The Thin Blue Line

There's always more than one way to catch them!

2009-06-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

Here it is a nice sunny easy afternoon and I'm parked watching for red light violators. Why I'm doing that is another long story but today I'm just hanging out watching the flower stand guy in front of me try to sell flowers to passing motorists.
Now any cop will tell you that when you park your car it automatically attracts certain people to come over and say hello. It's never a member of the Coor's Light bikini team or anything like that. It is usually a street urchin who once had dreams of becoming something someday. Kinda sad but unfortunately true.
Sure enough this guy comes bouncing along wearing a Sears work shirt and introduces himself as Bruce and wants to shake my hand. Well I don't do many handshakes with the public but I give him a bump instead which he got a kick out of for some reason. He then bounces over to the flower guy and hangs out for a few minutes, but soon after comes the 911 call. Nothing earth shattering but a female at Lover's Package calls 911 to report that some guy in a Sears shirt was asking her to smoke some meth with her. So one of our area cars gets the call while I just sit there and watch the guy.
A few minutes later the officer arrives and walks over to my car and I just point the guy out and tell her that the guy said his name is Bruce. I just tell the officer to go over and check him out, which she does. Now some may ask why I didn't just do it since I was already there and my simple answer is "I'm the Sarge"!
I keep an eye on things while watching red light violators when I see the officer pick up the guy's backpack and they walk over to my car. It appears she got consent to look into his backpack so I get out of my car to help. While we are standing there a Suburban pulls up to quick stop and a female leans out and is yelling for this guy to run! She also calls him Anthony. Now I take that as a clue, but we really don't have anything on the guy and he is free to leave if he wants.
All of a sudden he takes off running bounding thru traffic and runs up to the Suburban but he can't get in the door and runs around trying doors like a Chinese fire drill gone bad. He panics and then runs away leaving his woman there with us staring at them. The flower guy is looking at us like "hey, you going to run after them or what?" Well I look at the officer and ask if she found anything and she said no he just took off.
Well in most every part of the US, and according to the US Supreme Court, a person who runs from the police isn't normal and we can chase them. Well we live in the land of the 9th Circuit and our Washington State Laws are little different. Now I know one could argue a Terry stop or the fact he was running thru traffic was illegal and blah, blah, blah. No offense but I'm not chasing a guy thru rush hour traffic only to get smoked by a Subaru with an Obama bumper sticker for having really nothing on the guy. Work smarter, not harder right?!
So I decide to go after the Suburban because I recognized the female from a traffic stop a month earlier. And guess what? Her license is suspended. And I won't go into details on that stop but she went crazy on me and was felony pissed off and let me know it. However, a good rule to live by is do not fail the attitude test with the police especially if your license is suspended. Yep, that little episode cost her a small fortune and a tow bill!
I catch up to the Suburban and contact Aubrey who is still suspended, and guess what? Her attitude is A LOT better this time around. You think she got the point? Well she gives us the guy's name which turns out that he has a felony warrant with an armed and dangerous caution attached. Things are getting interesting, but he is long gone for sure! Well she tells me that they are leaving for California tonight, which is odd because I have court with her next month. Hmmmmmmm!
She then asked me why we were chasing him so I seize the opportunity. You see these two just got married like a month ago so I proceed to tell her that women called 911 about him wanting to smoke meth with them and I added that he was also trying to have sex with them. Aubrey did not like this very much and started yelling and cussing at good old Anthony as if he could hear her. I then tell her that he told the women they were way hotter then his wife, which really sent Aubrey into a fit of rage. It was pretty funny but I was now kind of getting worried for Anthony a little bit! I then play into her heart a little and tell her that she doesn't deserve this and that she is way better than him and blah, blah, blah. Really though, other than the bad attitude it was all true.
So over the next few hours I drove by the house and she was like a sentry guard just waiting for Anthony to get home. Even when I checked one last time on my home she was still fuming and waiting. Well not 30 minutes later a 911 call from Aubrey's neighbor's reporting a fight between a male and female. Uh oh! =)
Offciers arrive and see him grabbing her and shoving her while she is screaming. Officers yell and bad guy takes off again. This time the officers really have something and take him down as he tries to get over the fence. Nothing like a Taser and 50,000 volts of electricity to help stop a bad guy! But get this...... Aubrey is now yelling at the officers and causing a big scene and goes into one of her attitudes again.
So guess who got a whole bunch of tickets in the mail while Anthony went to jail? There's always more than one way to catch a bad guy!

I'm back!

2009-06-21T03:11:00.000-07:00

Okay everyone, after nearly a 3 year break the Bloggin Popo is back posting! I hope you enjoy............

The other day I stayed up all night and into the wee morning hours playing xbox's Halo 3 fighting 14 year olds from all across the planet when I realize I should actually get some sleep. I'm telling you it's like crack.
So I manage to calm my war torn mind and fall asleep when in what feels like a blink of an eye I hear some pounding on the front door. My first thought was some computer nerd I made fun on and smacked down on xbox must have googled my gamertag name and tracked me down somehow. But somehow I managed to decipher the pounding as a familiar sound....... my mother-in-law!
I stagger to the door half asleep in my underwear and t-shirt and manage to get the door open before another series of furious knocks, and as I am rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, which are now blinded by the morning sun that would've destroyed any living vampire, I am greeted by "were you asleep?" Now had I not just came out of a coma I might have had something witty to say other than "huh"?
She then blurts out you have a flat tire! I'm thinking "what"? I'm thinking it's felony early in the morning and this flat tire is the reason for the emergency pounding on the door that would've made any police officer proud to be able to do. So I manage to say "is it just low or flat, flat"? She replies, huh?
It then hits me as I slowly start to wake up. A sense of uh oh floods over me as I remember that I am in my underwear, it's early in the morning and I panic for about an 1/8 of a second to make sure that no physiological changes happened as I slept and was now standing at the door..... in front of mom!
Well thankfully I was safe so I stagger out to the carport to see a totally flat tire. Suck! Well no biggie, I'll just change it when I leave for work in a few hours. I thank mom for the heads up and was actually glad she told me and that she saw the problem during her early morning walk she does every day. And remember I said no biggie? Please let me explain.... I have zero mechanical ability and every time I try to do something if it can go wrong it will go wrong. This isn't some self doubt down talk people. It's a known fact! So why I thought it would be no biggie is beyond me!
Okay, I go back to bed and then get up a few hours later, take a shower and get ready for work. I put on my uniform and all my equipment and go to change the tire. I remove the stupid, tiny little jack that every car has knowing that this will not be fun. By now the sun has really come up and is starting to warm up. I manage to loosen 4 of the 5 lug nuts but I notice that the 5th one barely budges. Oh well, I'll take care of it after I jack up the car was my thought. So I put the jack under the car not really looking where I placed the jack and get the small piece of junk cranked up but not really seeing the car rise. I'm breaking a sweat as the car barely moves. I then realize that I put the stupid tiny hand crank jack under the suspension so only that moved and not the car. I'm such an idiot sometimes!
I get the stupid tiny little jack cranked back down and get it where it needs to be. I crank it up as I feel sweat dripping off my face as a very nice older man comes up to me and says that he has been watching me and wants to know if I want to borrow his nice industrial floor jack. You know, the kind that would've raised up the car in three or four easy pumps, unlike the 60 or so frustrating turns it took me, twice! And then I remember he said he was watching me, which he had to have seen me struggling, so I think to myself why didn't he come over sooner?
I politely decline because I have a terrible issue with pride, and go to remove the last lug nut but it won't come off. With all my might I manage to slowly get this thing turning. I mean it seriously took a herculean effort to get this stupid thing off, but somehow I did it. I throw the spare on and put back on the lug nuts. But, the same stupid lug nut now won't go on! I struggle to get it barely on hoping that my tire won't fall off somehow as I'm driving down the street on my way to work. I then lower the stupid little jack as the car slowly drops only to find that the spare tire is also flat. I'm not joking. I'm standing there, sweating, looking at the flat tire. Well it did have a little bit of air so screw it. I drove it a block to the nearest gas station so I could put air in it.
I go inside and buy some gum because I was out, plus a bottle of water to replenish the fluids I just lost as some old guy watched me look like a struggling idiot. I ask the clerk if she can turn on the air machine for me so I don't have to pay the 75 cents. Well she says yes so I go all the way out across the parking lot to the air machine which is not on. I wait a minute or so and nothing. I go all the way back to into the store where she asks me if it came on. I'm thinking why yes it did, that's why I'm standing here looking at you like you are now messing with me on purpose. Well she politely says that she will turn it on so I go all the way back out there where I find the machine is still not on.
I see her looking at me so I wave at her and she waves back. I'm like what!? So I wave harder and so does she. I'm like no way! She has no idea how hot and sweaty I am and the morning I'm having. I decide to just pay the 3 quarters so I reach into my pocket of change from the day before to find that I only have 2 quarters. Ugh! I realize that I have to go back into the store and actually think about driving over but decide to make the long walk instead. So I go inside and she is trying to push some button on a box to make it work. I simply and kindly tell her that I will just pay for the machine and hand her some money for more quarters. I make it back out to the car and as I place the money in the machine I'm thinking if this doesn't work or it eats my money I am going to go on a shooting spree! Thankfully it worked and I get the air in the tire and off I go to work. I stop by the shops to have the mechanics look at it and they tell me no biggie and that they'll have it fixed in no time. Oh great, not the no biggie comment again?
The mechanic gets 4 of the 5 lug nuts off and gets to the stupid 5th one that is barely on. He has the high speed thingy that gets them off real quick but it doesn't work. He tries and tries and tries with no luck. I'm now watching this guy struggle and I'm having flashbacks of an hour earlier. He is determined but can't get it off. He then goes in the back of the shop only to come out pushing two big tanks. Yep, he's going to blowtorch the sucker off! I'm thinking that's what I'm talking about. Make this little stupid lug nut suffer! Well he fires it up and cuts right through in no time flat only to finish with an uh oh. I'm like uh oh what?
He proceeds to tell me that he cut too far and cut into the post the lug nut screws on to and now the axle needs to be replaced. So he gets the big floor jack out and you guessed it, 3 or 4 pumps later the car is off the ground and the tire comes right off. I'm like WTF!?! And just so you know, the bullet proof vests we have are great but they are like vaults and once you get hot and sweaty in them the heat just stays there.... all day long!
Well finally, about three hours later I get the phone call that my car is done and that it is ready for pick up. I go down and pick up my car and have a seat as I check my Facebook only to see that my friend Justin from Reno leaves a comment about my tire. He says "no biggie, it'll only take 10 minutes to change it!" =)

