the end. I was
dispatched to a wagon call at 5:40 AM at a Walgreens. An EJ officer
from another jurisdiction working there had someone in custody for
theft. A pet peeve of mine is officers working extra jobs out of their
jurisdiction. If something happens, they can not do any of the work
because they have no jurisdiction. They can make the arrest, but all
of the paperwork and report falls to the on duty unit. The suspect
grabbed 4 boxes of cereal and a gallon of milk and tried run out. The
officer tried to taser him and missed. But then somehow got him into
custody. The suspect was also wanted in Indiana for felony theft. I
did the paperwork and dayshift came out to transport and to do the
report so that I could get off on time.

I was solo again on Tuesday night. We had our regular compliment of
units. Taking advise from my Sergeant, I asked the Desk Srg to look
into Amy and I becoming partners. That way we would not have to ask
every night. I am not optimistic, but you never know. The night was
very slow. Very few calls for service dropped and I was not dispatched
to anything.

Wednesday was a repeat of Monday. I was by myself and there were not
very many units. I was dispatched to a major accident on a major
street. Three units, about 10 wreckers and an ambulance canvased the
area and could not find the accident. The dispatcher tried the
callback number and got voicemail. Those are my favorite accidents,
the ones that disappear.

Later, I found a person down who was laying about halfway into the
right lane of a fairly busy street. An ambulance and I got there at
about the same time. They woke him up and surprisingly, he was not
that intoxicated. He was alert and able to answer questions so we let
him walk home.

J and I did overtime Thursday afternoon. We wrote lots of tickets, but
nowhere near enough for the traffic overtime program at our station.
For that program, they want 20 tickets per officer during a four hour
block of time. If you ride with a partner, you guessed it, they want
40 tickets. They are single handedly trying to make up for the city's
budget shortfall. That night, J and I rode together. We ran a loud
noise and a suspicious person call. Overall, the call volume was very
low.

Friday night A and I rode together. We rode the print unit for the
first half of the shift, and then Aimee switched to her regular
numbers after I left. I went home early to get some rest for the
Original Mud run which was Saturday morning. We did not have any print
or picture calls and the call volume was low for a Friday night. We
checked by on a couple of calls, but nothing of interest.

That concludes another week on patrol.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

The week on patrol, July 18-22, 2011

This week we were stacked at the beginning and extremely short handed
at the end. We were unusually busy on Wednesday night. I rode solo for
three nights and had a partner for one. I was off on Friday to start
our week at the beach house.

Monday night I rode solo. We had six units in the beat which is the
most we have had in weeks. There were quite a few calls holding when I
signed on, which was very odd for a Monday. The desk sergeant informed
me at roll call that I had the front desk for the second half of the
shift. That means that I sit at the front desk of the station for a
few hours and handle any walk-ins.

I was dispatched to three loud noise calls during the first half of
the shift. They were at a dry cleaners where they were doing loud
construction, a midnight soccer game in a park, and live music at a
club. The construction and the live music were ending as I arrived.
Easy enough. The soccer game was in full swing. When I pulled up, the
game stopped and everyone walked over to see why I was there. That
never happens. There had to be at least 30 people there to play at
12:30 AM and they were very friendly. They agreed to try to be a
little quieter.

Around 2:30 AM I headed to the front desk. We currently have a
temporary front desk at my station. They are in the process of
securing the desk area with bullet proof glass and card access doors.
I watched a bad movie and managed to stay awake until I was relieved
by day shift.

I was by myself again on Tuesday. A had in-service training today. We
had quite a few units again tonight. Evening shift left quite a few
calls on the board for us to run. I was dispatched to a burglary of a
motor vehicle in the club area of my beat. A guy came out this morning
to go to work and discovered that things had been stolen from his
vehicle. All of the windows and door locks were still intact. He said
that this was the second time that his vehicle had been burglarized in
this manner. He lives on a very busy street with a lot of foot
traffic. I stressed to him that it might be time to take all of the
personal property out of the vehicle.

I left his house and went two block west to run a narcotics complaint.
The call slip described three males and said they had been selling
drugs on the street corner for the last two hours. Only one of the
males was still on the corner and he started walking away as soon he
saw the police car. I stopped him and he was not holding any drugs. He
was hard of hearing, so communication was difficult. He could have
been faking it, but I do not think so.

