The week on patrol, January 31 - February 4, 2011

This week I finished training H and was off on Friday night. The week
was bitterly cold and we had icy streets Thursday night.

Monday was day 12 of training for H. We started with a double traffic
stop. A Mercedes Benz followed a BMW that made an illegal left turn.
We got behind and stopped the BMW since it was the lead car.
Fortunately for us, the Benz stopped right across the street. So, I
crossed the street and dealt with the Benz while H focused on the BMW.
I wrote the driver of the Benz a citation while H wrote the driver of
the BMW. I had the driver of the Benz sign his citation first, and
then we walked up to the BMW. H approached the driver's door and I
stayed a little behind. I do not think that the female knew that I was
there. She then decided to use all of her womanly charms on H in an
attempt to avoid the ticket. It was entertaining to watch. H did a
good job of staying focused and accomplished his task.

Our first call of the night was for credit card abuse. A woman was
notified that her credit card was used at Macy's in NYC. It was used 4
times in an hour and it was physically swiped every time according to
the credit card company. The crazy thing was she was still in
possession of her credit card. So, someone got her card number and
made a fake card that worked when swiped. That is a little scary.

Later we took theft in progress call. The call came in as a guy trying
to steal a bicycle. We pulled up and sure enough, we saw a guy trying
to free a bicycle from a bicycle lock around a pole. I almost had to
scream at H for him to get out and snatch up the guy. He looked like a
deer caught in headlights. He had no idea what to do. Luckily for us,
the guy did not run. It turned out that it was his bike, which
explained why he did not run. His key had broken in the bike lock and
he was using some tools to try to get the key out.

Tuesday was day 13 of training with H and it was bitterly cold. Our
report call for the night was another burglary of a motor vehicle. At
a local bar, a guy left his backpack in plain view on the backseat of
his car. The backpack contained a pistol. He came out a short time
later and was surprised to see that his vehicle had been burglarized.
Maybe next time he will leave the pistol at home, or will leave the
backpack at home, or will leave the backpack in the trunk, or etc...

We made two traffic stops that night. Both were for illegal left turns
and both had expired inspection stickers. Like shooting fish in a
barrel.

It was still very cold on Wednesday, day 14 with H. We made two more
traffic stops for illegal left turns.

Later we were dispatched to an assault at a bar. A male assaulted the
door guy and a bartender when they would not let him go upstairs to a
"special" room. We tried to get some clarity about the "special" room,
but they were VERY vague with details. The males had two outside
witnesses that observed the assault. It was a little ironic that both
witnesses just happened to be escorts when the assault was about a
"special" room. I am sure that you are wondering, how did I know they
were escorts? Because they gave H their card identifying themselves as
escorts. No shame in their game.

Thursday was day 15 with H, our last training day together. It was
still very cold, but the night had the added bonus of freezing
precipitation.

We were dispatched to an assault / criminal mischief that happened
earlier in the day. The original report had already been completed,
but the complainant had some new information. Normally, the
complainant will call the division investigating the offense to add
information to the report. But, since we were training, I decided to
let H get the new information and supplement the original report. This
was a cat fight between employees at a beauty salon. One girl hit
another and then the one that was hit went outside and damaged the
other's car. H gathered the new information and we were on to other
things.

A few hours into the shift, the roads started to get slippery. By the
end of the shift, most overpasses were covered with ice and
impassable. We had to venture onto the freeway when we were dispatched
to a major accident on the freeway. A red truck slowed down going
uphill toward an overpass. A PT Cruiser coming onto the freeway was
driving way too fast for the conditions. The Cruiser slammed into the
back of the truck which then slammed into the wall. By the time we
arrived, another accident had taken place in the same area. There were
wrecked cars all over the freeway. Eventually, we got the freeway
cleared and H completed the accident report. That morning, a few day
shift officers were able to make it in to work, and we were given
permission to go home. It took me over an hour to make my usual 25
minute drive home. The roads were a mess.

That concludes another week on patrol.

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The week on patrol, January 24-28, 2011

This was a very slow and uneventful week on patrol. I trained H the first four nights and we were off on Friday. 

