Day In The Line of Duty

It was near the end of the graveyard shift when we were dispatched to one last call. Paramedics had asked for assistance on a report of 2 people possibly overdosed on a 3^rd floor landing in a lane near the heart of the city’s skid row. I drove into the lane several blocks down from where the call was supposed to be and could see all the way down. My partner and I saw an ambulance approx 2 blocks ahead of us in the lane, driving away from us. We saw it drive all the way through and out of the lane past where the call should have been. They didn’t appear to stop for more than a few seconds.

I drove on to check out the location even though it looked to be a false alarm, which was very common. In this area of town, people, who need medical attention, will often leave before the ambulance arrives because the call for drugs is so strong and their sense of priorities is so scrabbled due to drug abuse. Even stabbing victims will attempt to walk away from you and medical help. Unless they’ve collapsed from their injuries or you get there quick enough to hold onto them, these people will flee like the place was on fire.

We stopped at the location and found 2 men hanging around in the lane.  We had, undoubtedly, interrupted either a sexual act or some sort of drug offense. The two guys said the ambulance drove by and asked if they were OK but then drove away without even getting out of the vehicle. These two looked just fine and I saw that there were second and third story upper landings above where the guys were sitting. There were also stairs leading up to those landings. The landings were very dark and I could not, nor could have anyone else standing in the lane, see what was up there.

A one man unit pulled up to assist as I was about to go up the stairs. My squad mate followed me up the stairs as my partner stayed with the two men in the lane. The cover officer took the 2^nd landing and I went to the 3^rd.

The far eastern end of the 3^rd landing was obscured by darkness and what looked like a board as I came up the stairs. I walked all the way up and immediately saw someone laying on their back and not moving. I went towards the person and saw another figure further along the landing. They were both males and both looked dead. There were several needles and drug flaps(drug packaging) around the two.

The first guy was laying on his back and I could see, even in the low light, that his skin was gray in color He had ‘gundge’ around his mouth and nose and his eyes were partly open. They looked like the eyes of the dead.

I’ve seen many dead bodies and this guy looked dead. He wasn’t breathing that I could see. The other guy was partially rolled onto his right side and looked as if he’d collapsed while trying to get up. He didn’t look grey yet so I kicked his foot several times and pushed him and finally got a grunt/snort out of him but he was out of it and hardly breathing. Guy number 2 looked beefy like he’d just got out of prison/jail. They both may have just been released and weren’t used to the strength of the street drugs.

I got on the radio immediately and told dispatch to get the ambulance back here, Code 3, because I had two bodies here. Needless to say this caused a swirl of activity from both the paramedics and the fire department.

The member from the 2nd level came up to see. We both noticed that the first ‘gray’ guy was still just barely breathing so we spent the next few minutes poking and prodding these two to try and wake them up. 3 paramedic crews arrived and one or two fire trucks full of sleepy firemen.The sirens were deafening in that narrow alley.

 The first crew of paramedics was, I hate to admit, funny to watch as they sprang into action. I think they were the crew that rolled through the lane ahead of us and they looked slightly unhinged. They were experienced paramedics who work in the area and have seen the worst so I don’t think it was the sight of these two guys that had rattled them.

One paramedic then grabbed the first guy and quickly looked at him then said ‘not dead’. She then went to the next guy, grabbed his arm and attempted to roll him onto his back. She got him almost there ,onto his back, but then dropped him on his head…..oops and what a bonk sound. She said ‘not dead either’ and the two paramedics began working feverishly to set up their equipment. More paramedics and firefighters were now swarming up the stairs with more gear so we, the two policemen, were designated flashlight holders for those working on the casualties.

Ultimately both men were injected with ‘narcan’ and they slowly started to come back to life. They said that both would likely make it and that we were no longer needed to help. Those of us on the graveyard shift then left the scene to the morning crew.

Last I heard on the radio was that those two bozos were walking to the ambulance and talking. Aren’t drugs great. These two guys would have been dead in short order if we hadn’t come along and bothered to go looking for them.

5 or 6 policemen, 6 paramedics and 6-8 firefighters….that’s an expensive little party these two guys ended up having.

It makes my head spin.

It’s amazing what people will do to themselves and what we do to help them. Dumb asses.

You call him pig

You call him fuzz

To some he’s just a cop.