Bloggin POPO logging off!

2006-08-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

Wazzup…………. If you’ve been checking my blog lately it is obvious I haven’t posted in a while. Well there is a reason, and to make a long story short I am shutting down the Bloggin POPO. The reason is because there have been some people in the police community that have been offended by my blog, which is the last thing I wanted to have happen, and some think it is not a good representation of the department.
Last week I was called into the “I’m in Trouble Office” and had a meeting with my Lieutenant and the Asst. City Attorney. Right away I knew something was up because that just doesn’t happen. They explained that they wanted to talk about my blog and some of its content, and it was brought to my attention that some of the material in my blog could cause some problems for the department and the city. I don’t really want to go into detail but it mainly has to do with defense attorneys and lawsuits that could result from some of the stories in my blog. And since blog sites and myspace accounts are just starting to become part of the litigation world they just wanted to have a chat.
All in all it was a good conversation and it ended on a positive note. I highly respect both of these men and appreciate the time they took to talk to me about the matter. It would have been much worse if this issue would have been floating around the upper administration for awhile without me knowing about it. And they were in no way trying to infringe upon my first amendment right and explained that they actually liked the blog, its humor and how I write. They encouraged me to write a book and publish it long after any statute of limitations are up. I also want to point out that I was never in trouble nor did they actually ask me to shut down the blog, it was a decision I made on my own. And even though I fail at times, I want to try and live my life above reproach and not cause problems so I am shutting it down. I also want to stress that even though I never mentioned what department I was from, it was obvious that some people knew which one it was, and if anyone was offended and thinks poorly of my department I apologize. Please don’t let one officer’s blog site be the barometer of the entire department.
So how did this come about? Someone within the department wrote an “anonymous” letter to the mayor to complain. I’m pretty sure I know who it is because word travels and he obviously told the wrong person, who just happens to be a fan of the blog. But no big deal, it’s just a blog. And if you have been reading the blog for a while you can probably guess what kind of cop this guy is. Although he was successful in shutting down the blog (even though I wasn’t asked to do it), he was not able to succeed in his overall intent. It is clear that the lack of joy in his life, and the overall cowardice he attempts to hide, was only heightened by his not so anonymous letter. And regardless of what he tries to do within the department to make him look like the warrior he longs to be, deep down when he is alone at night he knows that it is only a façade. One that a true warrior sees right through.
But having that said…. I will do whatever I can to see that this officer exceeds in life and within the department. His issues bind him, not me. I hold no ill will and I truly mean that. Often in these cases I try to kill them with kindness, and I don’t hold grudges. And you never know, maybe this was a blessing. Maybe there might have been a lawsuit down the road I cannot see, but God can, and spared me from it.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the blog while it lasted. Please feel free to leave some last comments and I will shut the blog down in a week or so. Keep an eye out for my book coming to your local bookstore near you. =)

From bad to worse for this guy!

2006-07-12T20:20:00.000-07:00

Here is the wacky story of the year and as you read it just try and imagine being there watching this unfold and how truly crazy it is.
We received a 911 call that a shoplift just occurred where a man stole several ‘adult magazines’ from a convenience store and that the store owner was running after him. Fortunately we were just around the corner so as we pull into the lot we see the bad guy running with magazines in his hand and trying to shove them into his jacket with the store owner right behind him. The bad guy then runs to the neighboring business and bolts through the back door. As he barges inside with magazines in hand he is now standing in a room full of people staring right at him. There is this awkward moment of silence and rightfully so because he just ran into a funeral home and is standing right next to a coffin where the people were in the middle of a “viewing” of the dead loved one. No joke! Well the bad guy freaks out and runs through another door as he is being chased by the store owner, the police, and now the funeral home employees. Well the second door leads into yet another “viewing” where another group of people witness the same thing. The bad guy then flees out a side door and into traffic with magazines in hand while still being chased by the store owner, the police, and the funeral home employees. The bad guy is able to dart through traffic and around buildings and through an alley where he is caught by more officers near the train station. But by the time he is caught he has already shoved several pages in his socks and into his shoes. It was just weird!
So he gets taken to jail and was asked what he was thinking when he ran into the funeral home while being chased by so many people and he said he thought it was like an old fashioned “Keystone Cops episode.” I agree! And if you don't know what that is, it's old black and white footage of cops chasing bad guys in circles looking silly.

The fast and the furious!

2006-06-24T15:16:00.000-07:00

This past week was a lot of fun at work. We had at least 7 pursuits and all of them turned out really good. Our department is very aggressive about pursuits and we train a lot regarding when to pursue, when we shouldn't, and when to safely use techniques to stop the bad guy car. And a lot of the responsibility lies on the shoulders of the sergeant. We are the ones who make all of the final decisions, and we are the ones that have to answer to the Chief!
Some departments only pursue on violent felonies. Some departments don’t pursue at all! They are afraid of the liability. But our troops are highly trained and our policies help us make sound decisions. Plus we always outweigh the need to catch the person versus the seriousness of the crime. We also factor in traffic, road, pedestrian, officer ability, and time of day conditions.
A few years ago we found a stolen car at a local motel and while our guys were watching it a girl ran out, jumped in it and took off. We chased her for a few minutes but when she started flying though intersections and red lights at high speeds we terminated the pursuit. It was only a stolen car so it wasn’t worth anyone getting hurt so we shut down the pursuit. Unfortunately the female kept going and she got into a bad accident. Of course the suspect lived and was only sentenced to about 10 years in prison!
Well one of our pursuits this week almost went bad. Our officers chased a guy in a stolen car that was high on crack. We later learned that his female passenger was also helping him smoke crack during the pursuit! Can you believe that!?! Anyway, my guys chased him up this hill and by the time I got into the area I decided to wait at the bottom in case he turned around. It’s a long hill on the west side of the city with two lanes in each direction and divided by a cement jersey barrier. Well the bad guy did turn around and decided to go back down.... on the wrong side of the road! Our officers terminated the pursuit at that point because it was now too dangerous for the public. Luckily I was at the bottom waiting and had traffic blocked off. I wasn’t going to allow this guy to kill someone because he wanted to smoke crack on his off time! Somehow on his own he ended up crashing before he got to me. I guess crack and driving don’t mix! I don’t recommend it either! =) So we all ran up there and removed him from the vehicle and took him into custody.
And right after that high adrenaline call I had to take a citizen complaint where a lady called in to complain because one of my officers refused to park a police vehicle in front of her home at night. Some people!

