Drunk on a Monday

The driver of the VW was so intoxicated that he could not remember where he lived or on which street he had been driving. Luckily the people in the other car only had minor injuries. The VW ran a red light and t-boned the Subaru which then hit the building. A DWI unit came out and processed him for me.

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The week on patrol, August 22-26, 2011

We had eleven units in the district Monday night. Early in the shift I was dispatched to check by with R on a CIT (crazy person) disturbance. According to the call slip, it sounded like a domestic disturbance called in by the male. R arrived and spoke with the female who was outside the apartment complex in a car with a friend. According to the female, she is the ex-girlfriend of the male, even though she has been staying at his apartment the last few days. Tonight, he wanted to go out, but she did not. A verbal argument started that kept getting worse until it turned physical. Things in the apartment were damaged and thrown at each other. Then he punched her in the right eye. They wrestled and somehow broke the front door. She was finally able to get away and called the police from a nearby gas station. She had a badly swollen eye and scratches all over her arms and legs. 

We went up to check the apartment for the male, and no one was inside. We asked the dispatcher to call the male and to ask him to step outside to let us into the apartment complex. The dispatcher got ahold of the male and he said he would be out shortly. A few minutes later, the male drove up and we got his side of the story. He said that the female had broken into his apartment and gone crazy. She started throwing things and hitting herself. He left the apartment to get away from her. He called the police as well. R did a criminal history check on each of them. The male had three priors for burglary and the female was currently wanted for city warrants. Quite a couple. 

R called the district attorney's office and gave a DA a summary of the events. The DA took class A assault on the male. Pictures were taken of the female's injuries and the male went to jail. I really did not know who to believe. The female had the injuries, but the male called the police as well and then returned to the scene. It is unlikely that he would return if he had just beaten the crap out of her, but people do strange things. I was glad that it was not my call, but it would have been a great training call. 

Tuesday night we had eleven units in the district. It was unusually slow, especially in my beat. I was only dispatched to one call, and that was as a back-up unit. It was an alarm call at a local restaurant. One of the owners activated the alarm. He did not know the alarm code. He said that he was going to be sleeping in the restaurant because he could not get into his residence. He said that he lives with his brother and his brother had used the upper deadbolt on the door which does not have a key to the outside. He tried to wake his brother, but did not have any luck. So, he will sleep in the restaurant. Safer than sleeping in your car.

Typically we are short handed on Wednesday, and this week was no exception. We had 8 units in the district. We have a new captain at our patrol station. Our former captain was chosen to become the chief of staff for the chief of the department. This is the new captain's first assignment as a captain, he was recently promoted. He decided that we are having too many burglaries of motor vehicles in our area. So, for the time being, every night, one unit in each district is assigned to provide extra patrol in an area that is having a problem with BMVs. I got that assignment tonight. The desk Sergeant told me to put myself out on the assignment twice during the night when it was slow. It was slow when I signed on, so that is the first thing that I did. I patrolled the area for about 30 minutes. I did not see any foot traffic at all and only three vehicles in the area. I will do it again later in the shift.  

A little later I was dispatched to a theft from a vehicle. A guy went out to a bar and parked his truck in view of the front door. When he returned to his truck in 3 hours, the back tires were missing and the truck was sitting on a small jack. The rear brakes were also stolen from the truck. All of this took place in plain view of the valet and the door guys for the bar. The guy asked the bar to pay for his vehicle to be towed home which I thought was reasonable under the circumstances, but they refused. His friend had AAA and they came to tow the vehicle to his house. It has been a few years since I have seen this type of theft in my area. I hope that it is not starting up again. We eventually caught the last group of guys doing this, but it took a few months and a lot of reports.