My last call of the night was a suspicious person. A citizen was
awakened by a female yelling. She looked out her window and could see
someone sitting in a vehicle parked on the street beside her
residence. I spoke with the person inside the car, a female and she
said that everything was ok. She said that she was waiting for a
friend to come out of a nearby house. She did not appear to be
intoxicated and was able to answer my questions. I told her to try to
keep it down.

Wednesday night I was solo again, and it turned out to be a busy
night. We only had 6 units in the district and that was with the desk
sergeant moving one unit down from the other district. A was by
herself again in her beat. They told us again that there were not
enough units for us to ride together, but they allowed it on early
side. It is getting to be a little frustrating.

My first call was the usual wild goose chase. It goes like this, a
concerned driver sees another driver weave a few times. They think the
other driver is intoxicated and call the police. They give a location
and then they begin to follow the other driver, updating their
location to the call taker. We get the call a few minutes later, and
most of the time the drivers are either already or about to be out of
our district boundaries. That means that they are usually far away
from us already. But, since it is a "citizen chasing a suspect" even
though it is out of our area, we have to go. By the time we arrive,
usually the citizen has either lost the suspect or lost interest. That
was the case tonight. The citizen started following the suspect
downtown. Just as I was dispatched to the call, the citizen lost the
suspect somewhere in my beat. Every wrecker in the city swarmed the
area looking for the suspect, to no avail. Every now and then, we find
the suspect and they are in fact intoxicated. Usually, we never find
them or we find them and they were either texting or playing with the
radio. Not my favorite call.

Then I was dispatched to an illegally parked vehicle that moved just
before I arrived. Next was an assault in progress that turned out to
be nothing at all. Then a robbery with weapons where the caller left
the scene before I arrived and would not return to give me any
information. Then the bottom fell out.

I was dispatched to a family disturbance at a very nice high rise
apartment building. The disturbance was on the 27th floor. A security
guard escorted me up to the apartment. A woman in her 30's answered
the door. Directly behind her were floor to ceiling windows with a
panoramic view of the city. She said that her husband had left wearing
just boxers when she called the police. I could not see any marks or
bruising on her, but it looked like she had been through a rough
night. She invited me and the backup officers into the apartment. From
the looks of the apartment, it had been a rough night. I counted at
least 6 holes in the wall that were each at least a square foot in
size, some were much larger. Furniture had been toppled over and large
statues had been moved around. She told me that any time that her
husband comes home drunk, he flips out and destroys the apartment. She
said that it happens more than once a month and showed us where the
walls had been patched in the past. She claimed that he had not hit,
pushed, threatened, or done anything to her. This was the first time
that she had called the police. I asked her why and she said that they
have a 5 month old baby and thought that a police presence would calm
him down. She did not want any type of report or police action. She
stuck to her story that he had not harmed her at all. She appeared to
be on the verge of telling us more, but did not. I told her if he
comes back and you are scared, to give us a call. Money does not buy
happiness.

As soon as I was back in the car, I was sent to major accident. I was
not close. It involved a Tahoe and a Randall's tractor trailer. The
driver of the Tahoe thought that he had ben driving north bound when
he was actually going east bound. He had been out drinking at the club
and ran a red light hitting the rear axel of the trailer. He must have
been speeding since it absolutely destroyed his Tahoe. He did not even
hit the brakes and luckily for him was not injured. A DWI unit came to
the scene and took custody of the driver of the Tahoe. He blew a .124.
It would have been interesting if he would have hit the middle of the
trailer instead of the axel. I wonder if it would have sheared off the
top of the Tahoe?

As I was doing that accident report, a person down dropped on the
Spur. It was late and the other beat unit was busy. The dispatcher
preempted me and sent me the call. A arrived before I did. She got on
the radio requesting more units because we needed to shut down the
Spur. The Spur is a major artery that feeds directly into downtown
from a major freeway. Shutting it down at the start of rush hour would
be an under taking. Luckily for us, the fire department arrived with
two big fire trucks that really helped out. The call turned out to be
a head on collision at freeway speeds, not a person down. An
intoxicated Asian male was driving the wrong way on the Spur and hit
another vehicle driven by a man here on business from New York. It
took the fire department about 15 minutes to cut the drivers out of
their vehicles. They were both transported to local trauma hospitals.
Amazingly, the injuries turned out to be relatively minor considering
the accident. The Asian had a broken wrist and the other male a broken
arm. The Asian was charged with intoxication assault.

Thursday night we were short handed again. Four officers called in
from the district. Luckily, the supervisor that we asked understood
that we would be running the same calls all night anyway, so A and I
rode together. We had 5 units to cover the district and one of them
would be leaving early.