Gotta question?

2006-06-17T23:09:00.000-07:00

I thought I would open up this post to any questions anybody has for the police. I'll answer any question... good, bad or ugly. Questions like... what does POPO stand for... or why do cops speed... or do cops really eat donuts... worst call.. best call... how do you get out of a ticket... whatever. If nobody has any ?'s then no biggie and I will move on to the next post. Have fun!

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

2006-06-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

I think I previously mentioned that we were having a burglary problem on the east side and it appears the trend is going down. We have identified most of the players and they are getting busted almost daily. The problem is that most of them are juveniles and get out of jail the very next day, that’s if the juvenile detention center even takes them at all. But the other day we see three of our local burglars walking around the area of a recent burglary so we go out to contact them. Sure enough they take off running through some apartments and into the woods. The younger officers take off on foot after them and the older and wiser officers (me) get in their car and drive after them. Well eventually the thieves tire out and after running all over creation we catch them. It sure is tough to out run the radio!
Anyway, after talking to the suspects we discover that they were visiting another local burglar who lives in the complex they just ran through. This suspect is the guy they take the stolen property too so he is of big interest to the police. So we decide to go talk to the parents and have a “chat” about how we can solve this problem. It was clear that we were going there to send the “appropriate message” that this problem is going to stop one way or another. But as the new sergeant I needed to be cordial and come from a position of offering assistance to the parents. At least that was my goal. My troops knock on the door and the father, who does not live in the home, answers. He’s an older but very big man. He is pretty cooperative and we ask to speak to his son. Naturally he wants to know why so we tell him and I ask if I can step inside to speak with him while my officers talk to the son. The dad agrees but appears leery and keeps an ear out for the other conversation….. And so do I.
I overhear the kid being disrespectful and since the dad is letting his son get away with this I chime in and explain to the kid about respect. Well dad starts to take offense to this. When one of my officers speaks up about it the dad gets distracted so I just stand there looking around the home for stolen property. Well another kid comes downstairs and picks something up from a table and makes noise. The dad thinks I grabbed it and starts arguing with me. Thankfully the other kid admitted to doing it but I didn’t like being accused of something I didn’t do. I mean I was standing right next to him and right next to the front door. Anyway, my officer starts to speak to the dad about his 17 y/o son hanging out with 14 y/o girl and the dad gets seriously mad. The officer looks like he’s a 17 y/o so it was kind of funny but the dad starts arguing and yelling. I try to explain that we were there to help but he yells at me to get out of his home. I notice that his son has a home detention ankle bracelet on so I ask the dad what it was for. Can you take a guess? Yep, burglary! So I tell the dad that it’s not by accident we are there and he should be doing something about his son. Now things go south really fast.
He yells “get the ‘blank’ out of my house” and reaches out to grab my arm. I tell him to don’t even think about touching me and I tell him of course I will leave. He again accuses me of taking something and yells at me for lecturing him. He says “I don’t need some punk ‘blankity’ cop lecturing me about my son” and he adds “I’ve been to prison!” Like that is supposed to impress me or something. I told him that I disagreed and pointed to his son’s bracelet. He didn’t like that either.
We are now outside near the garage door and he then goes into a tirade of insults and expletives toward me and is yelling at the top of his lungs so the whole world can hear. He again yells at me to leave and I told him we aren’t inside but he replies that I am on his property. I quickly explain that they rent the apartment, don’t own it, he doesn’t even live there and we are out in front in the home in the complex, not on his property. After I warn him about using profanity he is now ready to fight. He squares off at me and does a quick pull on his pants as if he is going to do something. So I stand there and call his bluff and ask him “what are you going to do now?” He says “I’m a convicted felon, I’m not afraid to fight the police.” Well in the end he just goes back to yelling so I leave him with this comment. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!

I’m back everyone!

2006-06-04T20:19:00.001-07:00

I took a little break from bloggin because I was pretty busy and I was out of town for a week. So here’s what I’ve been up to lately.....
Well most of you know that I got promoted to sergeant the other day so life is really good right about now. We had a big promotion ceremony where four new officers were sworn in, and then three of us were promoted, and then we had one officer retire after 33 years of service. It was pretty cool. And the best part was that my wife secretly had a bunch of my friends show up that have been a big support to me throughout the years. I didn’t even know they were there until I got up to get my new badge and when I looked out I saw everyone. It was pretty cool. She is such a sweetheart! I love that she is my biggest fan.
Jessica actually went on another ride-a-long with me the other day and we had a blast. We got to drive around for 10 hours and just hang out and talk and connect. She even got to meet a prostitute. She heard the call and said that she wanted to go see her so we drove up there and Jess got to say some nice things to her. She really wanted to pray for her but she was too chicken to ask! Actually, she really didn’t get the chance to but maybe next time. So we just kept driving around having fun looking for bad guys. And of course the whole day surrounded around food. That’s my sweetie! That girl literally eats more than I do. I just don’t get it. Moving on....
Last week I got to go to Oregon for CDU training, which is riot training, with about 10 of our officers and a total of about 60 officers from 6 different agencies. It was a total blast! We marched around a mock city practicing riot techniques on people. We used tear gas and smoke grenades and swung big sticks. We slept in military barracks during the week and had fun doing guy stuff in the evenings. Of course the week was surrounded by practical jokes and funny stories. My job in the unit is a team leader for the red squad which means that I have a number of guys on my team and we are part of a big giant team. We basically march around and look tough and wait for the green light to go in and restore order when needed. So that whole week was fun and exciting.
I’ll close with the story of the week. My guys were called to a local motel where the manager found a woman dead in the bathtub. Apparently she died in the tub which overflowed with water and leaked out into the hallway which got the attention of the manager. He went inside and found her and called 911. My guys go in and see her in the tub but don’t really want to disturb the scene for the detectives but they called for medics per policy anyway. Well just as the medics arrive, the woman sits up in the bathtub! Just like in a horror movie! I guess she wasn’t so dead after all. The real story was that she had wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much to drink the night before and passed out in the tub while trying to take a bath. She’s lucky she didn’t drown! But she was still messed up from all the alcohol and had to go to the hospital anyway. Pretty crazy, huh?!

Gotta love the graveyard shift.......