At the end of the shift I was dispatched to a suspicious vehicle. When I arrived I found a VW Bug sitting at an intersection, engine running with the lights on, but no one was inside. I looked to the left and noticed a male passed out leaning against a building. I think that I found my driver. I nudged him a few times with my flashlight and eventually he woke up. I asked him a few questions and he sat there mute. Finally, he told me his first name. I asked where he had been earlier in the evening and he said, "my lawyer is on the way." I said, "great, tell him to meet you at the city jail." He would not tell me his last name or where he lived. When I told him to stand, he said "why?" He was testing my patience. After I got him up, cuffed, searched, and into the back seat, I went to search his vehicle. He did not have a wallet or any ID on him. In a small backpack, I found his provisional driver's license. Awesome. I ran him on the computer and he had seven open warrants. Even better. 

Thursday night we had 9 units in the district. At roll call, we were shown the crime statistics from the past year. In my district, crime is down 20% this year compared to last. My first call of the night was to provide traffic control on a major accident. A Ford Ranger ran on stop sign and was t-boned by a Jeep. The Ford rolled onto its side. The driver of the Ford said that he could not see the stop sign because it was obscured by tree branches. I took a look and you can see the stop sign at least 40 feet before you reach the intersection. He will have that as a possible defense if he chooses to fight the running the stop sign ticket that he received. 

My next call was a burglary of a motor vehicle which was parked on the street by a club. A female, J, met me by her vehicle. J said that she came to the club with two friends and two cousins. Inside the club it came to her attention that her cousins were popping pills, Xanax and Ecstasy. This made her very mad because she assumed that they brought the pills with them and had them in her car. J confronted the cousins in the club. They argued and J ended up just walking out to cool off and calm down. The cousins decided to leave. They had left some of their stuff inside of J's car. So, to get their stuff, they decided to break into the car using a brick to break a window. Who needs enemies with family like that?

My last call of the night dropped as a suspicious person. The call slip said that a male wearing only underwear was banging on their front door yelling for help. N & K checked by and found the almost naked male before I arrived. The male told them that someone had broken in his house and he had escaped and ran for help. We met at his residence. His boyfriend was outside waiting for the police when I pulled up. He said that two men had come into their bedroom and demanded money. There was a struggle and the nearly naked man ran out of the house for help. The two suspects left the bedroom at that point and the other male got out of the house. The males never saw the suspects leave the house, so we had to assume that they might still be inside. I called for a K-9 unit to check by and the officer and his dog cleared the 3 story house for us. One of the suspects was a former roommate until about a year ago. They kicked him out after he started smoking crack. The suspects took cellphones and a wallet, but they left their cellphone in the house. They entered the house through an unlocked back door. The male said that he had lived there since the 1970's and never  had a problem so he leaves all his doors unlocked. I advised him that he might want to think about locking his doors in the future. 

I was the print unit on Friday night. We had eight units in the district. There were not any print or picture calls. The shift started out with a bunch of callers reporting that the windows of their vehicle had been shot out. The incidents occurred on the street near two different apartment complexes. There were at least 15 vehicles that had been damaged.

I checked by with N & K on a major accident to provide traffic control. It was an FSGI accident, the at fault driver left the scene. A silver Toyota was west bound and wanted to turn onto another street going southbound. The driver failed to yield the right of way and turned directly into the path of an east bound Ford Focus. The Toyota then drove away. It turned out that he did not drive very far away. Another officer, A, who was writing a report in a nearby parking lot noticed a silver vehicle with some damage to it park on a nearby street. The driver got out and walked away. A did not have a very good view of the damage, so she walked over to check it out. The vehicle had some substantial damage. A thought that it was probably the involved vehicle. The person that got out of the vehicle was gone. 

A called N to tell him that she thought that she had found the other involved vehicle. He told me about it and I went to check it out. As I got to the block where the Toyota was parked, I was sitting at an intersection talking to A, who found the Toyota. As we were sitting there, a black Camero going about 50 mph in a 30 mph zone blew right through a stop sign. I looked at A and said, "did he really just do that?" I activated my lights and pulled over the Camero. The driver said that he was the designated driver for his buddy who was passed out in the passenger seat. That is a great concept, but when the designated driver is drunk, it does not work out so well. I called for a DWI unit. After some field sobriety tests, the driver was arrested for DWI. The driver had turned 21 three weeks earlier. 

