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.
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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