A Day In The Life
Sunday, August 31, 2003
Week 11, Day 4
My final day in disptach...there is a God.
Why is it that most dispatchers weigh 200+ pounds and are rather surly? They claim it is because we don't know how difficult and stressful their jobs can be. Puh-leeez!! Do they NOT see the uniform I'm wearing? I have no doubt that their jobs can test their mental fortitude, but I work in law enforcement for cryin' out loud. Excuse me if I get a little testy on the radio after chasing some crack dealer around three blocks and having to wrestle him to the ground. * rolls eyes *
That being said, I'm glad they do their jobs.
Week 11, Day 3
After working the Pellet Gun Incident for most of the week, I finally arrested someone. w00t!! He was understandably bummed about going to jail, but what am I supposed to do about that? Next time, don't shoot someone while they are asleep. Better yet, don't shoot anyone period.
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Week 11, Day 1
A couple of people came forward on the pellet shooting. Got the info late in the day, so it looks like the suspect is gonna get hooked later this week. Hope he is enjoying his freedom.
Week 10, Day 4
Kinda interesting. Had to respond to the hospital regarding a cold assault. This guy had been "sleeping", also known as being passed-out 'cuz of too much booze, and one of his buddies thought it would be cool to shoot hit 3 times with a pellet gun. Rounds one and two went into and off of his shin. Round three ended up lodged in his big toe. Ouch. Problem is, he doesn't know who did it since he was asleep. Guess I'm gonna have to do some work on this one.
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Week 10, Day 1
It rained, then it didn't....it rained again, and then it didn't. The weather was having a bit of fun with us today, which made for traffic accidents aplenty. As luck would have it, I didn't have to work any of them as the primary responder. Sweet.
As if you couldn't tell, my new shift isn't nearly as busy (yet) as the others I have worked.
Week 9, Day 4
Responded emergency to a structure fire, so that's kinda cool. Apparently some bonehead left a cigarette burning on/near a couch. The end result: a two-story house was completely destroyed. Bummer.
Sunday, August 17, 2003
Week 9, Day 3
What's new? Not so much.
The highlight/lowlight of the shift was a very, very minor traffic accident. Would've been outta there in like 15-20 minutes, but the driver that was hit was driving with a suspended license. Crapola. So, it turned out to be more like an hour.
And that's a wrap.
Saturday, August 16, 2003
Week 9, Day 2
My new FTO is pretty cool. He's laid-back and easy-going. Definitely seems to do his part NOT to add stress to an already stressful situation.
Made a handful of traffic stops today. Boy, when the sun is shining, it sure is easy to call out your location. They were all pretty routine and all ended in tickets. Am I trying out for Highway Patrol? Funny, but no. Some actually had the nerve to drive their vehicle with license plates that had expired not one month, not 12 months, but 4 years ago! That's just fine by me: Here's a ticket for your troubles.
Took a stolen vehicle report too. Left car when car was there, returned to car and car wasn't there...end of story.
Week 9, Day 1
First day of Phase III and a new shift to boot. Working day shift is soooo much different than the other shifts....definitely a lot hotter.
Didn't really do squat today. Kinda chased my tail on a restraining order violation that wasn't really a restraining order violation, but was a restraining order violation. What? Yeah, that's right, you heard me.
Also attended a "threat assessment" meeting. This is a meeting that takes place in order to determine if a juvenile who states that they are "...gonna make Columbine look like child's play..." is a threat to the school. What? Yeah, that's right, you heard me.
Let's just hope it gets better from here.
Monday, August 11, 2003
Week 8, Day 4
Two transients drop off their 4-year-old child with people that they have never met. "Do you mind watching our daughter for 2-3 hours?", they ask. "No problem.", says the less than genius home owners. Apparently by "2-3 hours" they really meant "forever." After 2 days of babysitting, the home owners thought that maybe something was a little off. You frickin' think so, Einstein?
Story has a happy ending though. We actually find mom and her dirtbag boyfriend and collar them for Child Abuse. "I don't know what I did wrong?", mom says. I tell her that perhaps some time in the pokey might sort things out for her. Moron.
Week 8, Day 3
Met Dave Matthews today. Cool.