 

Monday was day 8 with H. We were the print unit and it was raining. There were no calls holding so we started off with a traffic stop. We waited for someone to make the illegal left turn and then H preformed a good and safe traffic stop. That was our only stop of the night because stopping traffic in the rain is miserable.  

 

A little later, we checked by with Anna. She had made a traffic stop and had an arrest, so she needed her prisoner searched. I needed to cover training categories and H needed the practice, so H searched her prisoner. He did not find any contraband or weapons. 

 

We were the print unit again on Tuesday, day 9 with H. We made two traffic stops to start off the shift. The first driver made an illegal left turn, had an expired registration, and right as we stopped him, threw a cigarette butt out of his window. That is a big pet peeve of mine, littering. I see it all the time driving on the freeway, but I am never in a patrol vehicle. On the rare occasion that I am working and witness the littering, I enjoy giving that ticket. So, H gave him a ticket that included three violations.

 

The second traffic stop turned out to be an officer. He was polite and apologetic, which is not always the case. It was a good opportunity to teach H about professional courtesy.   

 

Later in the shift we were dispatched to a minor accident. A guy was paying attention to his cell phone and speeding on a road with a few big curves. Luckily, he only ended up hitting a curb and a pole which flattened his right side tires. After he had given us his initial statement, he said that another car must have hit him since there was damage on his right rear bumper. We went to look at the bumper, and there was a scratch, just a scratch. There was no chance that another vehicle hit him and caused this accident. It was all on him. But, since that was his statement, we had to put that in the report as well. We still found him at fault. It is amazing how frequently people lie on accident scenes. I guess they think that they are pulling one over on us and are getting away with something. Where is the integrity? 

 

Wednesday was day 10 with H and almost a carbon copy of Monday night without the rain. It was cold and there was almost no vehicle traffic. We were able to make one illegal left turn traffic stop. Then we had some free time, so we went over some things in his training book that we had yet to cover.

 

Thursday was day 11 with H. We volunteered for a FSGI accident in parking lot. A BMW 650, which had been parked by a valet was hit by a large SUV. The valet saw it happen. He stopped the SUV. The SUV was being driven by an intoxicated male. The male got out of his SUV and slapped the hand of the valet as he tried to write down the license plate number of the SUV. The valet was able to get us a good plate number which came back to a SUV that matched his description of the vehicle. At least it was something for the hit and run investigators to use.

 

That concludes a slow week on patrol.  

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The week on patrol, January 17-21, 2011

This week I started off solo and then trained H for the last four
nights of the week.

Monday was a city holiday, so all of the rookies were off since the
City does not want to pay them the overtime. That means that I was
riding solo that night. My first call was a CIT (mental illness)
disturbance. At the location, there was a 49 year old white female
having an "episode". She was mentally retarded and in the custody of
her older sister. The older sister had recently moved her in with her
because at her last placement she was getting abused. Years earlier
she had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by her brother-in-law.
Today, she would not get out of the car. She had been in the car since
5 PM, and it was now 1 AM. The sister wanted to get her help. She was
not a threat to herself or others, so there was not much that I could
really do. I was worried that if I tried to use force to get her out
of the car, she would freak out and we would have bigger problems. So,
I tried to talk to her. But she just kept telling me to go away and to
leave her "the shit alone". Afterwards, the sister said that was the
longest time that she had talked to a stranger and that she was amazed
that she talked to me at all. We agreed that leaving her in the car
was the best option. The sister and I decided to get her some things
to make her more comfortable in the car. The car was in a secured
parking garage, so she was safe. After the sister returned with the
items, I gave her a blanket, backpack, pillow, and her dog. She let me
put the blanket on her and I put the dog in the driver's seat. I told
her that her sister would check on her every few hours. According to
the sister, MHRA was coming to the apartment at 4 PM that day to begin
services. The sister felt bad, but I told her that it sounded like she
was doing the best that she could. She was trying to get her the help
that she needed.

Tuesday was day 4 for of training with H. Our report call was a
burglary of motor vehicle. Three vehicles had been broken into at a
local bar. All were parked close to each other, all had broken
windows, and all had a bag visible from the outside. Two guns, a
laptop, and an iPod were stolen, while a set of golf clubs were left.
I guess the suspect thought that it would look strange to be walking
down the street at night with a set of golf clubs.

