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Productive day to say the least.
A lot can happen during one shift.
Today our unit was scheduled to work a ‘sweep’ detail in our district, targeting drug houses that the undercover units were monitoring and as always, trying to catch Robbery subjects.
My unit, along with 5 other full units stood outside of our main station in the district in a circle around our Captain, waiting for him to start the briefing.
The Captain gave a small speech, “Okay guys, you all know why you’re here. First and Foremost, I have two rules. A) Have fun. B) Come back safe at the end of the shift. You guys are in your units because you’re the best of the best and don’t need supervision to get the job done. I know that and thats why you’ve been hand picked for what you do, proactive work. I can’t come out and tell people to work, its an internal drive and if you don’t have it, you can’t get it. So I appreciate everyone coming out and the motivation. The undercover units are watching some houses in the district, if they want us to jump the houses, we’ll raise you over the Tactical channel. We’ve been getting hit with a lot of robberies in this particular area so I want arrests made, asses kicked and names taken. If you get into a deadly force situation, do what you have to do. We’ve had 6 Officers in our area killed in the last 4 months, I don’t want to make any more phone calls to families. I’m going to talk to your Sergeants and they’ll disseminated the information to you on your specific assignments for the day. Be safe and happy hunting.”
With that, the group started to break off. I walked over to my Sergeant and asked him the most important question of the day, “So, where we eating?”. He laughed at me and told me and my partner to follow him.
It’s always a good idea to eat at the beginning of the shift as a unit, so that it’s out of the way and you can focus on getting a good arrest. It also helps with bonding as on these perticular units, you need to trust your people.
Only 5 people went out to eat, out of 7 and 3 of them weren’t even on our squad. Go figure.
After we finished my partner and I drove back to the district. We rolled up on one of the guys on our squad that had a guy stopped with his kid in the car. The Officer told me, “Hey, I’m gonna arrest this guy, his license is suspended”. I looked at him and then my partner stepped in and told him, “Man, that’s not what we’re out here for, look for something better”. The Officer thought about it for a while and finally let the guy go.
As we drove away I told me partner just what I thought about that Officer’s effectiveness on a Jumpout unit, which was currently none. That’s something for road units to do, not people who are supposed to be at a higher level of police work.
Rolling around later my partner and I stopped a car that looked good. We found only crack pipes and empty cocaine baggies, so we told them to have a nice day and decided to go get something to drink.
We headed over to a gas station and while drinking some water I decided to have a little squad meeting. I raised the people on my squad and got them to come over, minus the Sergeant. I went into a speech once they got there.
“Guys, I got a couple things to mention. We’re a new unit in an established division which means we’re under a microscope. Every arrest we make is going to be a direct reflection of our unit and people will judge us by those arrests. Also, as a new unit we have the unique privilege of defining ourselves and our future endeavors. If you want to make petty arrests for Traffic and low end Misdemeanors, that’s what people will think of us. I’m of the mind set that good arrests are worth putting the effort in for and in the long run will net you a better career. Those are just my thoughts on the topic. While I have you all here, I also want to suggest that we draw up quadrant style boxes in the district and start working in them as a unit, saturating the area. It’s a more effective style of police work and nets better arrests. Another issue I’ve noticed is that there are already Cliques forming. We can’t have those, they make for bad police work. I bring all of this up because we’re all Officers and we need to deal with this stuff in house, before the Sergeant gets wind of it and before he decides he needs to step in and guide us. It makes us look good to take the initiative and reflects well upon us. Thats my piece, take it with a grain of salt.”
With that, the guys picked a box and we started working in it. I was hoping that at least a few things I said would sink in.
A couple hours later Arod and I hadn’t gotten anything so we decided to goto the Mini-station we’re working out of to turn in some Overtime slips. When we got there, I saw two of the guys in our unit parked outside with prisoners in the back of their cars. I of course walked up to the cars.
Looking in the back of the first one, I saw an older woman in tears. I asked the Officer, “Hey, what did she do?”. The Officer looked up at me and from the passenger side pulled out a crack pipe. You have to be kidding me.. I just told these people… ugh.
Hoping for some form of redemption in the world, I asked the second Officer what he had. My mistake, as he actually arrested this guy for something he had no proof of. Tampering with Evidence, he said the guy had some weed and threw it when the Officer approached. He never found the weed, but arrested him for tossing it. Keep in mind, this guy has little experience with narcotics and it’d never hold up in court.
Christ, these guys must be hard headed. My partner saw the look on my face and as we walked into the mini-station he simply told me, “Bro, you don’t have to say a word, I know man”.
So after we cleared the mini-station we were driving up the main avenue for the area when a BOLO went out for the Subject of a shooting that occurred the previous day. We happened to be a block away from where this guy was supposed to be and decided to swing by. Long story short, he was there and he was taken into custody.
After calling the Detective we ended up transporting him to the station for questioning and left him there. Excellent Collar if I do say so myself.
Back to the streets we started cruising around with 4 hours left in the 10 hour detail when Dispatched advised of a Robbery vehicle fleeing from an Officer in the City at the south end of the County. They were headed north on the Interstate and gave a partial tag.
Running the tag in various combinations we got it to match up on an Address that was only 60 blocks away and started heading over there.
Of course, the car was just pulling up into the driveway when we got there. I got on the air and requested Aviation when the doors flew open and people started running.
We got out and went after the driver as he was trying to run across the street. The other two guys ran into the house they parked in front of. My partner and I took the driver into custody and started a perimeter on the house. Aviation was now hovering 100 feet over the house watching the back yard as we held point on the front door. As more units arrived we got things moving.
We managed to get a number for the house and actually talked everyone in the house out.
We now had plenty of people in custody and inside the house was a bullet proof vest and several toy guns (Mac 10’s). And of course, the Mac 10’s were the guns described in the initial Robbery.
Our Sergeant and LT came to the scene and were thrilled to see the ‘new’ unit doing such a good job. The other guys on our squad made several comments about how my partner and I seem to keep bringing in good arrests and I think they’re starting to get the picture.
Today was a good day, here’s hoping for many more of the same.
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