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Within arms reach just doesn't quite say it.
Saturday is pretty much my ‘Friday’, because its the last day of my normal shift work week.
On that day, the squad meets up and completes all of our paperwork for the week. We get the Over-time stubs out of the way and then as a squad, we go eat somewhere nice.
After an awesome lunch my partner and I drove to a little hole in the wall I visit daily for my coffee.
I wasn’t really in the mood to hustle because we did nothing but conduct surveillance / jump-outs on drug holes all week. I sat in bushes with binoculars, on top of train station platforms.. you name it.
Needless to say, it was a taxing week on the unit and we were all generally laying low.
By now, I’ve learned the days I want to lay low, are the days when I get some interesting happenings.
The LT came into the Mini-Station and saw me and my partner sitting down at our desks, sort of zoning off into paperwork.
LT : Hey, have you guys done anything today?
Me : Nope, not really. What’s up?
LT : Get out of the office and do something…
I looked at him for a second awkwardly because I thought he was joking. My unit doesn’t work on quotas and neither does the department, but we normally bring in a consistent amount of bodies/drugs/guns for serious/major crimes so we have unsaid standards to be met.
Me : Alrighty LT, give me 10 minutes and I’ll grab you a good collar.
I stood up and walked out of the mini-station and straight across the street to the project housing.
This housing is setup in a diamond formation with a large open court yard and open walk ways. They are two stories and have stairs that go up 1/2 a floor, hit an open, visible plateau and then turn 90 degrees to go up the other 1/2 floor.
I turned a corner at the south building and saw a guy I’ve arrested before for cocaine sale sitting on the stairs of the east building, looking around.
Now, I know he doesn’t live there and he was at such an angle he couldn’t see me yet, which of course was to my advantage..
So, in my most stealthy tiptoe, I got about 15 feet from him before he noticed me. He stood up, turned around and did what I can only describe as a free throw toss of 2 large bags of cocaine into the tall unkempt grass.
What was worse is he thought I didn’t just see this obvious occurrence and he proceeded to start a conversation with me.
Subject : Hey Dash, you don’t got to say nothin, I’m leaving. I know you told me I can’t be here no more and I was just visiting a friend.
Me : Yea? Have a seat for me.
Subject : Okay man, just don’t shoot me. I heard bout that thing down the street. Don’t shoot me Dash.
What the hell? I had no idea what he was talking about, but as with most of the stuff I do on the job, playing it by ear is always a good method.
Me : Then have a seat for me.
He sat down and I placed him into cuffs.
My partner came along and starting picking up the bags.
Yeap, one bag had powder cocaine and the other had rock cocaine ‘crack’.
I asked the guy what his name was, even though I already knew it. To my surprise he actually gave me a wrong name. Now, if you have been arrested by me before and know that I know your name, why on earth would you give me a fake name?
Oh.. thats why. He had a fugitive warrant out of the County to the north.
Oh boy.
I walked directly back to the station with my subject and the two bags and sat him down in the detention chairs right across from my desk. I walked up to the LT and said, “Check your watch LT.”, as I raised up the two bags of cocaine.
He looked at me for a second, laughed and then told me 8 minutes.
LT : So what did you bring me?
Me : Dealer that also happens to have a Fugitive warrant. 45 bags of rock and 14 backs of powder cocaine. Total amount is around 13 grams.
LT : Outstanding work there. Good job man.
It’s somewhat upsetting to me to know that no matter how often I grab bad guys, the very next day another one is out there replacing them. As a unit we do nothing but hit drug holes and chase robbery guys and they are still there, day after day. Different faces sometimes, but its usually the same people..
The legal system is just not what it should be. We do all this footwork and then it gets reduced or tossed out in court due merely to case loads. Solid tight cases are plead out to make the process cheaper for the County and quicker… which does nothing but create a revolving door for these criminals..
So at the end of the day, my end result was a drug dealer off the street and 59 bags (totaling 13.5 Grams) of cocaine out of circulation.
Challenging me because I’m having an off day works, because I like challenges.
The work is in my blood, no matter my mood.
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