While I was dealing with the DWI, A was dealing with a drunk female nearby who she thought might be the driver of the Toyota from the earlier accident. After some investigation, it was determined that she was not the driver. She was just a drunk girl trying to get home. A called her a cab. Right when the cab arrived, A noticed that the Toyota that was involved in the accident just had a light come on in the vehicle. She saw the door open, a male reached inside, then closed the door and got into a nearby vehicle and started driving away. A activated her lights and pulled over that vehicle. The passenger admitted to being the driver of the Toyota that was involved in the accident. He said that his boyfriend brought him back to the Toyota in order to get his satchel out of the car. He was arrested and the district attorney took FSGI charges against him for leaving the accident scene. He was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. First, he leaves the accident scene. Then he parks his car only two blocks away from the accident scene. To top it off, he returns to his car and gets into it with a police officer in plain sight. To get a satchel! I hope that the satchel was worth it.

My last call was another check by. I went by with A on a criminal mischief. A female was having problems with an ex. Tonight he came by and broke two trees and then smashed the windshield of her Audi. She told us that he either emails or texts her every day. The relationship ended in February. He tells her that he loves her and hates her. That she ruined his life and is the best thing for him. That he wants to kill her cat and his cat. Sounds like he needs some medication. She is tired of the harassment and wants some help. A wrote her a report and it will be up to the investigators to get him into custody. 

That concludes another week on patrol.
 

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1st Day of Kindergarden

A1 and A2 in A2's kindergarten class.

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The week on patrol, August 15-19, 2011

I rode by myself this week. We were short handed again on Wednesday. Most of the interesting calls this week involved clubs or bars. 

Monday night we had nine units in the district. Early in the shift I was dispatched to an assault / delayed report at a bar. A customer had become belligerent and assaulted the bartender and doorman. He grabbed the bartender's buttocks and spit in the doorman's face. He also told the manager that he was racist because there were no black people working in the bar. They gave me a good description of the suspect. I looked for him, but came up empty. An hour later, another disturbance dropped at a different bar. The suspect's description in the call slip matched my suspect perfectly. This call slip said that the suspect had threatened to hurt the owner and blow up the bar. When I arrived on that disturbance, another officer was taking the suspect into custody. The district attorney's office refused charges on the threats. We returned the suspect to the earlier scene where the bartender and doorman positively identified him as the suspect. The suspect went to jail for a trifecta of public intoxication, assault by contact, and assault by offensive contact (spitting).  

Later in the shift I was dispatched to check by with D on a suspicious person. I arrived and the complainant told me that someone knocked on his front door at 3:30 am. Without checking a peephole or window first, he just opened the door. The knocker, a male, entered the apartment without being invited. The complainant did not know the male. The male asked for money to buy gas. The complainant gave him $40 and then gave him a ride to another location. After returning home, the complainant thought that the male was suspicious and wanted the police to find him. Suspicious? Knocks on random door at 3:30 am. Check. Walks in uninvited. Check. Asks for money. Check. I told the complainant that I would look for the male, but chances are, he will be back to your apartment because you are his new sugar daddy. 

Tuesday night we had ten units in the district. I ended up running 5 calls during the shift, an alarm, a loud noise, a criminal mischief, and I checked by on an assault in progress and a disturbance. The criminal mischief happened at a local bar where they frequently have live music. A male was upstairs by the band and equipment. He went to pick up a guitar that was not his and was asked to leave the equipment alone. He became belligerent and started making racial comments. He was escorted out of the bar by the management. As he was walking through the parking lot on his way off the property, he took out a key and scratched the hood of a vehicle. Ironically, the vehicle was owned by the person that asked him not to bother the equipment. The bar was able to provide me with his name from a credit card receipt. 

At the end of the shift I checked by on a disturbance. It turned out to be a lover's quarrel. A male came over to his ex-boyfriends house at 5 am and started banging on the door and yelling. The ex did not open the door and the male kept banging eventually waking up most of the people in the small apartment complex. We arrived and found the male walking down the sidewalk. He was extremely intoxicated and went to jail for public intoxication. 