We started the night with three loud noise calls, one at a restaurant,
one at a house, and one at a club. They were all cooperative and
turned down the music or went inside to finish yelling and drinking.
A short time later we were sent to a family disturbance. We arrived to
find what appeared at first glance to be a female wearing Capri pants
and a red tank top. Her navel was pierced and she had fake boobs. She
also had huge hands and an adam's apple. Not a female. It said that it
had an argument with it's boyfriend. The boyfriend was drunk and tried
to drive off. It jumped across the boyfriend and tried to grab the
keys out of the ignition. The boyfriend slammed the driver's side door
on it a few times. The boyfriend then grabbed it's purse and ran off.
It claimed to not be injured, but wanted to press charges for the
theft. Since they live together, it is not really theft, but we wrote
it a report.

We drove to the hole and started the report. While we were sitting
there an Infiniti missed a turn and drove over two curbs and a median
and ended up in the parking lot where we were sitting. The driver said
that he was from out of town. He said that he had been drinking in his
hotel room and had a sudden craving for Jack in the Box. The food was
now scattered all over the front seat area of the car after the impact
with the curb. I called for a DWI unit. The driver refused all of the
tests which usually means that this was not his first DWI rodeo. The
task force officer called the district attorney's office who wrote up
a search warrant for the driver's blood. A desire for bad food ended
with a DWI charge.

Our last call of the night was an aggravated robbery. At 4 AM, a male
and female decided that they wanted some food from Jack in the Box. I
see a pattern here. As soon as they got into their vehicle, three
young males with bandanas covering their faces carrying guns walked up
to them. They pointed the guns at them and demanded their wallets and
cell phones. They also took the keys to the vehicle. They threw the
keys across the street, got into their vehicle, and calmly drove away.
Very bold. Just like mama always said, "only bad things happen when
you are out after midnight."

I was off on Friday.

That concludes another week on patrol.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

The week on patrol, May 16-20, 2011

A and I rode together two nights and I was solo the other three
nights. We had a bunch of units on the nights that we did not need
them. Figures.

On Monday, I was by myself. We had plenty of units in the district. I
checked by with J on family disturbance in government housing.
According to the mother, one of her sons had been causing a
disturbance. He left before we arrived, perfect solution.

A and I rode together on Tuesday. Our first call was disturbance with
a neighbor. The complainant told us that this has been a long and
on-going problem. Her neighbor does not work, smokes dope, makes a lot
of noise, pees off of his balcony, leaves trash everywhere, and
threatens her. He is not a good neighbor. The female complainant said
that he put his hands on her tonight, by pushing her.  She said that
she was not sure what her options were. We explained them to her, but
she did not want any police action yet. She needed to consult her
boyfriend. We told her to call us back after the consult if she needed
us.

Our last call was a minor accident. We arrived to find a vehicle
blocking two lanes of a major street. Immediately after we arrived, a
thin and wiry young black male with braids, the driver of the vehicle,
walked up and started talking. He was talking fast and not making much
sense. I tried to ask him questions, but he just continued on with his
narrative. We found a witness that said the black male was driving at
a high rate of speed. He came around the curve and rear ended another
vehicle and then slammed into a curb. The contact with the curb broke
off a wheel. The witness then told us that after exchanging
information with the thin black male, the other driver left. The thin
black male walked over and now said that he had been maced by the
other driver even though he was not crying and his nose was not
running. Then he went on to say that $700 had been stolen from him. He
was all over the place. We did an accident report and then completed
an offense report because of all of his extemporaneous accusations.

A and I rode together again on Wednesday. There were not very many
units in the district. Our first call was a simple disturbance with
the valet at a mexican restaurant. A customer came out of the
restaurant and his vehicle had dead battery. The customer tried to
blame the valet. By the time we arrived, the restaurant and the
customer had settled the disturbance.

Later, we were dispatched to a suspicious person. The resident said
that a young white female with red hair was trying to get into his
backdoor. We checked the backyard and checked all of the nearby
properties but did not find her. Before we arrived, she had climbed up
on top of the resident's car port and put her foot through the tin
which brought some debris down on top of a vehicle. There was no
damage, but it was strange.

On our last call, we were forced to check by with D on a major
accident to provide traffic control. We were to take R's place since
he was early side and it was time for him to go home. The accident
involved a vehicle that struck a power pole causing a power line to
hang lower over the road. R was worried that a passing 18 wheeler
would hit the wire. It looked high enough to me, but we sat there
until we were relieved by day shift.