 

To some he’s father,

Husband, son

But pig or fuzz

He’s not.

 

He feels the heat

The cold, the pain

And has his sorrows

too.

 

He risks his life

A thousand times

For people just like

you.

 

So say oink, oink

And call him names

And prove to all

It’s true.

 

The ones who act

Like little pigs

Are not the men

IN BLUE.

 

John Adams.

A policeman stood before his God,

As must always come to pass,

He hoped his boots were shining,

Just as brightly as his brass.

 

“Step forward, now, policeman,

How shall I deal with you?

Have you always turned the other cheek?

To my church have you been true?”

 

The policeman squared his shoulders and

said “No, Lord, I guess I ain’t.

‘Cause those of us who carry guns

Can’t always be a saint.

 

“I’ve had to work most Sundays,

And at times, my talk was tough,

And at times, I’ve been violent,

‘Cause the world is awfully rough.

 

“But, I never took a penny

That wasn’t mine to keep,

Though I worked a lot of overtime

When the bills got just too steep,

 

“And I never passed a cry for help

Though at times, I shook with fear.

And at times, God forgive me,

I’ve wept unmanly tears.

 

“I know I don’t deserve a place

Among the people here.

They never wanted me around,

Except to calm their fears.

 

“If you’ve a place for me here, Lord,

It needn’t be so grand.

In life, I didn’t expect or need too much,

So if you don’t, I’ll understand.”

 

There was silence all around the throne,

Where the saints had often trod,

As the policeman waited quietly

For the judgment of his God.

 

“Step forward now, brave officer,

You’ve born your burdens well.

Walk peacefully on Heaven’s streets,

You’ve served you’re time in Hell.”

 

-Author Unknown

Dear Mr/Mrs Citizen,

Well, I guess you have figured me out. I seem to fit neatly into the category you place me in. I’m stereotyped, characterized, standardized, classified, grouped and always typical.

I AM THE LOUSY COP.

Unfortunately, the reverse isn’t true. I can never figure you out.

From birth you teach your children that I am a person to beware of. Then, you are shocked when they identify me with my traditional enemy…..the criminal.

You accuse me of coddling juveniles, until I catch your kid doing something wrong.

You take an hour lunch and several coffee breaks each day then point me out as a loafer if you see me have just one cup.

You pride yourself on your polished manners but think nothing of interupting my meals with your  troubles.

You raise hell about the guy who cuts you off in traffic, but, let me catch you doing the same thing and all of a sudden I am picking on you. You know all the traffic laws but never got one single ticket that you deserved.

You shout “Abuse of Authority” if you see me driving fast to an emergency call, but raise nine kinds of hell if I take more than 30 seconds responding to yours.

You call it ‘part of my job’ if someone hits me, but yell ‘Police Brutality’ if I am forced to strike back.

You would never think of telling your dentist how to pull a badly decayed tooth, or your doctor how to take out your appendix, but you are ALWAYS willing to give me pointers on how to be a police officer.

You talk to me in a manner, and use language, that would assure a bloody nose from anyone else but you expect me to stand there and take your verbal abuse without batting an eye.

You cry ‘Something has to be done about crime!!!’ but you can’t be bothered to get involved.

You have no use for me, what so ever, but of course it’s OK for me to change a tire for your wife, or deliver your baby in the back seat of my patrol car en route to the hospital, or save your son’s life with CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, or even forsake time with MY family working long hours overtime trying to find your lost daughter.

So, dear citizen, you stand there on your soapbox and rant and rave about the way I do my job, calling me every name in the book, but never stop a minute to think that your property, your family, and maybe even your life might someday depend on one thing……………..ME.

Respectfully,

A Lousy Cop.

There are many poor and dirty rooming houses (apartments), in the district, where the different number of insect species out number the people living there. My partner and I were called into one of these rooming houses for a disturbance.

We were let into the building and directed to a room on an upper floor. We went into the room and found three people hanging out and, to us, it appeared obvious that they had been doing drugs for the better part of the day. The room was small (maybe 8′ by 6′)and it had a very low ceiling (my head was almost touching). It was extremely dirty with garbage, soiled clothing, used condoms, random junk, cigarettes and the whole place looked like it had a thick layer of ‘gunge’. The kind of place that makes you feel like you need to shower immediately after leaving.