Did lots of foot patrol today. Cooler.
Performed a traffic stop on a deaf guy today. What?! Ah yes, friendly 'ole deaf guy...almost sounds like a television series from the 60's. This car is traveling down the road without the taillights operating. Me thinks, at 2300 hours, that this could pose a problem. I pull over the car and before I can even exit my patrol car, I can hear the sounds of house music thumping from the interior. So I walk up to the car and the driver's window is slightly cracked. The 70-year-old driver inside peers at me through the window.
"Turn down the radio!", I says.
No response.
"TURN DOWN THE RADIO!!", I says loud enough that the people flying overhead in a 747 in first class complain of the noise.
No response.
DUI, right? Well the driver looks at me inquisitively and finally puts 1+1 together. He reaches over and turns off the radio and then turns to me and yells, "I'm deaf!" Awesome. The entire rest of the traffic stop is conducted on a pad of paper that this gentleman has in his car. Turns out the car has day running lights and he simply forgot to turn on his headlights, thereby lighting the taillights too. Definitely one for the books.
Sunday, August 10, 2003
Week 8, Day 2
For whatever reason, other officers make dealling with juveniles into a huge headache. Truth be told, it isn't all that much different than dealing with adults. Just thought that I would share that for those of you out there that may have been carrying that extra baggage with you.
The evening was relatively slow, so that's good from the standpoint that I was working under the assumption that people were behaving themselves. We were sent to a juvenile shoplift at the local shops where the kiddies hang-out. The store had two juveniles in custody, one female and one male (or so I thought). Turns out the male was actually a female, although you'd never know it by looking at her. To say she was a little confused about her identity would be putting it mildly. So "Pat", as we will now affectionately refer to her, boosted a stocking hat for her "girlfriend" of two whole days. Certainly her choice of items to steal in the middle of summer calls her intelligence into question, but that is a discussion for another time. Unfortunately for Pat, her parents are the State of Colorado, so she had to be hooked and taken to juvenile jail.
For those of you wanting a little more action, there was a huge auto accident around 0130 hours. Four cars and a motorcycle mixed it up in a big way. Two of the cars collided so violently that everything forward of the windshield (bumper, engine, fenders, etc.) was completely torn away. The amazing thing as that the worst injury was a couple of scratches to the guy riding the motorcycle. Unbelievable.
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
Week 8, Day 1
Wouldn't you know it? I got a cold cold call right out of the gate. Apparently a burglary/theft occurred at a house nearly one month ago and they decided that maybe the police outta know about it. Truth be told, we could care less given the circumstances of this group fornication of a call. It turned out to be the longest report I've written to date (didn't actually do the paper til the following day), and all for something that they didn't wanna press charges on. Dumb.
The rest of the night was spent doing a DUI on some clown who decided that driving his 8-year-old son around after boozing it up would be a good idea. Wrong. Capt. Lush ended up with his 4th DUI and a Child Abuse summons for his effort. Nice move. It took the majority of the night to process, but it was worth it.
Week 7, Day 4
Foot pursuit! We were assigned to work with the NARC squad today. Woohoo!! This ended up being exactly like several episodes of COPS that I have seen. Basically some undercover peeps were out-and-about trying to score some drugs from the local dealers. After a buy went down, they would call out the description of the bad guys and it was our job to snatch them up.
Well wouldn't you know that they took off running as soon as they spotted us show up in our uniforms. The race was on! Similar to a gazelle, I deftly pursued the crooks through the neighborhoods of our fare city. There were four of us in total (2 FTO's and 2 Recruits), and our FTO's pretty much left it up to us to get these guys. Baddie #1 was grabbed up at gunpoint by one of the uncover officers, so that only left Baddie #2 for us to nab. After six blocks of sucking wind and doing a pretty decent imitation of The Flash, my partner ended up running into Baddie #2 as he came out of an apartment building stairwell. It was cool.
I didn't get to catch anyone, but it was still fun. Maybe next time.
Week 7, Day 3
Due to poor planning and the world's worst short-term memory ("Hey! It's Tonay Randal!"), I've totally forgotten the events of this day. Worry not, 'cuz it must have been a pretty typical day.