2006-05-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

Many years ago back when I was on the graveyard shift, which is the most fun and exciting shift, I got one of those fun calls right around midnight. I was literally next door to the call when it came out. There was a guy pounding on the door to a Safeway trying to get in but it was closed. So I head over that way when updated info came out that the guy threw one of those large cement ashtray things through the store’s glass door. That would be clue #1 that this could be bad, and I love clues because they help me gauge what might happen. I pull up to the store knowing that my partner isn’t too far away and I see the bad guy in a fighting stance yelling at the manager who looks really scared (clue #2). I get out of my car and yell at the guy who looks over at me with a blank look (clue #3). I now realize that this is going to be bad.
I look at the broken glass door and think for a second about going in, but instead I yell at the guy to come out. Luckily he does decide to come out but he says something to the manager before he exits the store. We later learned that he said he was going to “kill that cop” and then come back and “kill you” referring to the manager. You’d think that would’ve been some really nice to know information that the manager could’ve yelled at me when the bad guy came out but I guess he decided to keep that small tid-bit of info to himself. Anyway, the bad guy comes out and is standing there all weird like so I try and talk to him but he just stares at me so I ask him why he broke the window and again he just stares at me. He’s not a big guy but he is about 6’03, 200 lbs so I keep a safe distance of about 6 feet away and ask him for some ID to bide time until my back up arrives. It’s either that or have a staring match for a minute or two. How awkward would that be to just stare at each other? Hey, you blinked first! Now you have to go to jail!
Anyway…. As my partner arrives the bad guy turns to walk away failing to show me his ID so I reach out to grab his arm and he turns back and starts throwing a flurry of punches at me. It was very quick and caught me off guard but somehow I was able to block all of them. This was the first time, but certainly not the last, someone tried to actually assault me. In my mind I was thinking “hey this guy is trying to hit me.” The punches were quick but my thoughts were in slow motion so it was a weird experience.
So the guy takes off running down the sidewalk of the store and I chase after him. I remember that my car keys fell off my belt and I dropped my flashlight but I couldn’t stop because there was no way this guy was getting away! I yell at the guy to stop but he isn’t listening so we keep running and I am catching up fast. We get to the end of the sidewalk by Mclendon’s Hardware and he turns back around to fight, but I am right there when he turns around and we end up against the wall.
Just as my partner runs up on us the bad guy starts throwing another volley of punches so I just duck my head into his chest. I yell for my partner to spray the guy, referring to our pepper spray, and I hear the sound of his can dropping on the ground rolling away. Great, all thumbs during crunch time! So this bad guy is hitting me in the back of the head but it isn’t bothering me yet so I yell for my partner to hurry up and spray him. Unfortunately these were the days before tasers. All of a sudden I see my partner hitting the guy on the arms and shoulders with his flashlight. Remember this guy is tall and my partner and I aren’t, so this was a losing battle as long as I was holding him against the wall. I go to step back when I feel a “wack” right on my face. It was an unmistakable sound of metal hitting someone’s head. Yep, my partner swung and missed but hit me right on my eye with his flashlight. I grab back onto the bad guy and yell for him to spray the guy now! All of a sudden I feel, hear, smell, and taste a whole can of pepper spray being dumped over me and the bad guy. This stuff is powerful! On a scale of hot, jalapeno peppers are 5,000 units. Our pepper spray is 5 million units.
So the bad guy now stops and we take him to the ground. I put handcuffs on him and look up only to see my eye starting to close on me. It swelled up like a balloon. I look over on the wall where we got sprayed and literally there is a shadow impression of us where you can see the outline of our bodies on the wall. It was crazy! I look at my partner through one eye and I’m like “dude?!” And he’s looks at me like “what?!” Well at least the bad guy went to jail and nobody got hurt except for me and my eye. I can live with that.
And two months later that guy was on America’s Most Wanted (Seattle area addition) for assault on a police officer because some judge let him out and he then failed to show up for court. Go figure! And then believe it or not a week later my partner sees him walking down the street. My partner gets me on the radio on a side channel and clues me in so I can hurry up and get there before everyone else. I race to his location to make the arrest and when we contact him is totally cool and actually apologized to me. He said that he was off his medication and barely remembers what happened. I felt a little bad inside because I was going there thinking he might fight, but instead I get a really sincere apology. Over the years I’ve seen him walking down the street a few times and even arrested him for a shoplift once. My job is just weird sometimes!

"Ride the Lightening!"

2006-05-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

One of my many hats at the department is that I’m a defensive tactics instructor, which includes being a Taser instructor. For those of you that don’t know what a taser is, it’s a new and improved version of the stun gun. The taser has 50,000 volts of shock value and 26 watts of thumping power. Those numbers don’t mean a whole lot to me but I do know that the taser packs a punch! As an instructor I had the opportunity to volunteer, okay I was forced, to feel the effects of the taser at the instructor school. Then I took an advanced instructor course and had to “volunteer” to go through it again. They kindly refer to it as “ride the lightening.” Oh on a side note, did I mention I stopped going to the instructor courses?!
Anyway, the master instructor goes through several students one at a time as we all watch, some in horror. It is actually really funny to watch and see the guy “ride the lightening.” I mean I laughed loud and hard. It’s hilarious! That is until it was my turn! Don’t get me wrong. I wanted to do it and was excited to get in there, but I think it would’ve been better to go first instead of watching others suffer at length. I step up and notice my hands starting to sweat so I put on my warrior face and get ready for my own personal right of passage.
So the instructor turns it on and I instantly feel the effects of an electric fence times ten pounding through my body. My muscles lock up and I try to cowboy up but I start to go into my version of Tourettes Syndrome. And for a guy who doesn’t swear I think the electricity unlocked some dormant memories of my “BC” days (Before Christ). And as soon as the taser shuts off, everything stops. No more pain, no more Tourettes, nothing! I am now part of the club. I jump up and I do a quick check to make sure all my limbs and parts are there, and that I didn’t pee on myself, and all is good. Whew! And I’m glad I did it though because knowing the effects came in handy not too long afterward.
A few months later I’m on patrol driving down the road and see a car pass by me very fast, but I was able to get the license plate. I run it and comes back expired so I flip a u-turn and go after it. The driver then speeds up and turns down the first street but by the time I turn he is gone! So I make the first right (they always take rights) and at the end of the street I see him turning around. I activate my lights and he pulls right over, much to my surprise. He immediately gets out, which is a danger clue in my book. He is apologizing for taking off and appears very nervous, which makes me nervous. I tell him to get back in the car and he does a quick look around. That is another clue. I unsnap my taser and grab my radio because I know it’s coming. Yep, a foot pursuit! The guy takes off running like a gazelle. I radio that I’m in foot pursuit so the troops can come help. After about 3 seconds I yell at myself for not running more because I am already breathing hard. I mean the gear we carry is heavy! Depending on the officer, it can range from 25-35 pounds. It’s amazing we ever catch anyone.
This guy is about 20 y/o, 6’00 and thin, and he can run! But I never, ever give up! So we go running down the street and I pass by several people standing out front of their home. I really don’t expect them to help but maybe just throw something at the guy to slow him down a little. And he was out of taser range and if I do use it and miss the darts will bounce back and I could run into them. Now that would suck! So I keep chasing him and he is pulling away from me, fast! But at the end of the street I see a garbage man emptying garbage into his truck and his looking right at us coming his way. I vision a large trash can flying through the air and taking the guy out at his knees, but noooooo! He lets the guy run right by. Why I thought at that moment there was a direct relation between garbage pick-up and police work I don’t know. (Oh, note to self… tonight is garbage night) Anyway, I pass by Mr. Garbage man dude and I just look at him and he looks back at me like “what?!” Yep, just like the drivers that don’t get out of our way during pursuits (see previous blog entries).
All of a sudden he starts to slow down and I get my second wind. I’m actually catching up which just motivates me even more. I see two fences directly ahead of us and thankfully he chose the short fence. He slows down to jump the fence and when he gets to the other side he looks back at me. I jump over the fence and hit the guy with the taser. He falls back onto the tall chain link fence and holds on. Since he doesn’t follow commands to get on the ground I move in and my leg gets caught up in the taser wires. Yep, now both of us are riding the lightening. He grabs onto the fence and so do I but since it’s a metal fence, and the wires are touching it, we both continue to get zapped. It was like one big merry go round of electricity. So I’m now doing the happy dance (similar to the potty dance) trying to get the wires off my leg. Meanwhile I’m trying to fight off the effects of the taser and keep an eye on him at the same time. Trust me it wasn’t easy. The funny thing is we both made eye contact as we both were getting zapped. There was this unsaid mutual understanding of pain and discomfort we were both sharing together at that moment, but at least I had been through it before.
So as the pain and electricity are running through my body, I strive with all my might to move my thumb over only a ½ inch to the safety toggle of the taser to shut it off. Heck, it might as well been a mile! It was like slow motion watching my thumb travel at the speed of a snail but somehow I managed to fight through it and get it to the safety. And just as I started to turn it off, the auto 5 second timer quit and it shut off by itself. So as he tries to figure out what just happened, I jump away from the wires and zap him again as he tries to get up and run away. All in all, it was pretty funny and I was so glad I caught the guy. There is nothing worse than a foot chase when you lose! Except a foot chase on a full stomach, which is another story for another time! =)
And why did he run? He was DUI, and had a warrant for DUI, and had his license suspended for DUI, and had open beer in the car. Man he got a lot of tickets, and a trip to jail. Who knows, maybe I saved him from getting into an accident and hurting someone, or worse?!

An all too common call........

