Unstable? I don't think so

Two weeks ago, AR and I were dispatched to a suspicious event at a very nice apartment complex. The type of complex that has fountains and multiple pools and cabanas and the monthly rent is more than most house notes. Lindsey, the person who called, met us outside of the leasing office. She did not want us to come to her apartment and she did not want her roommates to know that she had called the police.

Lindsey stated that she was a student at the local university. She was also a member of a sorority. About a month ago, she moved into this apartment complex with two of her sorority sisters. Lindsey has a dog as does her roommate S. The other roommate, C, hates dogs. So, three roommates, two dogs, and one roommate that hates dogs. Lately there had been quite a few arguments between the roommates. C is always complaining about the dogs. C knew before moving in that her two roommates were bringing dogs. According to Lindsey, the arguments were beginning to escalate and Lindsey was becoming worried for her and her dog's safety.

The three roommates all share the same kitchen and refrigerator. They all buy separate groceries and everyone knows whose stuff is whose. For breakfast, Lindsey poured herself a glass of her pineapple orange apple juice. She immediately noticed a strong chemical odor coming from the juice. She had poured the juice into a clear glass and she held up the glass to a light. She noticed white particulates in the juice. She said that it looked like Oxy Clean. She thought that the juice might be out of date and checked the bottle, but it was well before the use date. So, Lindsey took out her other bottle of juice and poured a glass of passion fruit. The passion fruit juice had the same chemical odor and the same white particulates.

At this point, Lindsay thinks that C has tried to poison her. She has heard C make comments in the past about messing with someone's food or shampoo because they made her mad. So, what does Lindsey do? She starts to pour out the juice and calls her mom. When she tells her mom that she is pouring out the juice, her mom yells at her to stop pouring out the juice. There is about a shot glass worth of juice left in each bottle when we arrive.

I asked Lindsey what she wanted us to do. I was trying to find out how far Lindsey wanted to go. Did she want to go through with the process of filing criminal charges against her sorority sister? She was not sure, so she called her mother. After a long conversation with lots of questions for us, this is what they, Lindsey and her mother, wanted. They wanted us to make a report, they wanted us to take samples of the juice, and they wanted to keep some of the juice and the bottle so that they could have the juice tested themselves at an independent lab. Why did they want independent testing? Because they did not want to go through with pursuing criminal charges until it was determined that the juice was actually tainted. Ok, I understand that. Why did they want to wait? Because they did not want to ruin the friendship with sorority sister C. That is where they lost me.

In my mind, the friendship was already toast. If I was sure enough to call the police and make a report, I would already be making plans to move out and would have nothing to do with that roommate.

While AR was talking to Lindsey and getting the information for the report, I made some phone calls to determine what we needed to do with the juice. I talked to three different investigators, the property room, and the crime scene unit. After hearing the story, every single person asked me if Lindsey had been diagnosed with a mental illness. We get lots of calls where people think that someone is out to get them and usually these people are mentally unstable. That is the first thing that I thought. But, after talking to Lindsey and her mother for quite some time, I decided that Lindsey seemed mentally competent. Unfortunately for Lindsey, she moved in with a complete nut job.

We ended up taking the juice bottles and taking multiple samples of the juice. We then tagged the samples into our property room. They will not be tested until an investigator decides that there is sufficient reason to have them tested after interviewing everyone involved. We then took the bottles back to Lindsey for her to have tested. Hopefully for her sake, her lab results come back quickly.

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That's going to leave a mark

Last Friday evening started out like every other recent Friday evening. Jen takes A2 to dance and then A1 and I meet them for dinner. Then we all go to A1's Little League baseball practice. I leave practice a little early so that I can get home, change clothes, and then leave for work. On this night, I was driving down the main drag doing my usual speed, somewhere around 35 mph (battery power of course), as I was approaching the freeway. When out of nowhere I was slammed into by another vehicle. The collision was almost head on. I did not have time to react, swerve, or even apply the brakes.