These three people were lounging around like they were hanging out at a vacation resort. We checked all of them to make sure they hadn’t overdosed and that none of them were wanted. We then asked the two people who didn’t live there to leave because of the trouble they had been causing. They agreed to leave and began to collect their belongings.

On of them lifted the mattress, that was laying directly on the floor, to retreive something from underneath and a stampede of cockroaches streamed out. With no exaggeration there must have been well over a hundred bugs crawl out and run in every direction. There were different species and all assortment of sizes and they ran across the floor, up the walls and quickly made it to the ceiling. This looked like something out of a horror movie.

Some of the cockroaches even crawled onto the people in the room and disappeared into their clothes. The people didn’t even seem to notice, they were apparantly so used to it happening.

With my head only fractions of an inch from the ceiling and bugs running everywhere, my partner and I made a quick retreat out into the hallway to supervise the eviction.

Once outside, we both took a minute to make sure we were cockroach free and try to shake the Willies away…yuck.

I had the ‘creepy-crawlys’ for most of the rest of the day.

In my patrol district there is a park that is located in the heart of ‘Skid Row’. This park has a couple of buildings off to the side of the grassed area and a childrens playground. Not many kids use this park because it is usually filled with the area drug and alcohol addicts. The buildings in the park have several purposes and uses and one of those is a public washroom.

One afternoon, my partner and I were driving by and we both looked over at a man that was well known to police as a homeless alcoholic. He was shuffling toward the door of the washroom and appeared fairly drunk. The door of the washroom was propped open and you could see that the door to the toilet stall had been removed.

We slowed our car to have a look at this guy as he is known to get so drunk he couldn’t tell where he was anymore. We watched him shuffle just inside the washroom and then reach into the back of his pants. He then pulled his hand out and we could plainly see that he’d just pulled a good sized turd out of his pants. He then proceeded to drop the turd into the toilet and then, very nonchalantly, turn around and shuffle back out of the washroom. (No flush/No hand wash)

We both laughed with disgust and floored it out of the area. He looked stable enough and we didn’t think he needed our immediate attention. Ugh. Gross but funny.

My first big call as a policeman came in my second week of field training. This early in a police career everything still seems cool no matter what you’re doing. I’d wanted to be a policeman for so long that even just putting the uniform on was still exciting.

I’d gone through weeks and weeks of training involving time in the classroom, the gymnasium, the pistol range, the driving range and countless simulations at the end of it all. We studied all our legal powers and duties as well as the best practices during dangerous, volatile and potentially life threatening situations. We learned when to draw your pistol, when to raise your fists and when to pull your notebook and pen out. You go out with a ‘let’s go tackle all that is evil and ugly’ attitude and in disbelief that you’re being paid to do what you’re doing.

I was working with my field training officer on a quiet summer night during a grave yard shift. The district we were working in is huge. It includes large areas of residential housing, commercial properties and industrial areas. We were near the eastern border of the district, it was very early in the morning and the streets were mostly deserted.

An alert tone suddenly sounded over the radio and the dispatcher broadcast that there was a break and enter in progress at an address clear across the other side of our district. The caller to 911 was working late in their office and could hear people in the outer hallway kicking and smashing doors in. The caller was on the line and giving us blow-by-blow accounts of the progress the thieves were making around the building.

My field trainer was driving that night and we immediately started racing to the B&E. There were only about 3 or 4 cars on the road at that hour and there were only two cars available to head up. A K-9 was also en route but he was in another district and would take a bit of time to get into the area.

To anyone who hasn’t been in a police car, with the lights and sirens going on your way to a crime in progress, all I can say is that no roller coaster or other thrill ride compares. It’s just too cool.

My field trainer drove like a man possessed and I feel no shame in admitting that his driving scared me at times. The streets were mostly empty, the red and blue lights were bouncing off of everything, the siren was wailing and everything outside flew by in a blur. All this and the radio sounding off with updates, from 911, that the thugs in the building were getting closer to the door of the caller and they were starting to freak out. This early in my career I’d say this was the definition of sensory over load.

We drove for what felt like 10 minutes, we were that far away, but likely got into the area in three to four. We killed the sirens several blocks away and drove as quietly as possible towards the building. The other car responding arrived a short time before us and the two officers approached the door to the building on foot. We arrived and then went on foot into the lane behind the building. We couldn’t hear anything but the caller said they were still inside the building.