Wednesday night we were short handed again, 7 units in the district. I was dispatched to a disturbance that had been holding for an hour. A large bare-chested male had come onto the property of an office building. He started banging on the glass. When security approached, he acted "all crazy" and cursed at them. Then he bent the antenna on a security vehicle. He decided to leave and crossed the street to a club where he assaulted a male and damaged his vehicle. Other officers responded to that location, detained him, and later transported him to a psychiatric center for evaluation. He told the officers that his name was Barack Obama.

Later in the shift a major accident dropped in another beat. A beat unit was dispatched and M & A checked by to help with traffic control. The accident happened in a nice part of town near an upscale shopping area that has a 24 hour security patrol. M & A arrived and began investigating the accident. An extra job officer working the security patrol ran over and told them that a Hummer had just driven down the nearby railroad tracks. The Hummer took out one of the railroad crossing arms in the process. M looked down the tracks and could see the Hummer bouncing along. In the distance he could also see a train. M called out over the radio for back-up and then started running down the tracks after the Hummer. About 1/4 mile down the tracks, the Hummer got stuck. Two females jumped out of the Hummer and ran back towards the road and disappeared. Two males stayed inside the vehicle until M got them out of the truck. The males were both intoxicated. Other officers began arriving and took custody of the males. M then jumped into the Hummer and freed it, getting it off the tracks before the train arrived. 

The driver of the Hummer was not very cooperative. He had no idea that he had hit the crossing arm and driven down the tracks. The other male said that he was in the back seat making out with one of the females when the truck suddenly turned sharply and started bouncing down the tracks. A DWI  unit arrived and took custody of the driver. He searched the Hummer and found marijuana and numerous pipes in the center console. A short time later, another male and female walked up to the scene. The female told me that her friend was driving the truck and that some of her stuff was inside. They had all been out clubbing together. About that time M walked over and recognized the female as one of the two that had jumped out of the Hummer. She was taken into custody. I guess she thought that she was going to be able to trick us into believing that she was not involved. Then I talked to the male that had walked up with her. He said that he was behind the Hummer when the crash happened. The two females ran up to him and he drove them down the street a few blocks. He said that the other female was a few blocks away in his car. M went down and brought her back to the scene. I ended up transporting the females to jail for public intoxication. The other male passenger went to jail for public intoxication as well. 

We had nine units in the district on Thursday night. A few hours into the shift I was dispatched to a suspicious person at one of the nearby clubs. The call slip said that the male that assaulted the caller two weeks ago was inside the club. A couple of units checked by with me and we spoke with T, the caller. T said that two weeks ago she had gotten into a verbal argument with K and his friend M at this same club. That night, K and M had made fun of T because she was wearing cow print pants. The argument became heated and K and M were kicked out of the club. A few hours later, T was walking to her car and K and M were walking to another club. They encountered each other in a nearby parking lot. The argument resumed. Then, T said out of nowhere, K punched her in the face. T fell to the ground and hit her head on the curb. K and M ran off. 

T went to the hospital and was told that she had a concussion. At the time, she did not know the identity of K or M. T went to the same club the following night and spoke to the DJ. She described the males and the DJ said that it sounded like K and M. T got on Facebook and did a search using the names that the DJ had given her. Sure enough, K was the male that had punched her and M was his friend. Tonight, she came back to the same club and saw K and M inside. We followed her inside and pulled K and M out of the club to hear their side of the story. They both said that they were making fun of T because of her cow print pants. K said that T had pushed him and then he hit her in the face. M said that he did not remember T pushing K. He did remember K punching T in the face and T falling to the ground. I called the district attorney's office and they took class A assault charges against K. K also had 4 city warrants. 

My last call of the night was a person down. A white female was passed out in the grass in front of some condos. An ambulance arrived before I did and they told me that she was fine and did not need any medical treatment. I walked over to her and she told me that she was fine and did not need anything. Then she told me that she was homeless. She did not look homeless. But, she got up and started walking away. She said that she would go sleep in the park. Fine with me. 