Thursday night was very uneventful. I was by myself and had to sit at
a busy intersection for two hours monitoring the red light. I guess
there have been numerous accidents at the intersection. I can't think
of another reason why they would assign a unit there for two hours.
There were no accidents while I was there.

On Friday I was solo again as the print unit. They would not let A and
I ride together. The sergeant said there would not be enough units if
we rode together, even though other people were riding together. It
was strange.

I checked by with S on a domestic disturbance. When he arrived, a
topless female ran out to him. Then a man covered in tattoos came out
and handed S a small baggie of cocaine saying that it was the female's
powder. Not the way most disturbance calls start. He put the female
into the backseat for safe keeping while he tried to figure out what
was going on. I arrived and spoke with a witness. The witness said
that the topless female was an alcoholic who was also addicted to
cocaine. She had a 4 month old baby with the owner of the house. The
topless female was claiming that she had been assaulted by her husband
and that she was covered in bruises. We did not see any bruises, and S
had seen most of her. She was very excitable and kept banging around
in the backseat and yelling. She ended up going to jail for public
intoxication. She completely freaked out when Skeet went to put her in
hand cuffs. I had to grab an arm while he grabbed the other. Lots of
drama. S gathered all of the information and wrote a very detailed
report.

That concludes another week on patrol.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

The week on patrol, July 11-15, 2011

This week I had a few interesting calls. I was by myself for three nights and rode with A the other two nights. For the most part, we are still very short handed. We have lost quite a few officers lately to transfers and retirements and the rate of replacement has not kept up. Add summer vacations and lots of officers out taking mandatory training classes, and that causes us to be thin on the streets.

On Monday I was by myself. I volunteered for a loud noise call in the beat. Another unit from a different beat checked by and arrived before I did. Thankfully. The noise disturbance was coming from a compressor. A cleaning company was at a restaurant cleaning the kitchen and the grease traps. They can not do the cleaning during business hours, obviously. Since our city does not have any zoning laws, we have restaurants next to town homes next to bars next to apartment complexes next to business strip centers. In this case, the strip center and restaurant were there long before the new town home was built. It is hard for me to have much sympathy for the citizens when they moved into the residence right next door to the restaurant or bar or whatever. The other officer on my scene had some sympathy. He spoke with the resident and then with the cleaning company and they came to a compromise. The company had 30 minutes to finish with the compressor. We left it at that and I guess they made the deadline because we were not called back out to the scene.

Later in the shift, I checked by with N and K on an assault in progress at an apartment complex. An upstairs neighbor heard a loud fight going on below his apartment. When we arrived, the female was in hysterics and the male was calm. The apartment looked like a disaster, but maybe that was normal? The door to the bathroom had been kicked repeatedly and was destroyed. I spoke with the male and he said that they got into an argument about them speaking to other people. He said that he did not lay hands on her, but that she pushed him. The female told another officer that they were arguing about speaking to other people and that the male choked her. She did not have any marks on her throat. Initially, she did not want to press charges. We do not need her to want to press charges, but the district attorneys are very hesitant to accept charges when the victim is uncooperative. Some friends came to pick her up and after talking with them, she decided to press charges. The district attorney accepted aggravated assault by choking charges, a serious felony, against the male. The DA wanted the female to write out a statement describing what happened and he wanted pictures of the female and of the apartment. A little later, the neighbor who called us came out and I spoke with him. He said that he heard the female yell, "Why did you choke me?" He went on to say that he hears them arguing and fighting all of the time. Well, they will not be arguing or fighting until someone posts bail for the choker.

Tuesday I was solo again. We were very short handed in my beat. At roll call I was given an alert slip by the desk sergeant. Generally, an alert slip is generated when a citizen calls our patrol station and explains that they are having some type of on-going problem, like a homeless person sleeping at their business or cars racing down the street. The office staff will ask what time and day the problem is taking place and then assign the alert slip to an officer working at that time. The officer will check the area for the listed problem and take any necessary steps to solve the problem. My alert slip was for the Mayor's house, she lives in my beat. She went on vacation for a week and wanted officers to keep an eye on her residence while she was out of town. This was not any special treatment, any citizen can call and get the same service. 

