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Welcome back to the road.
So after a long stay on the desk due to my LASIK I got back on the road doing my usual three days ago.
First day I learned that in order to function outside I had to wear sunglasses. The Lasik has made my eyes very sensitive to light and its almost impossible to hold them open without squinting. Now, I have never purchased a pair of sunglasses before but I did have a German Officer do a ‘ride-along’ with me around 8 months ago and he happened to have left a pair of sunglasses in my car. The sunglasses look exactly like the ones the ‘Terminator’ wore in Terminator 2.
No problem. I love the Terminator series, just now I looked like an 80’s throw back.
So I decided that I’m going to take it easy for a couple of weeks and try not to get involved in anything that could mess up my eyes any.
School board Officers got on the air requesting Emergency backup reference a large fight in progress at a Bus stop a few blocks from a local school.
About 11 Officers showed up and the kids as always started to walk in different directions. The victim that called the police was waiting on the sidewalk and immediately pointed out the kid that started the fight.
The kid had wandered into the middle of the 6 lane roadway median and turned around to see if he was being followed. Myself, along with two other Officers started walking towards him and I think he got the idea.
He started running away from us.
As you probably guessed, I went into my instinctual reaction mode and started chasing him as fast as I could go. He had an initial 40 foot lead on me, which I’m more then used too, but he wasn’t the usual slug. I had to run full stride.
I have to paint a picture for you.
I’m running at full speed, hands completely open like razors, kicking my feet so hard that their touching my butt with each alternating steps, head slightly tilted down and to top it off, I’ve got on my Terminator sunglasses. My feet were hitting the ground so hard and fast that my radio flew out of its holster and I had to catch it as it dangled from in front of me to behind me and back. I could have been a clone or extra in a movie. I started laughing to myself to the point where I cracked a smile and messed up my ‘breathing’ groove. A mist all of that, I was still gaining on him, slowly but I I’m used to endurance runs, he’s arse was mine.
The kid kept turning around not having thought about a cop actually being able to gain on him. We ran three blocks before I realized that no Officers were near us, or running on foot.
Then I heard the roar of engines as the flew by me, one, two, five…
Apparently in my reaction buffer I forgot that my running police car was only 3 feet away from me and it’d be 10x easier to chase down a kid that wants to go for a run without actually having to chase them on foot.
Hmph.
They cut him off and Ace jumped out of his car and grabbed the kid. I got to him second and assisted with taking him into custody.
Yea, I got my workout for the day done. So now I was all sweaty, heated, fairly red from running and still looking very much like Terminator but skinnier and not an awesome killer robot machine from the future.
The next day I went to work with low aspirations. I really didn’t want to do anything.
But, as always that never happens. I’m forced into action by my own free will.
My Sarge wanted to talk to use about the recent changes that will be going on with our squad. He told us to all meet behind a warehouse so we could talk. He started going into some details about our new LT who just arrived in the district last week when we heard our sister unit, CST calling out a Chase on the Tactical channel. Their Sarge got on and requested our help since we actually specialize in containment and capture while their main function is observation and reporting.
Problem was, their across the district. Literally, their 40 blocks away and running a chase through back streets in a residential neighborhood. Not only is this dangerous but potentially fatal, especially in the current location.
We needed to stop this guy before he hurt someone.
Our unit with precision was in the area within minutes, which involved very good driving and caused the awesome smell of burning motor fluids as our cars protested the amount of ass we were hauling.
We setup our perimeter and the fleeing car ended up crashing into a fence directly in the center of our perimeter.
Perfect.
Three guys got out and started running, all in separate directions.
I stopped my car at the north side of the perimeter and got outside my vehicle.
An older guy, maybe 25-30 turned the corner booking as fast as his flip-flops would allow. Unfortunately for him, my Nikes were made for this sorta fun and he didn’t make it very far. He got the ‘careful-please-dont-hit-my-eyes’ NFL tackle and cuffing. Just as I was getting on the ‘Tac channel to notify them I had one, two other squad mates got on and said the same thing.
Bingo, once again we served our primary purpose flawlessly. Just thinking about how well our squad runs put a smile on my face. Its very rare that an entire squad works so well.
After we dropped off those guys at the station our Sarge had us go back to the Warehouse to have ‘the talk’.
Sarge : “Okay, first off, let me tell you guys I have a lot of bad news coming. The new LT that arrived last week apparently is under the impression that a Jump-out squad is useless and not needed. She seems to think we’d better serve a purpose by helping the road units handle bullshit calls for service, you know, kittens in trees and old people crossing the street. She doesn’t seem to think that a squad that can catch real criminals is as important as handling calls for service, so as of next week, we’re being renamed to a ‘Priority service unit’ that’ll only handle calls for service. In reality we’re not going to change a damn thing we do aside from what they call our squad. It’s either all or nothing to me. If she wants us to handle calls, we’re going to handle every single call we can get our hands on and when the robberies and burglaries go out and they beg for us to do our thing, we’re going to tell the LT that she will have to handle it on her own because we’re busy saving Kittens. I for one am not making you handle calls. That’s for the road units that don’t give a damn about real police work. Let them clear for those bullshit calls. “
Stunned looks all around the circle.
Sarge : “Next, Dash, you’re going to that new burglary squad as of next week. It’s from 7AM-3PM with sat/sun off. They wanted you permanently but I told them to pound sand. I’d rather rotate my entire squad every two weeks. That means that after two weeks, you’re back with me and we’ll pick another person to go from our squad. This detail is supposed to last 4 months. It’s going to suck. Remember, we’re like a military unit, don’t worry about whats going on over ‘there’, focus on our job over ‘here’ and do as I tell you. I won’t steer you wrong. I need you all to do exactly as I say for the next few weeks in order to give me the ammunition I need to fight the brass”.
Still, very stunned looks all around our now shifty eyed circle.
Sarge : “Also, they want to pull another body from the squad permanently for a Investigations Burglary Squad since they are short a body. Anyone want to go to Investigations?”
We all looked at each other for a second.
Sarge : “Good, glad to see were all on the same page, I don’t see how people want to work that crap anyway. It’s a bunch of pencil pushing.”
I smirked a bit, I wouldn’t mind pushing pencils for a while but I’m still young and have plenty of time to sit behind a desk in some forgotten office waiting for retirement to come.
Sarge : “Now, with all that bad news, the new LT is also trying to change our schedule to a 4PM to Midnight shift under the same impression that we’ll be handling calls and covering road shortages when afternoon shift leaves and new crew comes in. Bullshit and screw that. I’ll keep you guys up to date as I find out more but as it stands, she apparently has never seen a real Jump-out squad in action and since she just made LT she is trying to throw her weight around. On that note, I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
Squad moral was low to say the least.
We’ve been working hard catching real criminals for months and months and now a Sergeant gets promoted to LT and sent to our district and decides on her first day to rewire everything.
I drove home in not so good of a mood, but I’m happy that their going to rotate the burglary detail. I’m not a morning person and really don’t want to be up at 5:30AM daily. Ever. Coffee and I aren’t close friends either.
It’s been a long week and I wasn’t expecting that sort of welcome back from inactive duty.
At least now I have a reason to work hard again, even if their is no real incentive to do so.
Tomorrow, instead of going into work with the mentality of being burned out, I’m going to rock it like I’m a rookie who’s got something to prove.
Chocolate bear saw the look on my face as it was time to leave and people started walking to their cars, he came up to me and gave me a signature bear hug followed by telling me, “One love brotha, You know how we roll.”
“One love bro”.
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