The unit up front radioed that there was a car parked right in front of the door and could be the ‘get-away car’. They stood on either side of the door and waited for an up date from us. We stood on either end of the building, in the lane, so that if anyone came out they’d have no where to go but into one of us.

Just as we got into position, the unit in the front radioed that the trunk on the possible crime car just opened by remote. This was it, the bad guys were likely coming out and they didn’t know we were there.

My heart was pounding now, several seconds went by.

Suddenly I could hear muffled yelling on the radio. The bad guys had come out of the front door…damn. I was nearest to the end of the lane and looked to my field trainer to see if I should run up there like I was screaming inside to do. With a look and a quick nod from him, I was off running full speed for the front of the building while he stayed to cover the back.

I can move fast but I am not made for running. At 6′5″ and over 290 lbs I was in shape but made a better bulldozer then a sprinter. Despite this I got around the building faster then I could have imagined myself moving. I was going to catch a bad guy in the act…awesome.

As I rounded the corner to the front there hadn’t been any radio broadcasts for a few seconds and I didn’t know what I would be facing. When I got there, I saw two officers wrestling with one guy on the ground. They looked like they would quickly have him in handcuffs and I briefly felt like I’d just missed out on the action. One of the officers then yelled that two more guys had turned and gone back into the building.

They were likely heading to the back door to escape out the lane, heading right toward my field trainer. It would be a two on one situation unless I could back there in time.

I then sprinted back to the lane where I had just been. As I was running, the officers up front radioed that they had one in custody and that two more males had run back into the building. I hadn’t had time to broadcast this myself.

I wouldn’t have thought that it was possible, but I think I ran even faster to get back to the lane to help my partner. I steamed back around the corner into the lane and found my partner still standing at his end of the lane. The bad guys hadn’t made it out yet. The K-9 unit was then on the radio saying he was just a short distance away. He sounded calm but excited at the same time, he wanted in on the action too.

I was back in the lane for maybe 10 seconds when two people suddenly darted out of the building rear door. They both headed in the direction of my field trainer. One of the guys looked to be almost my height but more round. He easily dwarfed my partner. The other guy was smaller but looked solid enough in the dark of the lane.

At this point, both my field trainer and I drew our pistol in what seemed like perfect unison. He shouted ‘Police, don’t move’ and ’show me your hands’ and the two guys stopped in their tracks. They then quickly turned around toward me. They were likely going to try and run out the other side of the lane with the idea that one cop can’t catch both of them.

As the two turned toward me, I had my pistol out (first time ever on the street) and I then started shouting for them to stop and get on the ground. Even in the darkened alley, I could see their eyes bulge open when they saw me blocking the only other escape route out of the lane.

Now we had them stopped but not controlled in an optimum way. My partner and I were on opposite sides of the lane pointing our guns, more or less, at each other. The word ‘cross-fire’ flashed through my mind and I hoped my field trainer was cognizant of his muzzle direction.

The two bad guys then took care of the cross-fire problem for us by splitting up and each moving to opposite sides of the lane. We each focused on a different guy without having to say anything.

This then triggered a new mental alert. These two guys were faced with two police officers pointing guns at them while yelling for them to stay where they were, to keep there hands up and to get on the ground but they weren’t listening. I was told in the academy, and later learned for myself through my own experiences, that bad guys who commit B&E’s are often armed with some sort of weapon.

These two had been caught breaking into a building and we had no idea what they were thinking or what they had planned. I started getting a bad feeling that these two were getting ready to do something drastic and that I may be forced into a situation where I might have to shoot another human being. The atmosphere in the lane grew more and more tense with each second, it actually felt like the air was thickening and things were in slow motion. Both officers yelling for the bad guys to get down but not getting any response.

“What are these two going to do? What am I going to have to do?”

I made a decision to act before they had the chance to, maybe, go for a weapon or do anything else. I advanced toward the guy I had in my pistol sights and kept yelling for him to get his hands up and to get on the ground. For a second time the guy’s eyes bulged out of his head and he suddenly didn’t look so sure of himself. My field trainer took my cue and advanced towards his guy. I tried to keep at least a slight peripheral view of what was happening on the other side of the lane while dealing with my guy.

