Archives
Who needs da po-po?
The last night of your work week in my line of work is known as ‘Social Friday’. ‘Social Friday’ could be a Monday or Saturday, whatever the last day of your week falls on. Monday nights happen to be my squads ‘Social Friday’, so we expected to try to avoid getting involved in anything that would tie us up past our normal shift hours if we didn’t have too. Unfortunately I’ve an extremely proactive squad and we get involved in more crap than any other squad on midnights.
First call out of the hole was called in by an Anonymous Complainant who stated that there was a drunk male with a handgun walking around in their apartment complex wearing a green shirt and blue jeans. I of course popped my trunk and grabbed my trusty shotgun and followed my squad mates to the complex.
Upon arrival the 4 squad members that showed up split into 2 groups and started a search pattern. My buddy and I took the foot patrol route while the other 2 drove the parking lot.
Long story short, the only people we found outside in the complex were knuckleheads but no armed drunk.
As soon as I cleared that call it was on.
BEEP!! ATTENTION ALL UNITS! GANG FIGHT IN PROGRESS! CAN ANY UNIT CLEAR?
I took the call and pulled out my AR-15. Gang fights generally end up a little messy and there are always guns involved.
When I arrived it was basically a block war. Bunch of people fighting in the streets at 2AM in the morning when the lights were off and they had just the full moon to light their brawl. So, I thought I’d help them out a little with lighting, as I hit my lights and sirens in the middle of the street, parked.
They scattered like roaches. Call handled, because even if they were injured, there not going to come to me for help. Gang members have a tendency not to like Police for whatever reason. I don’t really care.
I cleared the call and started driving around looking for something.
I found that something not a few seconds later.
Car full of guys, no tag, loud music, a perfect stop.
I pulled the vehicle over and got out of my car. From the back of their car I yelled “Roll all your windows down and turn on the interior light” as I drew my gun and flashlight. The driver complied and I walked up the rear window. Backup arrived and I started the process.
“Okay, here’s how this works. I don’t like surprises and if there is anything in the car right now I should know about, tell me about it before I find it on my own and it wont be an issue. If I find it otherwise and you’ve lied to me, you’re going to be in a cold place tonight eating baloney sandwiches. So, knowing that is there anything in the vehicle that I should know about?”
I give the same speech to all my client. Usually it works and I get a gun or some dope. As a police officer I’m allowed to us discretion on how I handle certain things. If they have a felony amount of a drug and they tell me, I’m required to arrest them, but otherwise, I honor honesty and give them the benefit of the doubt. I get enough arrests my way not to need to break my word.
The driver piped up, ‘Hey man, I’ve got something in the trunk”. Thats music to my ears. I respond with, “As long as it isn’t a backpack nuke, we’re okay. Pop the trunk and let me see what we’ve got here”.
He did and I looked. Ukrainian made AK-47. Normally this isnt a problem as its your 2nd Amendment right to bare arms and he can legally have a gun in his house and car, as long as its properly secured. His problem was that he has an extensive past for everything under the sun, to include armed robbery.
But like I said, I appreciate honesty. I didn’t arrest him, as there are plenty of other people in my district that were bound to lie to me with the same situation that night, so no problem. I did however take the gun for safe keeping as he was a felony and cannot own a firearm in this state.
Shortly thereafter I handled several more calls and then came time for the weekly squad breakfast. Sarge wanted Denny’s so we all meet up there to enjoy a greasy breakfast/dinner/whatever. Out of the 9 that showed up, 4 got calls and had to leave/comeback but over all its a morale booster to meet with the people that have your life in their hands daily just to talk crap for a while. Sarge suggested we all play paintball next week. Not a bad idea. After a bowl of spicy buffalo wings, I was more then full and ready to go.
Just when sarge said, “its 4AM, nothings gonna go out so relax”..
BEEP!!! ATTENTION ALL UNITS!! ROBBERY IN PROGRESS! SUBJECT CURRENTLY IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE WITH THE HUSBAND!! CAN ANY UNIT CLEAR?
I picked up my mic as always and referenced the call.
What happened next is something that only a tight group of Officers can pull off smoothly enough.
Without even saying a word to each other, we all got up and hauled all sorts of butt to the address, splitting up into 2 pairs a piece and heading a different way.
Sarge and I arrived first as a Subject was running from the house to the street. He was immediately taken into custody but the ‘Look out’ saw us and hopped on his bike and started to peddle like Lance Armstrong.
I got on the air, “Dispatch, have Aviation start this way and set perimeter points…. (insert 4 points in a 6 block radius)”.
Just as I finished setting the points another squad member found the guy on the bike trying to get away, several blocks over. After a short foot pursuit he also was taken into custody.
In less then 2 minutes both Subjects were caught and sitting in the back of our squad cars. The home owner then came out and talked to us.
I ended up charging these bright individuals with Burglary to a vehicle as they never actually went into the house, just the car, and never made contact with the owner until we responded, so it wasn’t a Robbery since nothing was taken by force, but a burglary since the car was entered and ransacked.
6AM rolled around and it was almost time to go home. Luckily I had a friend of mine respond from the GIU (General investigation unit) to process the scene and handle the arrest forms for the guys having a great day.
Not the most eventful night, but I handled a ton of cases and had 2 felony arrests.
Can’t complain, definitely a social day in my line of work.
Comments