After the alert slip, I was dispatched to a welfare check. I wrote about it here http://will7079.blogspot.com/2011/07/indoor-rain.html

Later, I checked by with a DWI unit on a suspicious person at a local bar. The call slip said that there was a male inside of the bar that had an open warrant for a DWI. The caller turned out to be a friend that had posted a $1000 bond for the suspect. The suspect quit complying with the court's orders, a warrant was issued and the bond was forfeited. The caller wanted her money back. She found him at the bar and called us to come and pick him up. We got him out of the bar and while searching him incident to the arrest found a dime bag of cocaine in his pocket. A misdemeanor warrant just turned into a felony possession case. Afterwards, when I was getting the caller's information for the report, I asked her if the suspect had any other substance problems and she immediately responded with "cocaine." He was supposed to deploy with his unit to the Middle East soon, but I do not think that the will be making that trip.

Finally, on Wednesday we had a decent number of units and A and I rode together. This was day 2 of the alert slip at the mayor's house, she is scheduled to come back into town on the 16th. The majority of the shift was very boring. At the end of the shift, we checked by with D on an assault call. A homeless female had been assaulted by her boyfriend. She called the police from a pay phone at a convenience store. She then led us to the bridge under which she and her boyfriend sleep. We did not find him under the bridge, but he was nearby on a park bench, sound asleep. He claimed that he did not assault her and that she is crazy. She said that she was sleeping naked under the bridge. She was startled awake when her boyfriend grabbed her and dragged her into the middle of the road where he then punched her in the face. It was not our call, so we did not have to decide who to believe. D took the boyfriend to jail.

A and I rode together again on Thursday. During roll call, we were shown a video captured by a local news station. The subject was a day shift officer from our station. Following an attempted robbery and 15 minute foot chase, a 16 year old suspect was taken into custody. He was hand cuffed and being led back to a patrol car. A female officer walked up to him and punched him in the face. This was captured on video by a news helicopter. The officer has been suspended with pay pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation. I am not going to try to justify her actions. I have no idea what was going through her head when she made the decision to strike a hand cuffed suspect that was not actively resisting. In fact, the video does not look good at all. I will be very surprised if she is able to keep her job.

Thursday night, we were short handed, which is getting to be the norm. We started out the night by running the alert slip at the Mayor's house. All seemed fine with her house. Then we checked by with N and K on a major accident with a rollover. It turned out to be a one vehicle accident. A Nissan Rogue had rolled a few times and came to a stop against a power pole. According to witnesses, the driver then climbed over the passenger to exit the vehicle and he then fled the scene. The witnesses then helped the passenger out of the vehicle. The passenger was complaining that she was having difficulty breathing and was transported to the hospital. Then we tried to determine what had happened. Our best guess was the Rogue was driving at a high rate of speed, ran a stop sign, left the road and hit a 4 foot tall mound of dirt. The mound acted like a ramp and the Rogue flew about 15 feet, turned sideways, struck a fire hydrant and started rolling. A few minutes later, I walked back towards the stop sign and saw a male that matched the description of the driver. I took him into custody and returned him to the scene. He said that he had been drinking at a nearby bar, but he had no idea how the accident happened. He said that the vehicle belonged to his mother's boyfriend. He said that the passenger was a family friend. At that time, A and I went to the hospital to check on the passenger. She was in a lot of pain and very mad at the driver. She said that he just started driving really fast, blew the stop sign, hit the mound, and the vehicle started rolling. An emergency room doctor showed us her x-rays and told us that she had at least 4 broken ribs and a partially collapsed lung, which explained the pain and her difficulty breathing. K called the district attorney's office and they took DWI charges against the driver. He refused a breathalyzer, but since he was involved in an accident with an injury, a blood draw was mandatory.

IMG_0331.MOV Watch on Posterous

Video of the wrecker rolling the Rogue back onto its 4 wheels. 

I was the print unit on Friday. They would not allow A and I to ride together. They did not want us to be tied up on a print call as a two man unit. So, A was the only officer in her beat. Not cool on a Friday night. The shift started out rather slow, and then the bottom dropped out around 1:30 AM. For about three hours, A, a Sergeant and myself were the only officers running calls in the district. Everyone else was out of service, either actually working, or doing a good job of avoiding work. None of the calls were of any significance. Then we were dispatched to a major accident between a cab and a Ford Escape. The drivers had conflicting statements and we did not find anyone at fault. The rest of the night was dealing with drunks, disturbances, assaults, and loud parties, typical Friday night.

That concludes another week on patrol.

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