My guy suddenly put his hands up and then got to his knees as I told him to do. We were now less then 8 feet apart and his eyes were bugged out and fixed on the barrel of my gun. He got flat on his belly and I could see that the other guy was doing the same. This guy now looked like he was going to crap in his pants.

I then went through everything I’d learned in the academy to get the situation set up for me to hand cuff this guy. I pounced on him and got the cuffs on without further troubles. My partner had his guy in cuffs too and now we could breathe again. I arrested my guy and searched him…sure enough I found a knife on him. All three had knives in their possession.

The K-9 member then showed up and he looked visibly disappointed but set about clearing the rest of the building with his dog.

I felt like I was on top of the world. We safely caught three armed thieves in the middle of doing crime with loads of excitement leading up to the arrest. Then the rest of the night was paperwork…yippee, but it was still a great night.

This was part of the reason I became a policeman. Along with wanting to help people and make a difference I wanted the pure thrill of chasing and catching bad guys. The guys that break into your house or car, that steal your stuff, that rape and kill people you know. I think if you don’t have this mix then policing is not likely something you should get into.

Everything happened so fast yet seemed to, at times be unfolding in slow motion. The whole incident, from the time we arrived in the lane until the time the guys were on the ground ready for cuffs, likely took less then 90 seconds, 2 minutes tops. I don’t remember drawing my pistol, it was just suddenly in my hand. My training had taken over and told me what I needed to do.

Incidentally, one of my academy classmates was in the unit that attended the front door of the building. This was her first big call as well and we recently reminisced about it. It definitely made a lasting memory.

Most days I still think this is the coolest job you can have. Mixed in with all that ‘quiet’ and ‘routine’ are the odd moments of sheer terror and excitement. Awesome.

It was my squad’s final night of a week of graveyard shifts. We usually head into the barn at 0530 hrs but not this night.

While several of us were out in the rain, checking a car load of Gangbangers, another car sped past us, in the opposite direction, with the driver staring at all of us on the sidewalk. At the rate of speed he was going, it would have been a good check as everything about the car/driver said that he was either drunk, high or the car was stolen.

Unfortunately all of us were tied up with these several knuckleheads, who were known to be dangerous, and we couldn’t break away and leave too few officers with the bad guys. Most of the squad was on scene with these guys and at this time of night there are no other officers to call on for help.

We wrapped up the check on the bad guys just as a call was coming in from an off duty officer two blocks up the street. The officer was heading into the station for day shift when he found an elderly person lying in the middle of the street. My whole squad immediately went to the scene to help. We found an elderly person in the street moaning and shivering on the wet pavement among pieces of the car that had hit them.

The pieces matched the color and style of the car that had zoomed by us not 5+ minutes before.

This person was badly injured with serious head injuries. Their skull was cracked open like a flip top dispenser with a clear view inside. The person was still alive but barely.

We were left wondering what kind of human piece of garbage would hit another person and then leave them for dead roadkill without stopping to help, even just call 911? This 80+ year old person laid in the street, in the rain, on cold asphalt for several minutes before anyone found them.

The person died shortly after arriving at hospital. Who knows if they could have survived if 911 had been called at the time it had happened but I’m willing to guess that they would have had better odds.

We found ourselves wishing we’d chased the car when we saw it but that might have lead the driver to do more harm then already done. If a loser won’t stop to help in this case what would they be capable of if police were actually chasing them?

This was an awful way to end the shift but none of us complained, even a little, because a person had been killed in a violent and graphic way. We were going home eventually, this elderly person was never going anywhere again.

I can tell you that the level of frustration in a situation like this is palpable. Wishing you could have done something different in a vane hope of altering the circumstances.

To the driver who killed this person (he was caught): ROT IN HELL YOU COWARD PIECE OF S**T!!!

I’m a policeman who works in a Canadian city as a general patrol officer. I’m sharing these experiences as an outlet and to give, to anyone who cares to read them, a glimpse of some of the things an average cop deals with when on duty.

For obvious reasons I have to keep many details very general and vague but I feel the message still comes across.

Some of these experiences are good, some are bad and some are things I could have gone my whole life without needing to know/see/hear/experience. Enjoy reading it, or don’t, it doesn’t matter since this blog is more for me than for you.