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.
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.
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