Our traffic stop was for an illegal left turn. The two females in the
vehicle were on the way home from work, they were strippers. They were
cited for an illegal left turn, expired registration, and no
insurance.

The last call of the night dropped as a girl running down Montrose
wearing only her panties. After she sent the call to us over the radio
and read the details, there were quite a few volunteers to check by.
The call sounded like a sexual assault, but it was not. It was just a
girl that had some kind of drug in her system. She had flagged down a
car on Montrose, and that vehicle had brought her home. She had some
difficulty getting inside, so we used her keys and got her safely
inside. She was belligerent and very lucky that she did not go to jail
for PI.

Wednesday was day 5 of training H. We started off the night by
checking by on burglary of residence in progress. It ended up being
male / female disturbance. They got into an argument and he left the
apartment to go to sleep in his car. He made the bad choice to return
to the apartment a short time later. She had thrown the upper dead
bolt and he could not get into the apartment. She would not let him in
either. So, he kicked in the door (which is legal, since it was his
door). Anger issues maybe? She said that he had never gotten physical
with her. H ran his TDL and he had a few traffic warrants. Bingo. He
went to jail for his warrants and we knew that she would be safe all
night.

A burglary of a residence was our first call on Thursday night, day 6
of training for H. This house has been burglarized 4 times in the last
two years. I wrote a report for the homeowner about 4 months ago. This
time the suspect went in through a back window. They stole a small
flat screen TV. The homeowner had an alarm installed since the last
burglary, and I think that scared him off.

Then we checked by on a train versus car accident. The car had a
female driver with a male passenger. According to the train's
conductor, the car crossed over the tracks, and then backed up onto
the tracks right in front of the train. The conductor said that the
driver looked up at him as the train was bearing down on them. Very
strange. Sounded possibly intentional. The car was pushed along the
tracks for 1/2 mile. She suffered a broken pelvis, femur, tibia,
fibula, and had a concussion. We learned later that she ended up
losing a leg.

Friday was slow. It was H's 7th night of training. We made two
uneventful traffic stops and H cited both drivers. Our report call for
the night was another burglary of a motor vehicle. The vehicle owner
left a GPS unit up on the windshield. The suspect broke the window and
took it. When will people stop leaving valuables in plain sight??

That concludes another week on patrol.

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The week on patrol, January 10-14, 2011

This week, I finished evaluating one rookie and started training
another rookie.

Monday was day four of evaluation with L. We started off the night
with two traffic stops, both for illegal left turns. After ticketing
the second vehicle, L wanted to document the traffic stops on our
daily work card, so he started to look for his copy of the traffic
citations. However, he could not find one of the citations anywhere.
He looked everywhere in the patrol vehicle and even drove back to
where we made the traffic stop to see if he could find it on the
ground. I think that he accidentally gave the first driver's citation
along with the second driver's citation to the second driver. I had
never seen it happen before and had no idea what to do about it. I
called the desk Sergeant and he had never heard of that happening
either. So, we turned in the one ticket that we had, and it was the
first driver's lucky night.

Later that night, we checked by with units on a burglary of a motor
vehicle in progress. The homeowner said that his vehicle had been
burglarized three times in his driveway, so he installed a camera and
a motion detector to monitor his driveway. Tonight, his motion
detector activated which set off an alarm in his house. He came
outside with a bat and found a guy sitting in his truck. The guy got
out of the truck and tried to run away. The homeowner was a little
faster because he was able to hit the suspect with the bat a few times
before the suspect got away. A short time later just a few blocks
away, other officers saw a parked vehicle with it's hazard lights on
and the vehicle's alarm was going off. The officers pulled up and a
guy got out of the car and tried to run away. He did not make it very
far and was taken into custody. Since it was so close to the scene of
the other vehicle burglary, we brought the homeowner over to see if
this was the guy that he chased and hit with the bat a few times.
Turns out it was indeed the same suspect. While the suspect was
getting identified by the homeowner, the suspect threatened the
homeowner. The suspect just took his class A misdemeanor burglary of a
vehicle case and turned it into a third degree felony retaliation
case. A few hours later, while L was still completing the report, we
heard over the radio that the same homeowner's vehicle was burglarized
again. I called the homeowner to make sure that this was a new
incident, and sure enough it was. Absolutely crazy, that was the first
time I have seen the same vehicle burglarized twice in one night. I
think it might be time for the homeowner to start parking his vehicle
inside his garage.