I rode my regular numbers on Friday night. Our normal print unit was here working for another officer. We had nine units in the district. My first call was to check by with N and K on an assault in progress. The call slip said that a fight was going on across the street from a club. A male was on the ground and a group of other males was punching him. We all arrived and the fight was over. We found a few males that looked like they had been in a fight. One was not wearing a shirt, one had a torn shirt, and another was covered in blood. They said that one of their friends had gotten into a fight with someone in the club. They were kicked out of the club and the fight continued across the street. Their friend had been knocked unconscious by another group of males. They came to his defense and broke up the fight. We could not find the victim, the unconscious friend. About 10 minutes later, a unit found the victim. He was stumbling around trying to find his car. He was conscious and drunk, but had a torn shirt, was bloody, and had a huge knot by his left eye. The suspects were all long gone. The victim was transported to the hospital. We never found out what the fight was about or how it started. 

I little later I was dispatched to an assault in progress in the back parking lot of a pub. The call slip said that one of the suspects had a pistol and had fired a round into the air. By the time officers arrived, the suspects had fled the scene. The incident began with an insult. Three males at the pub had all been part of a wedding earlier in the evening. They were all still wearing their tuxedos. An asian male insulted one of them by saying that they all looked gay since they were dressed alike. Instead of just blowing it off, one of the tuxedos decided to pursue the asian male outside and punched him in the face. The tuxedo then went back inside the pub. The asian male went and got his friends. They waited outside for the tuxedos to leave the pub. Once the tuxedos came out of the pub, the asian and his friends started threatening the tuxedos. At this point, they were all separated by about 20 feet and a car was in between them. It was all verbal and looked like it might stay that way until one of the tuxedos decided to run up into the face of a suspect. Once he did that, another suspect ran over and punched him in the face knocking him backwards into a wall. Another tuxedo jumped in and was punched in the face a few times by a suspect. While this was going on, another suspect took out his pistol and fired a round into the air. After the gun shot, everyone stopped fighting and the suspects got into a vehicle and left. A witness had the entire incident on video that he shot with his iPhone. I asked the tuxedo why he turned the verbal argument into a physical one by running up into the suspect's face. He had no answer, he just said that he got hit in the face. Sticks and stones. I bet the tuxedos are a little less eager to get physical the next time they are insulted.

That concludes another week on patrol. 

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The week on patrol, July 4-8, 2011

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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The week on patrol, June 27 - July 1, 2011

This was my first full week back from my vacation. A and I rode together two nights and were told that we could not ride together on two other nights. Strange. Right now there are different rules for different officers.  

On Monday I was by myself. We were a little short handed with only 8 units in the district. Call volume was normal with mostly mundane calls such as  illegal parking, suspicious people, loud noise, and alarms.

A few hours into the shift, R asked for units to check by with him code 2 which means "get here quickly". He had a disturbance with a white male that claimed to be a psychic and was seeing a man that had died a month earlier. I spoke to his roommate. He said that he was asleep and all of the sudden, the suspect just started freaking out. The roommate was in fear and kicked him out of the apartment and told him to go to his grandmother's house. The psychic went down a block to his grandmother's house and immediately started trashing the place. The grandmother could not hold him down and called us. He had calmed down by the time we arrived. He was checked out by an ambulance, and R decided to leave him with grandma. A few hours later, I got dispatched to a disturbance on the same block and I arrived to find the same psychic man and his grandmother covered in blood. The psychic had decided that he wanted to go back to his boyfriend's house and grandma followed him. On the street, they were both jumped and robbed by two males. While the robbers were hitting the man, grandma jumped in to try to protect him. They do not live in the best part of town. The man was transported to the hospital and the grandma went back inside after getting treated by an ambulance.  