All of the sudden, the airbag punched me in the chest as the car slammed to a stop. If you have not had the airbag experience, let me tell you, it gets your attention. I imagine it is like being a quarterback and being blindsided by Ray Lewis. Or like being an office worker in any of the Terry Tate office linebacker videos (http://bit.ly/bFkK3d). It is a very jarring experience. It is better than hitting the steering wheel or windshield, but still rather shocking. While the airbag powder was still in the air, I managed to open the driver's side door about 12 inches (all it would open) and walk over to the other vehicle. The driver had opened their door and was hysterical. A witness and I got her out of the vehicle and helped her to walk across the roadway and to sit down and wait for medical personnel. The driver stated that she thought that the turn was protected during a green light. When in fact, the turn is only protected with an arrow which she did not have. Both of our lights were green and she failed to yield the right of way when turning left.

Local police and ambulance services showed up about three minutes later. The other driver was loaded into an ambulance and transported to a local hospital. She were complaining of back and neck pain. I was checked out on the scene by the ambulance attendants. I decided to stay on the scene and not get checked out in an emergency room. The investigating officer was very friendly and stated that this type of accident occurs at this location frequently. I recognized one of the ambulance driver's from work. His regular job is with HFD and we have spoken on many scenes at work. They all offered me a ride home, but I had called my cousin and asked him to come and get me. I did not want Jen to have to load up the kids and bring them to an accident scene. My cousin arrived as the wrecker was picking up the Camry. We transferred all of my stuff into his car and he drove me home.

I notified my insurance company of the accident that evening. The other driver had valid insurance with a discount insurance provider. I have gotten the claim number and adjusters name from her insurance company, but so far the adjuster has not returned my calls. I will find out tomorrow from my insurance company if my car is a total loss. I do not think that it is, but I imagine that hybrids are very expensive to fix. In the mean time, I am driving around in a rented Ford Flex. It looks like a boxy bread truck. There is a surprising amount of room inside and A1 really likes it. I am still very sore and my chest has some bruising, but overall I am doing fine. It had been a long time since I had been in an accident and had just received a safe driving certificate at work. I am thankful that I was by myself and I hope that it is a long time before I get hit by an airbag again.

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With a friend like me, who needs enemies?

This is the fourth day of evaluation for S. He is doing very well and will be done with evaluation tomorrow. I have been fortunate lately. All of the rookies that I have recently evaluated have been exceptional. That makes my job easier.

After doing a few traffic stops we were dispatched to a major accident. We arrived to find only one vehicle with very minor (a scratch) damage. The other driver was returned to the scene. That driver went to jail for having 7 warrants. As we were waiting for S to take care of things, I was reminded of a funny story.

Awhile ago I checked by with B on a burglary of a motor vehicle in progress. The location was right next to the complex where B lives. We arrived and of course, the suspect was gone. As we were gathering information, two females exited an apartment to walk their dogs. B looked at them and then said to me, "I think that is Lindsey."

Ok, I'll bite. "Who is Lindsey?" B said that Lindsey was an ex- girlfriend. They were still walking and by this time were about 100 feet away from us. I asked B again what her name was. He told me. So, I turned as shouted "Lindsey". She quickly turned around. I looked at B and said, "Yup, it is Lindsey."

The two females returned and Lindsey was looking at us, not sure who had called her name. She was looking at B with a questioning look on her face. So, I came to the rescue again. I said, "Hey Lindsey, yes it is B." Needless to say, B was less than pleased with me. On the other hand, I was very proud of myself.

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Evaluating a hug

I was asked to put my training of Ze on hold so that I could evaluate S. He has already completed one week of evaluation so he will be done with the training program after our week together. Ze will ride with other officers for a week while I evaluate S.

S is from Ohio. He spent a couple of years working for Atlanta PD. He left there because APD started lowering pay and benefits for the officers.

Our first call on Friday night was to check by with an evening shift unit on an accident on the freeway. The evening shift unit arrived on the scene at 10 PM. He decided that he did not have enough time to finish the accident report before 11 PM, the end of his shift. Well, he had an hour so you would think that he would have time to do something, anything. Nope. He did nothing except to wait for us to arrive. Pathetic.