Tuesday was the last night of evaluation for L. We started with a
routine traffic stop of a vehicle that went through a parking lot to
avoid making the illegal left turn.

Later, we took a robbery at a local convenience store. Two guys came
into the store with what looked like guns but turned out to be tasers
and demanded money from the register. They took money from the
register and the safe. Then they tasered two of 4 males in the store.
They got away with about 500 dollars. This was the third robbery at
this store that I have worked in the last month. If I was the clerk, I
would be looking for a new job.

L did a great job during his week of evaluation. He made my job very
easy. My next rookie, was a little more challenging.

I started training a new rookie, H, on Wednesday. He was very polite
and calm and a little older for a rookie, 38. It was going to be a
difficult transition for me going from evaluating a rookie that is
relatively self sufficient, to a second phase of training rookie who
basically has no idea what is going on.

We were the print unit that night and a print call was waiting for us
when we logged onto our computer. The print call was from a burglary
of a residence that happened in a very nice part of town during
evening shift. It was a very large house and that evening, the female
owner left for two hours and did not set the house alarm. She came
home and found that the back patio door had been kicked open. The
suspects had gone through most of the house, which had to take a
little time. We found a flat screen TV which had been moved and sat on
a stairway landing. I was able to lift some finger prints from that TV
that had been moved. Once the prints are actually analyzed in a few
years, maybe we will get lucky and develop a suspect.

Then we made a traffic stop at my usual intersection. A vehicle made
the illegal left turn. It was H's first night time traffic stop, and
he did ok.

Thursday was day two with H. He started off the shift completely
preoccupied, to the point that it made me nervous and we had to talk
about it. It turned out that right before the shift, he found out that
his father had a terminal disease and was not expected to live much
longer. That would be extremely distracting. I told him that he could
go home. There is no shame in taking a night off when you have other
things on your mind. But, he decided to stay. He rallied and refocused
and did fine for the rest of the night.

We made two traffic stops that night. The first one was before I found
out about his father. H performed horribly. He was very distracted and
made numerous mistakes. Then we talked, and he rallied. He did much
better on the second traffic stop. However, I was uneasy for the rest
of the night.

Our last call was to provide traffic control for a fatal accident. A
hispanic male in a pickup truck drove the wrong way down a one way
ramp and slammed into a concrete barrier. He was wearing a seatbelt
and the air bag deployed, but you can't change physics. Too much speed
coming to a stop too quickly causes severe damage to the body.

We were the print unit again on Friday night, H's third night of
training. Our first call was an aggravated robbery with a weapon. The
complainant took an engine out of one car and put it into another car
for the suspect. The suspect kept coming up with excuses about why he
could not pay. Tonight, the suspect showed up and knocked on the door
(the complainant works out of his house). The complainant answered the
door and was immediately punched in the face by the suspect. The
suspect then showed the complainant the gun that he was carrying.
Another male with the suspect then grabbed the keys to the car with
the new motor and they drove off.

Later we were asked to check by to take a few pictures of a scene for
the primary unit. Two guys broke into a business close to our police
station. They took a wheelbarrow and a generator. Then they decided to
push the wheelbarrow containing the generator down the main street
right by our police station, not the brightest bulbs in the package.
That raised the suspicion of an officer passing by and after a brief
chase, they were stopped and taken into custody. The primary unit
wanted pictures of the burglary scene, along with the cut fence and
the cut locks, so I took care of that for him.

It will be interesting to see what the next 12 nights with H bring.
That concludes another week on patrol.

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The week on patrol, January 3-7, 2011

Wow, am I behind in my writing. Time to try and catch up.

Monday night was a City holiday. I rode with B. We were very short handed that night and the only unit in our beat. We ran a lot of calls, most of them were crap, but three stood out.