A and I rode together on Tuesday. We were dispatched to a disturbance at an apartment complex. The call slip said there was a male inside an apartment refusing to leave. I knocked on the door and a 6'5" black man wearing a dress answered the door. There was another, shorter, black man dressed as a man in the apartment as well. Turns out this was called in by an estranged lover who was trying to create drama for the cross dresser. Like a cross dresser needs any more drama. As we were dealing with this disturbance, another one spilled out into the courtyard of the complex. So, we finished up with the cross dresser and headed downstairs. They had slammed the door shut by the time we got down there, so I knocked. A female holding a young child answered the door. I could see at least 5 other people inside the apartment. I asked if everything was alright, and she responded, "we are having a family *&%$^&%$." The last word was complete gibberish. I said, "a family what?" She said a family discussion. Oh, a discussion. Because to us it sounded like a family yelling match. Everyone inside the apartment was ok, so we asked them to keep the "discussion" a little quieter.     

We went to the Chevron to use the rest room and to get a drink and there was an officer making a traffic stop in the parking lot. It was an officer, M, who used to work with us and he was out working DWI overtime. He arrested the driver and asked A if she would she her for him. A did the search and found about $100 in cash on her in various pockets. She showed her all of the money and then put it all in her back right pocket. A few hours later, M called and asked A where she had put the money since they could not find it on the arrested driver. A told him exactly where she had put the money. M had checked his patrol car and the areas where the suspect had been and could not find the money. M took her to jail and told the jailer that she had the money on her person somewhere. So, the jailer strapped on some gloves and went and did her job. She found the money. The suspect had taken the money and hidden it in her vagina. The suspect told the jailer that she was scared that the money would be stolen from her in jail. Doubtful. We think that she was trying to hide it and then later drop a complaint blaming A for stealing the money as a way of deflecting attention away from her during her DWI trial. Crazy.

On Wednesday A and I rode together and we were short handed with only 6 units in the district. We were dispatched to a littering complainant at a local no-tell motel. The called said that another tenant had dropped trash in front of the caller's door. She confronted the litterer and did not get any satisfaction. When we arrived, there was not any trash in front of her door. A told her that there was not anything that we could do since it happened on private property. We advised her to call the hotel front desk to get some action. 

Later, we were sent to a criminal mischief / just occurred at a nearby fast food restaurant. We arrived and the manager came running out to tell us that 3 males had assaulted another male in the drive through line. We got a description and started looking around for those involved. A few minutes later we were flagged down by the victim who was in his vehicle. He told us that he was in the drive through line when three males walked up to his vehicle and started talking trash to him. He said that he had never seen the males before and had no prior contact with them. He told them that he did not want any trouble. Then one of the males broke out a window of the victim's vehicle with his palm. At that point, the victim drove away. We gathered his information and then returned to the restaurant where they told us that they had the incident on video. We noted that in our report. 

On Thursday I rode by myself. We were short handed again and this time they would not let us ride together. I ran a bunch of calls, and only one of them was interesting. I checked by on a CIT (crazy person) disturbance where the call slip said that a male was yelling and screaming and punching walls. When I arrived, the crazy male was sitting on a curb talking to a friend. The friend told me that the crazy male was not crazy, just drunk. The problem was the male had been taken back into his apartment twice already and had returned outside yelling and screaming while wearing less and less clothing. When he came out this time, he was only wearing a t-shirt, no pants, no drawers, no shoes. While he was sitting, he got tired and decided to lay on the ground, in the fetal position, with his rear pointed towards two female officers. They were not amused. It was difficult not to laugh. I asked him where he lived and he gave me 6 different apartment numbers. We were finally able to find his correct apartment to get him some pants. His roommate was home and the roommate agreed to take custody of him for us. We assured the drunk male that if he returned outside, he would go to jail, pants or not.

I was the print unit on Friday. The desk sergeant told A and I that we could not ride together. We were told later in the shift that A and I could have ridden together. At times, it seems like the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. 

I received one picture call during the shift. It was a domestic disturbance. The male told me that he and his girlfriend had just moved into a new house. Tonight, they went out to celebrate. According to him, on the way home, she freaked out and started yelling at him. A few blocks from home, she stopped the car and screamed at him to get out of her car, which he did. He walked home and once he went inside, she started yelling at him again. He sat down to take off his shoes, and she attacked him. She bit him twice on the leg and once on the arm drawing blood while leaving teeth impressions. He was able to get away from her and called the police. She went to jail for assault and I photographed his injuries. 

That concludes another week on patrol.

