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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