A disturbance was called in by a neighbor. Another unit was dispatched and we checked by. We found the front door unlocked and a screen door open. We knocked and there was no answer at the door. Since the caller had said that it sounded like a fight was taking place, we opened the front door and announced ourselves. There was still no answer so we began searching the apartment for anyone. In the bedroom, we found a male passed out and bleeding on the bed. At first, he tried to play possum, acting unconscious. Eventually, with some gentle encouragement, he woke up and decided to talk. He said that everything was fine. He did not need or want any medical assistance and the people that assaulted him were gone. So, we left and locked the front door on our way out.

A short time later, we were dispatched to another disturbance. This time, it was person refusing to leave an apartment. At the same time the suspect calls and says that he is being held and can't leave the apartment. When we arrived, the complainant met us outside of his apartment. He told us that he picked up the other male at a bar and brought him home. Once they got inside, the male started smoking crack. Not a big shocker. When we got to the apartment, he was sitting in a chair. He did not appear to be there against his will like he had claimed. He was not chained or cuffed, even though he may have wanted that. He just did not want to leave. After making sure he did not have any crack left, we told him that he was leaving. As he was leaving he demanded an "escort". That made me laugh. I said you are getting an escort, right off the property. Then he said he wanted a ride back to where he had been picked up. Unfortunately for him, our cars do not say taxi on them.

Our last call was for a male destroying his own apartment. When we arrived, he was gone. His mother and girlfriend were in the apartment. The apartment was in shambles. About 10 minutes later, he returned. His biggest concern was about a baggie that he said was in his pocket that he was holding for someone. His pockets were empty. Then he said that he had consumed 20 beers and had Xanax in his system. He was bi-polar and diabetic. He was in a manic stage and definitely a threat to himself. So, we took him to the psychiatric hospital and did an emergency detention order. Hopefully he will get back on his prescribed medications and be able to function.

On Tuesday I was up at the Academy for an in-service class. It was a low light shooting class. Very practical, since I mostly work at night. I always enjoy shooting someone else's ammunition.

Wednesday night was my first night with a new rookie, L. It was his first week of evaluation. I always try to start off evaluation with a mundane report call. It helps to settle down the rookie. They are VERY nervous, and need to relax. Reports are generally easy and allow them to ease into evaluation. Our first call was a basic burglary of a motor vehicle. The guy left his GPS in plain view, and it was gone when he returned.

Next was traffic stops. We did three. Two for passing through a parking lot to avoid a traffic control device and one for an illegal left turn. L did a good job with the traffic stops and his safety was excellent.

Our last call was another report. This time, it was for a criminal mischief. Someone had used shoe polish to tag a guys '94 Pontiac Fiero. He said that he thought a former female "roommate" was the likely suspect. The vehicle was also tagged on Monday night. There was definitely more to this story that he was not willing to share while his current girlfriend was standing next to him.

Thursday was day 2 of evaluation with L. We started with a simple theft call. A female could not find a diamond pendant. The last time that she knew she had it was mid November, 6 weeks earlier. Tonight, she looked for it and could not find it. She wanted to report it stolen for insurance purposes. The entire thing sounded strange and I was skeptical. Her apartment had not been broken into and nothing else was missing. I think that she lost it, and was just making something up to attempt to get insurance money.

Our last call of the night was a CIT (mental illness) disturbance. A group home called us to take a guy to the psychiatric hospital. They told us that he broke curfew at the home and their plan was to call us and have us take care of their problem. The male would not speak to us at all, not a peep. Eventually we spoke with the manager of the facility who agreed to let him back in for the night. The psychiatric hospital would not take him from us. He either has to check himself in or be a threat to himself or others and he was neither. There was nothing that we could do.

Friday was day three of evaluation with L. We were the print unit. We did not have any print or picture calls that night. We made two traffic stops. One driver went through the parking lot where we were sitting. He drove right next to our vehicle to avoid the illegal left turn signs. The driver was from Saudi, and claimed that he did not know that what he did was illegal. L told him that ignorance of the law was not an excuse and wrote him a ticket. It was awesome.

That concludes another week on patrol.

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A1, A2, and Avery ready for bed

A1 & A2 are sharing a bed while Nana is staying with us. Avery joined them tonight.

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Tea party time!

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