    

Posted via email from will7079's posterous

The week on patrol, August 8-12, 2011

I rode by myself all week. We were short handed on Wednesday and I was the print unit on Friday.

On Saturday night, my part time partner, A, switched to early side. Hopefully things will work out for her on early side. I rode solo Monday night. We had ten units in the district. My only interesting call was a criminal mischief report. The caller told me that her Explorer had been damaged three times in the last week. She then showed me the damage to her vehicle. Someone had taken something like a key and scratched two panels of the truck. The initial "A" was carved in the door. Tonight, her dogs started barking and her husband went outside on a balcony to investigate. He saw the suspect walk by the truck with something shiny in his hand. The suspect was walking a dog so he probably lives nearby. I asked her if she had made someone angry recently or had any type of ongoing dispute with someone but she could not think of anything. Strange because this seemed a little personal.

I was solo again on Tuesday. We had nine units in the district. As soon as I signed on, I was dispatched to check by with D on a code 1 assault in progress at a club. Code 1 calls are our highest priority calls. I was not close but got there in under 5 minutes. I was the first to arrive. I found a large crowd in the street with more people in a parking lot and even more streaming out of the club. Five bouncers from the club had a man, F, handcuffed and on the ground. All of F's friends were yelling at the bouncers and it was close to getting out of hand. As soon as I stopped my patrol car, people flooded in my direction. That was a little odd, normally when the police arrive, the crowd scatters.

At first, I tried my calm voice and demeanor, but quickly abandoned that and started yelling and pushing people back. Drunk people do not listen, and everyone wanted to talk to me at the same time. Since F seemed to be the center of attention, I got him off of the ground and put him into the backseat of my patrol car. Then I continued to try to separate people because F's friends were still trying to fight the bouncers. After about 5 minutes of dealing with this, I began to wonder where the primary unit was and why was it taking him so long to get there. He finally arrived and we were able to restore a little calm to the situation.

After speaking with everyone, I learned that F owns a new bar in the area. He took all of his employees out for a night of fun. F's son got a little too drunk and passed out on a couch. It is illegal to sleep where alcohol is being served. So, a bouncer went to wake him up. The drunk guy had a startled reaction to being awakened and hit the bouncer. The bouncer claimed that he was kicked in the testicles. Then it was game on. The bouncer thought he was being attacked so he went nuts and all of his fellow bouncers jumped in. F and all of his employees came to the defense of F's son. Chaos ensued. Girls were jumping on bouncers backs and then getting thrown to the floor or put into choke holds. Luckily no bottles or chairs were used as weapons. The bouncers finally got F out of the bar and that is about when I arrived. The bar did not want anyone to get arrested. They understand that these types of things happen in bars. A few of the girls were upset that they had been pushed. If you don't want to be pushed or choked, don't jump into the middle of a bar fight. We took statements from at least 10 people for the report. F was arrested for public intoxication. He was out of control. The amazing part was that no one was injured. There were a few bumps and bruises, but nothing significant.

My last call of the night was a disturbance at a nearby restaurant. The call slip said that a white male wearing aping shirt had been rude and had gone into the women's restroom. When I arrived, the male was outside in the parking lot by his car with his friends. The caller walked out of the restaurant to speak with me. She said that the male had tried to grab her butt and when she did not appreciate that, because belligerent. He then followed his lady friends into the women's restroom. Later he told her that the food was not fit for dogs and he told other customers that his food had been spat in. Sounds like a great guy. Of course, he had a little different story. He said that he never went into the women's restroom, only stood by the door. He said that he might have stood a little too close to the waitress when she was counting her money. He did admit to saying the food was not fit for dogs. Strangely, he had a "to-go" box filled with the food when he said it. The waitress did not want to pursue anything, she just wanted a report and for him to leave and not come back. I advised him to leave and gave him a trespass warning.