We arrived and found a one car accident involving a Nissan 300Z. The driver stated that he was north bound on the freeway when another vehicle swerved into his lane. In an attempt to avoid that car, he jerked the steering wheel to the right and lost control of his vehicle. He went across 4 lanes of the freeway, over a curb, a median, another curb, an exit ramp, a curb, a median, another curb, two lanes of the frontage road, and finally one more curb before stopping. Amazingly he did not hit another vehicle. He said that the airbags deployed when he hit the first curb and he could not see anything after that so he just "rode it out." Hitting the brakes would have been a good idea. You don't need to see to do that.

After getting the driver's and passenger's information, S ran them on the patrol vehicle's computer. The female passenger came back with a class C warrant. S asked me what to do and I told him it was his choice. He decided to inform the passeger that she had a warrant and to advise her to take care of it. When he told her that she was not going to jail, she was very happy as you would expect. As a way of saying thanks, she decided to hug S. As she was hugging him, she asked why he was not hugging her back. S told her that we generally do not hug people on police scenes. So she backed up a little and then she felt his chest and asked if he was wearing a vest. He was and told her so. At this point, S was praying that I was not observing this exchange, since he is on evaluation. I of course, witnessed the entire interaction. He looked over at me and we both started laughing. After S gave the case number to the driver, the passenger came over and hugged me. I guess she did not want me to feel left out.

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One thing not to say when you get pulled over

I worked four hours of overtime on patrol yesterday. They like us to be productive when we are working overtime. That seems fair. If there are not any calls holding, that means it is time for traffic stops. I set up on one of my favorite spots for traffic stops and waited about 5 minutes for my first customer. A vehicle turned left at an intersection where there are numerous signs stating no turns are allowed. Why are turns not allowed you ask? I did not place the signs there myself. But, I think that the signs are there because there are not any turn lanes or turn signals at the intersection. The street is very busy and without turn signals, the risk of accidents is high if vehicles turn. So, they put up no turn signs in the interest of public safety. Sounds good anyway.

I stopped the violator and walked up to speak to the driver. I told her that she had made an illegal left turn where it is prohibited by sign. She responded with, "I have never seen the signs." Ignorance of the law is not an excuse, but that is a topic for another day. I asked to see her driver's license and proof of insurance. She provided the documents. I made sure that her stickers were valid and that she had a front plate on her vehicle. Everything was in order. I told her that I would return shortly and I went back to my vehicle to write her a ticket. After all, I am on overtime and need to show production.

I returned to her vehicle and gave her back her driver's license and insurance card. Then I told her that she was receiving a citation (ticket) for making an illegal left turn. She looked incredulous and said, "What! Why not a warning?" I finished explaining to her that by signing she was not admitting guilt and that she was only promising to either take care of the ticket or appear in court. She asked again, "Why not a warning?" I asked her to sign the ticket. Again she says, "Why not a warning?" In a very calm and reasonable tone, I said, "Ma'am, you are receiving a citation, please sign by the X." The broken record asked "Why not a warning?" "Because you are receiving a citation, please sign by the X." Then we had a mini stare down. Finally, she grabbed the citation and said, "Don't you have anything better to do than issue left turn tickets?" To which I replied, "No ma'am, this is too much fun. Have a nice day."

One thing to keep in mind when you get pissed off during a traffic stop. In Texas, you can go to jail for any and all traffic violations except speeding. I was very understanding and realized that she was just upset and venting. No problem, but the next officer might not be so reasonable.

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Reunion time again

My 20th high school reunion was in 2008. I did not attend. I do not really keep in touch with anyone from high school. Jen's 20th high school reunion was this past November. We attended and had a great time. This past Sunday, we attended another reunion. It was the 10 year reunion of my police academy class. I am not sure if other academy classes have reunions. It is hard to believe that it has been 10 years. In fact, it has been a little longer than that. It does not seem like I started that academy "just yesterday", but it does not seem like 10 years have passed.

The reunion was organized by our class secretary. She decided that she wanted to have a reunion and she coordinated, planned, and pulled off the entire event. She had some help from a few classmates, but it was largely her production. Our class president is no longer an officer (the city frowns upon double dipping) and I was the class vice president (my buddies in the academy thought it would be funny to nominate me for a leadership role in the class). It never even entered my mind to plan a reunion.