2006-05-09T23:23:00.000-07:00

Hello once again. I know it’s been a while since my last post so I’ll get right to it, but first I just wanted to say thanks for all the nice comments everyone has been leaving.
So anyway, we had a manager at an apartment complex call 911 because she saw a guy enter an apartment where his girlfriend lives. No biggie except there is a No Contact Order out against them that prevents him from seeing her. It all stemmed from a fight several months ago where she claimed that he assaulted her during an argument so she called 911. Well she later recanted her story at court and said that the “officers must have misunderstood” what she said. Well the judge didn’t buy it and set the case for trial so they’ll get their chance to prove it.
So we show up and my partner goes around the back in case he decides to bolt out the back window. I walk up to the apartment and I see the blinds moving so the element of surprise is probably now gone. I go ahead and knock on the front door and get no answer at first. I knock several more times and still no answer. I announce that I am the police (maybe I should’ve said “Bloggin POPO”) and I hear the female answer from inside with “what do you want.” Oh, I dunno. How about tomorrow’s weather report? (jk) I quickly explain that I need her to open the door and speak with me, which she does, and I tell her straight up why I’m there. She then says that her boyfriend left and isn’t there. I explained to her that I was going to ignore the comment because lying to the police is illegal and I told her that I wanted her to think about her next response very carefully before saying anything. And to help her from getting arrested for telling another lie I wanted to paint a picture so clear that she would know I was helping her out. I told her that witnesses just saw him go inside and not leave so I was positive that he was still there. I told her that I would like her permission to check her home to see if he is there and she says “I don’t feel real comfortable with that.” I bet! I explained to her that in these cases I really don’t need her permission and I was going to anyway so I gave her one more chance and asked her if he was inside. She said, “I think he may have left but I’m not sure.”
I go inside and announce that the police was there and for him to come out. Of course I get no response so I go to the bedroom where I find the bathroom door locked. Hmmmm, I find this odd and highly suspicious. Okay, I know. It’s a big clue! I order whoever is inside to come out or I would kick the door in. No response. I say it again. No response. This seems to be the running theme at this home. So I get ready to kick in the door and I’m secretly thinking that I should’ve stretched out before work. And there is no cool way to do it while this lady is watching me so I step back and make one more announcement. Then I hear “Just a minute. I’m going to the bathroom.” Well I don’t know about you but if the police come to my home while I’m in the bathroom I won’t wait until the last second to let them know I’m in there.
But anyway, I order him out and he says “I’m almost done.” Yeah right! I ask him if he is “Randy” and he said, “No he left.” Uh huh! I mean am I now supposed to say okay and just leave. Sorry to bother you sir. Go about your business and have a nice day? I don’t think so. So I wait a minute and hear the toilet flush. I seriously wish I had $10 for every time this ploy has happened since I became a cop. It is so lame! But just in case, I tell him to wash his hands before he comes out. =) So he comes out and I put him in handcuffs. He eventually admits that he is the bad guy and off he goes to jail, but the whole way he does nothing but whine and cry. He had every excuse under the sun for his problems and took zero responsibility. At first I tried to be nice and offer advice but after 20 minutes of excuses I had to give him my two cents worth.
I decide to tell him one of my life’s mottos, and I have many. I told him that “you can tell the measure of a man by the countenance on his wife’s face”… and he says “huh?” I mean here I try to leave this knucklehead with some profound advice and all I get is “huh?” I tell him never mind and he replies with “you just don’t understand our problems.” I quickly explain back to him that I understand he was not supposed to be there, I understand that he locked himself in the bathroom and left his girlfriend to fend off the police for him, I understand that he pretended to be someone else other than the man of her dreams and the head of the home, I understand that he blames everyone and everything for his problems other than himself....however I also understand that he is without God so I don’t stick him with a whole bunch of charges, just the order violation. =)
I just don't get it. I have been on so many of these calls, and unfortunately will go on many, many more. I may never get it...why do so many women subject themselves to this? Why do they call 911 for help, only to show up in court in defense of these guys? They'll keep calling for help, and I'll keep showing up....but I guess if I can truly help even one, it makes it all worth it.

Chalk one up for the good guys!

2006-04-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

Wazzup everyone? Sorry it has been awhile since my last post but as usual I’ve been really busy. Jess has been on my case (in a good way) to start posting so here goes my week………..
This was a good week for the police and a not so good week for the bad guys. We caught several thieves in the process of trying to rob people. I think we put a total of 7 criminals in jail on three different robberies. That’s a good week! Of course a lot more people went to jail but I’m just focusing on these knuckleheads.
To start things off, my crew just cleared briefing when one of our officers gets into a foot pursuit so we all go flying up there to help out. He is chasing a guy through a marshy swamp area full of trees and we can’t see him, but he says that the guy is headed back for the street. I park my car and jump out and I can here the guy crashing through the bushes right toward me and I’m like “Yes, finally. Action!” So I’m sitting right there seeing him come toward me when he sees me and turns back to run. I go crashing right through the brush after him ripping branches out of the way like a machete hacking machine but I soon realize that they are sticker bushes. But I charge on and tackle the guy as we crash into the brush. I take him down to the ground and put him into a handcuffing position as the original officer comes through the bushes to help. He looks at me and says “Hey, you’re bleeding.” Then I feel blood start pouring down my face. I decide to steal a line from the movie Predator and said “I don’t have time to bleed” and then said “I gotta get this guy cuffed”. So we get him into custody and start to walk him out and we hand him off to the other officers so we can relax and cool down. Then they see me with blood coming down my face and they’re like “Dude, you’re bleeding.” Well what happened is a thick vine of sticker bushes sliced my eye lid and the top of my head. It was fairly minor but facial injuries bleed like crazy so it looked worse than it was. But the cool ego expanding part was one officer said I looked like “a warrior during battle coming out of the bushes” with the bad guy and blood running down. I’m like “Yep, that’s me! =)
The next day we get a call that three teens just stole a purse from an old lady and I was only a few blocks away. So I come flying into the area and see people pointing in a certain direction behind the Circle K store and I’m thinking either they are having a cool carwash or it’s a clue. So I turn around and see the punks running into the Fred Meyer store. We go in after them and I see one coming out of the bathroom that refuses to stop so I chase him down. My partners find the other two thugs in the bathroom with the purse. Well my guy starts mouthing off and tries to break away from me so I introduce him to the beauty bark on the side of the building. So now I’m on top of him crushing him into the ground and he is still talking trash and threatening to sue me. I mean this kid is dropping f-bombs left and right and swearing at customers walking by. Then he starts talking trash to my sergeant so the next time he starts moving around I take the opportunity to reintroduce him back to the beauty bark. After a minute or so I let him come up for air and then I repeat this cycle until he decides to calm down. So the victim and several witnesses come pick these kids out as the bad guys and they all go to jail. It was a very good day.
And to top off the week and to prove it was a bad week for the criminals, several of our officers were at training and breaked for lunch at a local teriyaki restaurant. My sergeant is one of them and he looks out the window (we always sit so we can see out) and sees a lady walking with a bank bag in her hand. He then sees two thugs get out of a car and come up behind her and one of them puts a hood over his head and then pulls up a mask over his face. Again, we call this a clue in the police business. Well sure enough the thugs grab the bag but they didn’t count on a half dozen cops filing out of the restaurant full speed after them. And yes they were caught and went to jail. And as the week progressed so did several other bad guys. It was a fun and exciting week but now I’m ready to relax and be with my family. How was your week? =)

Lights, Siren, Action!