We were short handed again on Wednesday night. We had six units in the district and only two on late-side. Luckily, the call volume was low again. My only interesting call of the night was an auto theft report. The call slip said that she had found her stolen vehicle. The location was an intersection. I found the complainant, J, sitting in her sister's car. J told me that her baby's daddy whom she lived with for 4 years had assaulted her and stolen her vehicle about a month ago. At that time, she went to a police station and reported the assault and she thought the auto theft. I could find the assault report, but it said nothing about the auto theft. She had received instructions from the officer to send a demand letter to her baby's daddy requesting the return of the vehicle. The letter had to be sent certified and if there was not a response after 10 days, the vehicle can be reported stolen. That is the case because the baby's daddy had previously had permission to drive the car. So, he did not steal the vehicle, he just did not bring it back on time, in the eyes of the law. But, a police report has to be generated to get the ball rolling. That should have been done a month ago, but was not. I took her information and took care of that for her.

The vehicle was parked at a nearby bar where the baby's daddy works as a bartender. I asked her if she had a set of keys, because it is her vehicle and with keys she could just take it back. But, he had the only set of keys. Her father is a wrecker driver and was nearby. She asked if he could pick the vehicle up. I said sure, it is your vehicle. It would be a private tow between you and your dad, the police would have nothing to do with it, because it is currently a civil matter and not a criminal one. She liked the tow idea, but her father was nervous about towing the vehicle. The baby's daddy is apparently a tatted up gang member and not a very nice person. He did not want to risk retribution to get a '93 Toyota Camry back for his daughter. After that plan fell through, I left. Hopefully for her the demand letter that she sent will be all that she needs and an auto theft investigator will report it stolen soon.

Thursday night we had 10 units in the district. Early in the shift I was dispatched to a home invasion / in progress. The call slip said that a white male was trying to open the caller's front door. Other units arrived before I did, and they found the white male knocking on the door. He did not try to run away when the officers arrived. I arrived and spoke with him. He said that he had been drinking at a nearby bar. He started talking to another male and that male invited him to his home to drink a little more. So, they started walking to his house which was a few blocks away. Somewhere along the way, the white male lost sight of his new friend. He walked up to the house where he thought his new friend had gone. He knocked on the door. The white male was intoxicated, and only 4 blocks from his apartment. He said that he lived with his girlfriend. I was not sure that I believed him. Chances are he was either trying to score drugs or wanted to try out an alternative lifestyle. I decided to take him to his apartment and left him in the care of his girlfriend.

Later, I checked by with N & K on a minor accident. They requested a unit for traffic control. A brand new with dealer plates Hyundai Equus had slammed into 3 parked vehicles and scattered debris everywhere. A witness said that the vehicle was going at least 80-90 mph when it reached the curve in the road and did not quite make the turn. It slammed into a full size extended cab truck which was parked along the outside of the curve and moved it 30 feet into a silver Toyota. Then the Hyundai kept going and hit a Ford Ranger and moved it 15 feet. The Hyundai came to a stop about 20 feet away from the Ranger. In the process, the Hyundai lost the front bumper, the steel bumper underneath, and the rear door on the driver side. None of the airbags had deployed. The driver left the scene before we arrived. He left a TX driver's license, an empty flask, and two empty beer bottles behind in the vehicle. The sticker for the vehicle was inside the glove box and it said $65,000! For a Hyundai! Ouch.

On Friday I was the print unit. It was a typical Friday night with lots of calls involving intoxicated people, clubs, loud music, and disturbances. I ran a few calls, checked by on some others and did not have any print or picture calls. I checked by an assault in progress at a club involving extra job officers. The call started out as a wagon call, but the suspect decided to fight the officers. It took all 3 of the extra job officers to get this guy on the ground. They were still struggling with him when our units arrived. The suspect then tried to punch one of our officers. The suspect was finally hand cuffed and placed in leg restraints. He went to jail for assault on a public servant. A large crowd came out of the club and started advancing toward the officers as they were dealing with the suspect. More units arrived and pushed back the crowd. The decision was then made to shut down the club for the night. A few club goers went to jail for public intoxication. It took about an hour to get the club cleared and everyone out of the parking lot. I am not sure you could pay me enough money to work an extra job at a club.

That concludes another week on patrol.

Posted via email from will7079's posterous