My academy class started with 76 cadets and 71 cadets graduated and became officers. There are still 59 of us employed by the department. Of the 12 that are gone, one passed away in a traffic accident, another was indicted, one retired for medical reasons, and the other 9 retired for various other reasons. One of my classmates is now a lieutenant and I think 12 are now sergeants with another one about to promote. 22 of us attended the reunion.

Everyone seemed genuinely happy to see each other. I guess that makes sense. Why else attend if you do not want to see everyone? I thought that we all looked pretty good after 10 years. No one had really changed very much, a pregnancy notwithstanding. I talked to people that I had not talked to since the academy. Overall it seemed like people were happy with their job. Everyone had found a niche in the department. Of those that attended, there are not very many left in patrol. Most have moved on to an investigative or specialized division. I think that there were two of us that had stayed in patrol at the same stations where we had trained.

A couple of people commented that they thought that I would have promoted by now. If you would have asked me 10 years ago, I would have agreed with them. I did take the promotional exam about 5 years ago. I had probably the worst testing day of my life that day. No big deal. I am happy where I am right now and I enjoy training new officers. When it comes time for the next exam, I will probably take it and spend a little more time preparing for the test than I did last time.

It was nice to see everyone at the reunion and I look forward to the next one in 10 years.

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A new puppy!!

Last night I started training a new rookie, Ze. He was born and grew up in Morocco. He moved here in 1998 with his brother. He has 8 other brothers and sisters living all over Europe. His mother still lives in Casablanca, Morocco. He speaks four languages, English, Moroccan, Arabic, and French. He is married and has a 16 month old baby boy at home. At the House of Pies last night, our usual waitress Dawn, gave him the nickname of Zorro. She gives everyone nicknames.

We started phase two of training last night. That means that he has completed the academy and only three weeks of field training. I have not trained a phase two rookie in quite some time. I have been mostly evaluating lately since we only have three evaluators on the shift. Those that I have trained in the last year have all been third phase rookies. It is amazing to experience the difference in knowledge between second and third phase rookies. The difference might not have been so dramatic to me if my last two rookies were just merely average. But, they were not, they were exceptional. It is completely different to train a phase two rookie. They know some of the basics, but not all. They still need to be spoon fed information. I have to watch myself to make sure that I do not assume that they know how to do even a basic task. I have to make sure that they know. To me, it feels like getting a new puppy. You have to take care of them and watch over them so that they do not hurt themselves as you train them to do the behaviors that you want them to do. It requires lots of patience and positive reinforcement.

Last night was very slow and mundane. Tonight was a little better. We took a 17 year old male back to CPS. He ran away from his placement earlier in the day because they would not let him brush his teeth. He decided that he had been gone long enough, and called the police to return him to CPS. We called CPS and sure enough, they wanted him back. CPS told us that he had been in their system since he was 9 months old. On the drive to CPS we talked about basketball. He was very polite and articulate. I hope that he is able to overcome his circumstances.

On our way back from CPS, we were driving northbound on 59 when a white Honda Accord flew by us in the left lane. The Honda was driving without their headlights on at night and was weaving back and forth between two lanes. I told Ze to catch up and stop the Honda. The Honda was going between 85-90 MPH. The Honda pulled over to the left on the freeway. After Ze talked to the driver, I spoke to her for a few minutes. I thought that she was drunk from the way she was driving, and that conversation confirmed it. She also had a six pack of Olde English 800 Malt Liquor in the back seat. She even tried to hide the open beer in the center console. We got her off of the freeway and a DWI task force officer came to the scene. She became belligerent with the task force officer and tried to do a test or two but could hardly stand still or upright. The task force officer took her for processing and told us a little later that she blew a .314 BAC. .08 BAC is the legal limit. She was almost 4 times the legal limit. That is the highest I have seen in a little while. It was Ze's first experience with a DWI, good training.

We ran a few more calls and traffic stops, but nothing very interesting. I am looking forward to training Ze while I learn a little more about his homeland and culture.

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