2006-04-19T23:08:00.000-07:00

Well business is still good and I am keeping busy. We have been having a problem with robberies and gun calls in a certain area of the city so we are focusing a lot of our efforts there. A few weeks ago we had a family of Samoans taking pictures in the parking lot of their apartment complex when a guy walked up and asked them if they wanted to buy some drugs. They declined and told him to move on but the guy started talking trash, which is a big mistake because Samoans are BIG people and you don’t mess with them or their family. So they basically decide to help the guy leave but he threatens them with having a gun (I hope it’s a big gun). They don’t care and go to snatch him up and he actually shoots one of the family dudes in the leg. The bad guy didn’t have time and was only able to shoot the gun through his pocket, but now his life is in real danger because the whole family is coming after him so he barely gets out of the complex alive and jumps over a series of fences to escape. Here’s the cool part…. The family got great photos of the bad guy and we were able to ID him as a local dirtbag. So now the hunt is on!
After a few days our undercover detectives find out where the guy is hiding so they wait for him to come by the place. After a few hours the bad guy comes walking up and then the foot pursuit is on. The problem is the detectives didn’t tell us they were waiting for the guy so when the call comes out as a foot pursuit we didn’t know who they were chasing. Well my partner, who is brand new, and I are way far away on a call of a homeless person lighting a camp fire in the woods. Huge crime I know! The problem is that we are way across this field and in the wood line and since we were so far away we decide to finish our call. But that’s when the detectives announce who they were chasing so my partner and I start running across the mammoth field and when we get half way across we heard that shots were fired during the foot pursuit. Now we are really running, but all of our gear weighs 30-35 lbs so it feels like we are running in place. Anyway, we finally get to our car and we jump in. The new guy is driving so he whips the car around on this narrow path and we almost get stuck in the mud. I tell him to hurry so he slams on the gas and we take off with mud flying everywhere. By now there are a ton of officers and tons more on their way from different jurisdictions to help out. So we got the lights and siren going and as usual traffic is in our way, it never fails. We go rippin up the street I look over to see my partner hunched over the wheel with a death grip and he is breathing really heavy. I try to get him to relax but I’m basically doing the same thing! We just ran our butts off and the adrenaline is pumping because this is the real deal call!
We finally get into the area when we hear that the suspect ran into a certain complex so we go straight in ready for action. We jump out of the car guns ready and all of a sudden this Russian guy comes flying into the complex in a tow truck. He tells us that his mother just called and said some unknown guy just broke into their apartment and said that the police are chasing him. Well I’m no detective but I would call that a clue! So we go surround the building and come up with a plan to try and talk the bad guy out. We call into the apartment and get the mother to come out but she doesn’t speak English so it is hard to get info. Then we get another guy, the father, to come out and he doesn’t speak English either. This brings me to a side point. I love the diversity of our country but it should mandatory that if you want to stay in United States you should have to speak the language.
Anyway, we have a negotiator with us who is talking to the family and he says that there is nobody else in the apartment except for the bad guy. So we have all our guns trained on the apartment ready for anything. All of a sudden another guy pops out speaking Russian. It’s the uncle. I look over at the negotiator who shrugs his shoulders and says, “Sorry. I don’t speak Russian.” It was kinda funny but hey this is serious! Well we spend the next hour ordering the guy to come out but we get no reaction. Long story short is I finally hear “Officer? Can I speak to you for a minute?” Roman is the bad guy’s name so I say “No problem Roman. Just come out with your hands up.” I can tell he is scared so I try to play the nice cop role with a calm voice but thinking that I may shoot this kid at any second. So he sticks his head out with his left hand up in the air and we can’t see his right hand. That’s when my partner, the new guy, yells with a loud voice “Let me see you hands!” Well it scared me not mention the bad guy who almost retreats back into the home. I tell my partner to relax just a little because he basically did the right thing but the overall goal is to get him out. Roman eventually puts both hands up and comes out to the top of the stairs. He tells me that he is really scared and is worried that we are going to shoot him. He is pretty much right if he does anything crazy but I just tell him to come down the stairs. That’s when he asks “Can you come up here and get me?” I’m like yeah right! I mean does he think I’m new or something? He really said it because he was scared. I tell him that he will be okay and to keep his hands up and just walk down, which he does, and as he comes down he says “Please don’t slam me down on the ground.” I’m thinking this guy is a mind reader because that is exactly what I was thinking, but I tell him that we won’t. In the end we get him handcuffed safely and he is off to the big house. It was a fun call, the type I love to be at. Oh here’s the weird part. The Samoan victim and his sister were right there when we took the bad guy into custody because she lives at the complex. And she asks us if she could “speak” to him for a few minutes. Well I’m thinking that might be a good idea and it might just save everyone (taxpayers) a whole lot of time and money. But I decline her request and tell her she can look him up in 10 years when he gets out.

A flawed system?

2006-04-15T16:49:00.000-07:00

Hello again. I just woke up and felt the need to post! Plus Jessica told me that I needed to. =) I guess it has been a few days but it has been a long week and I’m so glad it is the weekend. Plus it is Easter weekend which is really cool. I’m looking forward to church on Sunday to see and hear some great music and words from Pastor Steve.
Well if I have to title this week I would have to call it "white trash week". I don’t call it that to be demeaning in any way because I do not think badly of people that don’t have things or are in bad circumstances. What I am talking about is a state of mind, a way of life based on continual bad decisions even when faced with truth. I’m talking about how the household is run or lack thereof for that matter. Unfortunately, I am talking about three single moms on welfare that appear to be abusing the system. I personally think that there is nothing wrong with welfare or even being on it. It is a great system designed to help those in need, especially children. I am even a product of the welfare system. But there are those out there that feel that they are entitled to everything under the sun because they don’t have. They want free rent, free food, free clothes and free money. To those truly in need they should get some or all of those things. But I’m going to tell you a story about a group of people that test the limits of my Christianity. They test my limits as a parent, and they test my limits as a police officer.
For several months we have been dealing with a group of kids with ages ranging from 9-12. Somehow, and I don’t want to know how, they are all related or interrelated. They live in an apartment building that is smaller than a shoe box. The parking lot is so small that my patrol car barely fits in it. It more looks like an old motel with only a few rooms. It sits across the street from a new business project that is fun for people to visit, shop and eat. But these kids run amok over there and are causing problems. They first came to our attention when one day they went into a business and slapped a cashier on the butt and then ran out. So we tracked them down and spoke to their parents, which only consists of their mothers, and learned that the families recently moved to Kent and were “placed” in the apartments. That’s clue #1.
We are specifically dealing with 3 of the apartments all next to each other. The mother lives in one with her kids, her adult daughter lives in the third one with all of her kids, and the middle apartment is the aunt with all of her kids. Each woman has different kids from different fathers. They all smoke, drink and sleep all day while their kids are running the streets. They also have people living with them who are in the same situation. To make matters worse the toilet in one doesn’t work, the shower in the other doesn’t work, and the sinks in the third doesn’t work. So they are all constantly going in an out of each other’s home to do what they need to do. Well this is starting to take a toll on their patience and they are all now fighting and accusing each other of stealing things. It is a complete mess and the kids are caught up in the middle. So why not get CPS involved you might ask? See clue #1, they are already involved.
The other day the kids got kicked out of the library because they were all running around playing tag and knocking things over. Could you imagine taking your own kids to the library and having to deal with these kids running around? Well at first they refused to leave and when they finally did they knocked over the tables that have all the tax forms and booklets because they were mad. That’s when I was called. Needless to say they picked up everything! Two days ago they were throwing rocks at other kids at a park so I had to kick them out of there too. Unfortunately they are too young to commit a crime, too young for juvenile detention, and the only option is to take them home. And really, it’s not their fault. They are products of their parenting. The kicker is that they really aren’t being “neglected”. They have food, clothes, shelter and education. All provided free by the taxpayers. Of course they don’t live in the best of situations, but it’s legal. So now the CPS and DSHS (welfare) systems have only been enabling the families to be right where they are. No accountability, no expectation to move up.
Back to the moms…. A few weeks ago one of them wanted to report their Quest Debit card stolen. This card has replaced food stamps, and it is pin # specific so you need the pin # to use it. Just like a real debit card. So I get her story and she says that it was stolen the day after payday and someone used it at a local store and all the money is now gone. She tells me that she needs a case number from the police so she can get a new one, with new money, so she can feed her family. I ask her how the “thief” got her pin # and she said that she doesn’t know. Yeah right! This is a common scam by the way. And she is telling me this as she is puffing away on a cigarette. You know how much money she would save it she was just quit? Anyway, so here is the dilemma… I know that she is lying but if I don’t give her the case # her kids might suffer for a few weeks. So what would you do? Well last week the other adult calls and says that her prescription meds are stolen. I already know the answer because this is another common scam but I ask her what kind of meds it was and she says “Oxycontin”. This is a good drug but addictive and sells on the black market. She also needs a case # so she can get a new bottle of pills, on taxpayer’s dime of course. What would you do? Tough choice, huh?! Not for me!
My week finally ends with a call back to the same families where they are fighting in the parking lot. I get there and all of the adults are yelling, swearing, and going off at each other and right in front of their kids. They were dropping so many f-bombs that every other word was an expletive. After several requests to please stop yelling and swearing, my partner and I had to basically tell them all to shut up! The sad thing is that is how they respond to things. Please and thank you just doesn’t work. So we get it all settled and send them all to their rooms so to speak. But I know we will be back there next week when I return from my days off. It is sad to see a mother, her daughter, and their kids to live like this. You can just see the effects of generational sins and curses being passed along. It is a reminder that I was once not too far away from being in a situation like them. But I have made a decision to take stand! A stand to break the mold of my forefathers and not be like them. A new generation starts with me. It will be a generation of people who love God. The sins and curses of my father and his father stop here with me! I am a man of God who will raise my family in a new light. That is my stand! I just hope I can impart that on these families as well.
This is just a typical call and one of many we deal with daily. I can see why cops get so cynical after long careers dealing with this type of stuff, not to mention all of the other things we see. But thankfully I have Jesus to help me out with this stuff. He keeps me grounded. Without Him I would probably say things to these people that should never be said. I took this job to help people, to be a light in a time of darkness. So if you ever get a chance, pray that for me. Pray that I see the Jesus in people and they see Him in me.

TGIF

2006-04-09T19:15:00.000-07:00

Well I made it through another week and man was my Friday busy!
The entire city went crazy with calls. I went to 23 different types of incidents during my 10 hour shift, but the good thing is the day went by super fast. The hard part is that when you run on high octane all day long you hit a lull afterward and just feel like crashing out on the couch. But I had to go work off duty at a night club until 0230 hrs. Needless to say I was wiped out big time!
There was a break in the storm for a few minutes so my partner and I ducked into Taco Time for a quick bite to eat, but quick was an understatement. Just as we get our food a call comes out as a blocking accident only 2 blocks away. We were short on traffic officers (remember the mean guys on motorcycles) who handle accidents so we thought we were going to get stuck taking the call. We stand up and look out the window and don’t see any accident so we let dispatch know it’s not blocking so we don’t have to go. Whew! We dodged that bullet…. So we thought! On a side note, I feel a little guilty sometimes because here someone gets into an accident and all I think about is chowing down my #4 with chicken, no tomatoes and sub olives. Hey let’s be honest, those mexi-nuggets rock! Anyway, dispatch gets back on the air and says one of the vehicles is taking off. Now it’s a hit-n-run. The fleeing vehicle is a big white van (great, another kidnapper van) headed east bound right towards us. We stand up and see it drive right by Taco Time so my partner and I look at each other like should we or shouldn’t we. So we do a quick cop version of rock, paper, scissors and off my partner goes. I’m stuck bagging up our food when my partner radios that the vehicle isn’t stopping. I now have the decision to keep bagging the food or possibly miss a pursuit. Well there is no way I’m going to miss a pursuit so I have the cashier bag our food and off I go. Well the guy eventually drives home and then gives up. But he is tanked! He blew over twice the legal limit and went to the clink. Hey, maybe that could be a new slogan… “If you drive and drink, you’ll go to the clink!” Then again maybe not. And as four my #4 with chicken, it was all soggy and the nuggets were soft. Bum deal, huh?! Maybe I should ask the court for reimbursement when this guys goes to trial?
Well the rest of the shift was call after call and I was happy to end my day because I worked my tail off. Bye the way, where does that saying come from? If you know please let me know.
Moving on…. I remember one of the last times I was that busy and I decided to stop by McDonald’s on the way home from work. The van in front of me pulls into the lot and I see two teens kick the side of the van. But the van leaves and never stops so I go through the drive-thru. I’m like the third car back when the same teens run by me and up to the car ordering food. At first I thought they knew the driver but all of a sudden one of the teens punches the driver. I see the wife get out of the car and she looks really scared. The driver gets out and is trying to call 911 and the teens are up in his face big time. Seriously, can you imagine being with your family and two punks come up and jack you up? It is just so wrong and unfair that these guys get to ruin someone’s day like that. Well I get out of my car and take out my badge and yell for them to stop. They turn and look at me like how dare I interrupt their punk session and one of them charges right at me. Mistake #1, don’t get between me and my food. Mistake #2, don’t take on a defensive tactics instructor unless you are a stud. So the guy shouts out some profanities and tries to punch me. I block the punch and grab him and then I throw him up against the wall. Then I slam him down on the ground WWF style. The guy then scurries away. I guess he wasn’t as tough as he thought. But then out of the corner of my eye I see the other guy come at me so I grab him and knock him to the ground. I jump on top of him and tenderize him a bit until the on duty police arrive. While I was waiting I see another guy behind me so I turn and there is this guy who says “Hey, I’m just watching your back man. I see you got things covered.” Well the police arrive and the wife is telling my buddies what happened. She was crying and saying that these mean guys came up and punched her husband and then this cop comes over and starts throwing the bad guys around like the “incredible hulk”. At that moment my buddies look over and I just smile and shake my head like “yep, I’m the man!” It was pretty funny. And I got to put in overtime for it too! And as for the guy who “had my back”, without either of us knowing he was invited to a men’s camping trip for our church and he said that he thought I looked familiar and we ended up putting two and two together. Now Marty is a member of our church and we laugh about this story from time to time. God is really cool, huh?! What a small world. =)

the saga continues

2006-04-07T21:46:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone out there in the civilian world. I hope your week was fun and full of excitement. As for me, I'm ready for a day off for sure! I guess I'll start with my first call from yesterday where a vehicle was left partially blocking an entrance to a trailer park. I get there and the vehicle was smashed up and leaking all over. It looked like it struck a pole or something because the front end was crunched pretty good. I assume that it was a DUI driver from overnight so I run the plate and it doesn't show stolen. I checked the car and see that there is a key in the ignition. I call the owner who says that her 17 y/o son drove it last night and he is at a friend's house. She said that she would call him and meet me at the location. When she arrives she tells me that her son just woke up and noticed that the car was gone and he wants to report it stolen. Hmmm, how convenient! He admits to being at a party drinking but he stayed at the house and never left with the car. He said that he put the car key under the floormat and went inside to party. I don't know about you but when I park my car I put the key in my pocket not inside the car. Anyway, he says someone stole it and that's it. The mom believes him and basically orders me to take fingerprints. She was the type that says that she pays taxes and therefore my salary so I better do it. But I live in the city where I work so wouldn't that be the same? Or more like I'm self employed? Maybe I should give my self a raise with logic like that! Anyway, I check for prints and find two on the rear view mirror. I notice that the kid is a little nervous so I explain to him that not one single car was stolen or broken into overnight, which is rare in my city, except his which happens to have the key under the floormat. I tell him that there are no signs of forced entry and remind him that making a false report is a crime and he can be arrested. Lastly, I tell him that I will send these prints off the be checked and if they come back to him he's busted. I give him one last chance to tell the truth and he caves. He admits that he crashed the car.... but wasn't drunk. Yeah right! Take that mom! The funny thing is that it's his car so the prints should be in there. He totally fell for it. Oh, he has also never been fingerprinted before so there was no way the prints would have ever come back to him. My wife called it sneaky of me which may be true but I call it good police work. I mean come on, my job would be way too easy if I walked right up and the dude said "yes sir I did steal that car, or rob that bank, or broke into that house". But since they lie we have to get creative, which is the fun part. So I let mom handle the matter and leave. Lesson learned for him I hope.
Moving on...... after that call I get another call to go to a passed out drunk guy back at the Labor Ready. But on the way I see a nice Expedition in front of me so I run the plate. I see that the female driver looks nervous and when I get the return I notice that it is registered to the one and only "Jim and Tammie". Yep that's right, the very Tammie that leaves replies to my posts. How cool is that?! Wouldn't it be great if we all ran into each other somehow through all of this? So I pull up next to her and roll down my window and she said that she was nervous I was going to pull her over. Too funny! So we say our goodbyes at the traffic light and I continue on. When I arrive at the drunk guy he is out cold. He is one of our local transients who drinks enough to kill me so I check to make sure he is at least breathing. As I lean in, his "spider sense" must have kicked in because he jumped up and I startled the daylights out of him. Well me too but I couldn't show that. I have an image to protect, right? So I make sure he is okay and send him on his way. I drive back to the station and pull into the fenced lot and when I step out of the car there is a white and gray pet rabbit running around under the cars. No joke. I think where in the world did this thing come from? So I try to grab it but it takes off. As I go after it, I stop and think that this is probably a set up and a camera is on me right at that moment. But there is no camera and I left the bunny be. Maybe we have a new PD pet? There's a ton more so stay tuned. I'll post more tomorrow.

How was your Monday?

2006-04-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

Well I went back to work today and even though it's Tuesday it's my Monday (we work 4 ten hour shifts and have 3 days off). I was a little anxious to see the final outcome of Friday's pursuit so I headed into work. Nothing exciting happened on the way in except for people driving in the slow lane, but I got over it. So to answer the big question..... Yes, every bad guy got away, but we have identified the ring leader and we'll catch him soon. He's toast! We almost always catch them through investigation.
Moving on, today for me was pretty exciting but not nearly as exciting as last week. I got a call from my friend Brent, who said that he saw me twice today. Once on one end of the city and the other time I was downtown pointing my gun at some guy. So we'll skip the first time he saw me and go right to gun part. One of our traffic officers (the mean guys on motorcycles that write good people tickets all day long) tried to pull someone over, for speeding of all things, and the guy took off. Yep another pursuit. Well this guy only goes a short distance and darts into a park. He lights something small on fire with his lighter and jumps into the back of his van, you know one of those kidnapper type vans that have dark scary windows, as if we aren't going to see him hiding. Yeah right!
Anyway, we surround the van and try to call him out but he doesn't want to cooperate. So we can either sit there for 3 hours until the SWAT team comes in or handle it ourselves. We chose the latter. By now there are all kinds of bystanders and mothers with their kids at the park watching a live episode of cops unfold before them. Which brings me to my first point. If you were there it is only natural to want to watch, right? Of course. But if you have little junior with you and there are several cops chasing a van into the park and pointing their guns and yelling commands don't you think that may be a clue to run? Or at least move a safe distance away? You'd think!
We were able to run the owner of the van's name and discovered that he had a $100,000 warrant out for his arrest. Now this incident is getting fun. So we shoot out the windows with a "bean bag shotgun" to let the knucklehead know we mean business. I guess that got his attention because he came out peacefully and went to jail. Boring ending I know. Oh, and the thing he lit on fire was only a cigarette. He wanted one last smoke before going to the clink! And speaking of cigarettes......
Later in the shift my partner and I get a call of a female at Labor Ready, a temporary work for the day type business, who was "flashing" people in the parking lot for cigarettes. In her defense they are getting really expensive these days. Anyway, in a typical officer response we ask for a description of the female, which comes out as 5'04, 110 pounds with long brown hair. All of a sudden we now have 20 cops going to this call which just cracks me up because if the description is the opposite only one or two officers respond. But I've been doing this cop thing for over a decade and I know the truth is always far from the reality. I mean there is no way some supermodel would be hanging out at Labor Ready peddling for cigarettes. Nonetheless it's now a race between the other 20 cops even though my partner and I got dispatched first. So we get there first and there she is, she looks just like Cindy Crawford but with missing teeth, drunk, and on crack for the last two years. Yep, it wasn't pretty. It was one of those times where you just say, "Ma'am. Please leave now and don't come back, and if you do make sure the graveyard shift is on".
That's about it for today. There were several more cool things that happened, but I can't make these posts mega long. Plus I did enough paperwork for the day. =) So stay tuned for more action and if tomorrow is boring I still have a ton of cool past stories to tell. Bless you.

Bloggin POPO

2006-04-01T21:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, check this out. You want to know what cops really think like? Here goes........... Yesterday was my Friday and at the end of shift we get a call of three guys with guns breaking into an apartment and assaulting the resident. My first thought is "Yes! Action!" But that was immediately followed up by, "If I get there first I have to do all the paperwork." Then came "I'm off duty in one hour and it's my Friday. Why couldn't this have happenend yesterday when it was slow?" All that came and went in about 3/10 of a second so all of you 911 callers out there don't worry. So then I put on my cape, turned on my lights and cranked the siren. Why, I don't know because nobody gets out of our way anyway, but since it's policy I just do it. The adrenaline is now flowing and I'm ready to go to work. Most people think confronting three bangers with guns is crazy, and it probably is, but for me it's fun. I mean someone has to do it, right?! Now is my time to swing my proverbial sword and axe and go to battle! So as I get into the area, my partner says he's arrived and the bad guys just jumped into a car and are taking off. All of a sudden I see the bad guys coming right at me from around the corner, and fast! I go to block the road and the driver tries to go around. I try to cut him off and he rips through the dirt median barely missing a ditch and plows over a street sign. Some how he is able to fishtail his way back onto the road. Pure luck! That's what bad guys have, pure luck! So my partner comes screaming around the corner and is in pursuit. Now I have to make a 3-point turn around that seemed to take about 4 months to do but at least I'm ready to get in this thing. I hit the gas and take off but traffic is getting in my way. My partner is now on the freeway by himself chasing armed bad guys and I'm falling behind, quick! I finally get on the freeway and I see my partner way up there but at least I see his lights. I'm now rippin down the freeway at 110 mph trying to catch up when my cell phone rings. I think it's my wife so I answered the phone and said "sweetie, I'm in pursuit." But it's my son Josiah and he says "Umm dad, can I stay the night at Jesse's house? I quickly tell him I'm busy and to ask his mother who's at a friend's house, but he says that he already tried but her phone is off. He's begging me at this point and I guess the siren in the background wasn't a clue so I tell him "sure, sounds good, love you gotta go." I mean he could've asked for a new bike at that point and I would've said yes. Because I had to go! So I hang up my phone and I try to get in the pursuit. Quick question.... Have you ever had someone cut you off in traffic? How about when you are going 120 mph with lights and siren? Not once, but twice! Funny I went to work a Christian that morning but at that moment all I wanted to do was knock that car into next week! As I pass by the car I give a quick wave, with all my fingers, I say a few kind words under my breath and continue on. Now, if I have to give a driver advice it would be to check your rear view mirror once in a while! Not once a week, but every few seconds or so. And if you see a cop car parked on your bumper with lights flashing and he is looking at you with an upside down smile that might be a clue to move over, right? It's not a clue to slam on the brakes, which always happens, but to move over... to the right! Not your left because that is where we the police pass. And right means over to the slow lane where you should've been driving in the first place. Anyway, moving on.... I step back on the gas and try to catch up. My partner was doing a great job with his Moses impression by parting the red sea (of brake lights) but you'd think traffic would stay out of the way but nooooooooooo! As quick as they pulled over they moved right back into my lane even though there are now 20 cops motoring at mach one in the fast lane behind them. So now I'm riding the bumper of this lady who has the nerve to raise her hands up like "What?" I'm like "What!!!!" I'm thinking to myself that she has no idea she just had a near death experience but I don't have time to rip her out of the wing window. I thought for a second I should just pull her over because it appears that I am going nowhere fast so why not?! And remember the image of cops on your bumper with lights and siren and an upside down smile? Well they're now on my bumper! So I raise my hands like "what?!" and I can't help but think I'm slowing up all of mankind. This is now truly a battle because traffic is not cooperating but I march on like a good troop. So we head up a long freeway into another city and thinking they are waiting at the end of it for us to get there. Wrong again. It must've been coffee break time or something, or more like "it's their chase and we're off in 30!" Well eventually the bad guys bail out of the car into 'crack central'. Yep they got away. Or did they? Stay tuned....... Oh yeah, on the way back a kind hearted citizen called 911, to thank us right? Yeah right! He called to complain that an officer threw a cigarette out a window! Time out! Let's just say an officer did do that. Wouldn't you think that an officer chasing ARMED BAD GUYS might need to discard the thing at least for safety purposes? I guess not. The funny thing is that the officer he complained against doesn't even smoke, and it was my sergeant. Too funny, huh?! And to the dude that called 911 to complain...... if a cop flies over a lit cigarette at mach one it's going to fly up in the air like it flew out his window you knuckle head! But bless him anyways. =)