When the man fled and tossed money out of the window. The officers chasing him took that as a sign they had the right guy! He was caught!


A bum was arrested at an auto store. He would approach customers in the parking lot and offer to change their batteries or other minor services for money. The customers thought he worked there. On the way to jail he told the arresting officer he knew it was a big conspiracy between the government and auto zone to prevent his revolutionary invention (that would make firearms obsolete) off the market!


Two local drug dealers are arrested at a motel. Too bad the guns found stashed in a hallway couldn't be placed to their hands. They turned out to be convicted felons.

University of Houston Police Officer Ann O'Donnell died this morning going to an assault in progress call. She lost control of her car and crashed into a tree. I really hate stories like these. One so young and brand new to law enforcement already gone. Rest in Peace Officer O'Donnell.

It's that time of year and the new Air Jordans are out. Now I have no idea what the hell is so special about Jordans except the name. They are popular with the urban culture people. One year I had to go to a almost-near riot at a mall. The reason was people were lined up to get the new shoes and began acting foolish. We were swarmed with hostile people trying to keep order. I had one hand covering my gun. My biggest fear was one of them trying to take it from me. This year we get the same crap! Part of me says let them destroy property then maybe these retailers will find a safer way to sell these shoes.


A young man is spotted breaking into a home. When officers arrive he flees and is knocked to the ground by a citizen. The burglar fights with officers the whole time. Even on the way to jail he slips his handcuffs and starts kicking the window. The officer pulls over (on a major interstate) and the fight resumes. Fortunately nobody is hurt and the burglar goes to jail where he belongs.


A man is found bleeding like a stuck pig on a darkened street. He claims he was robbed by some thugs wanting money for marijuana. He says he was attacked several miles from where he was found and "someone" drove him out there. Which means he is lying or there was someone spending some time at the car wash getting all the blood out of their passenger seat.

I was reminded why it's probably good that I don't have kids. I was the third to arrive on a family disturbance. As I'm walking up to the house one of the officers is leading a teen aged boy out of the house by his arm. The boy, clearly agitated, is venting about how his cell phone didn't get a message about a party. So he comes downstairs yelling at his mother about why can't they BUY HIM a "decent" phone. Then he proceeds to kick furniture and throw things around. Then he says this "I have anger management issues and am on medication!" I stare a hole into him. What he needs is his little butt whooped! He wants his dad arrested because he grabbed him and pulled him away from his mom after calling her a "c*nt!" I know, stellar son right! I tell the kid essentially he isn't owed anything and his temper is going to get him in big trouble one day. I'm sure it went in one ear and out the other. That's time one day he will be 17 and we can take him to big boy jail and see how his anger management issues earn him friends there.

As if to continue the "boys behaving badly" streak a frantic woman calls saying her boyfriend was laying in their bedroom stabbed. I'm the second unit on the scene. I pull my weapon out since we have no idea if the stabber is still there. The first unit is knocking on the door and I hear a frantic woman shout "I'm coming!" Not fast enough, I'm getting ready to start kicking in the door when she finally opens. We rush inside and find her boyfriend in the back bedroom. A small, frightened dog is backed into the corner barking at us. We look over the boyfriend but he isn't stabbed, he's drunk and playing games. Too bad he wasn't outside when we arrived. What a jackass!!!!!

It was just me at the helm today. I finished what was left of the paperwork then hit the streets. I felt an urge to stay in a district mostly filled with affluent residents many of whom have mental problems and take medication. They make for some amusing drama. I drove around the district at least twice and the radio barely chirped. Then a call comes. Someone accusing their neighbor of smoking dope in the back yard. I get there and walk up to the fence and find three girls eating pizza. No pipes, residue, paraphernalia, nor smell of dope. I call the reportee and all he says is "I don't know." I get the sense he is a moron trying to get someone in trouble so I hang up on him and leave.

Then an accident goes out. I get there first to find a guy who is confused and has to be told to stay in one place and quit wandering. The other guy we learn tries to drive off. We end up arresting him for hit and run.

While we're dealing with that we get a call that a man with about 5 warrants from 3 different counties is at the hospital. Other units get there after he is left. Of course the hospital staff have their administrative rules and refuse to tell us where he lives. I need to find that nurse that works there who I took a drunk prisoner off her hands. I'm sure she would tell me where the guy lives.

Two guys decide to go down the freeway breaking into cars in parking lots along the way. Sadly for them they get caught and an officer sees them in a restaurant parking lot about to hit again. They get onto the freeway thinking they will get away. I'm waiting for them and get behind them and the officer following. We do a high risk stop right there on the busy freeway. Cars are speeding past as we take cover and point our guns at the occupants. We find stolen property in their car and arrest both.

A man just shot himself. Never did hear why.


A drunk stumbles across a busy street in front of security guards who call the cops. They show up and arrest the guy for public intoxication. The drunk guy slurs repeatedly "I'm not drunk! Let me go!"


An elderly woman lived alone with three dogs. About a day or two ago she suddenly died in her home and was later found by her neighbor. Her daughter and son-in-law showed up but didn't want the dogs. Animal control came out and got the dogs. Two went quietly but one, probably realizing what was going on, didn't cooperate and had to be dragged out of the house. I sure hope someone can adopt those dogs or else they will be put down and I'm sure the deceased woman wouldn't want that.


A crazy guy killed his mom by slitting her throat. He was later caught going down the road.

A man is stopped on traffic and caught with marijuana in the car. He angrily tells the officer "you can't arrest me for under 10 ounces of weed!" He says this while handcuffed in the backseat!


A drunk drove into a house and was able to back up and drive off. He abandoned the car in a nearby parking lot and ran home where he was picked up. He was only charged with hit and run due to the time lapse.

A man is found slumped over in his trunk on a residential street. When officers arrive and open the door they discover he is dead. Powder cocaine is found on his shirt and on the floorboard. Kind of obvious what happened.


Someone touched off a shotgun firing bird shot at someone's house. I hope this isn't a new mischievous recreation among really stupid teenagers.


Traffic was backed up on a major freeway courtesy of an accident involving an officer from another agency. His supervisor was not pleased.


A drunken, homeless man wheels his way back onto the premises of a convenience store he has been repeatedly warned to stay away from. When the officer arrives he confronts the bum who starts giving him a problem. The bum refuses to show any identification. The officer finally decides to arrest him. The bum becomes really agitated and screams, curses, tries to kick out the window. One leg is immobilized so the good leg is restrained. After that he just talks a bunch of noise and insults at officers.

A drunk crashed into a yard and through a fence. The homeowner comes out to confront the driver who flees the scene. Unfortunately for his oil leak he only gets a couple of blocks then runs home where he is later apprehended.


A young man was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head. It appeared to be self inflicted though nobody can tell if it's suicide or accidental. Near his body a lot of marihuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms were found.


A preteen girl attempted to hang herself in her garage. She was found in time and rushed to the hospital.

A Perspective....

This is an interesting story.





While most want to blame the poor, inexperienced Deputy Constable here there is more blame to go around. I'm sure the Deputy got frustrated and decided he couldn't do anything more with him. However try to put yourself in his position. You're a new police officer (you may not even be paid as Pct.6 has mostly unpaid reserve deputies) and you find this guy who is clearly mentally disturbed. He gives you a Chinese name, says he is 27 years old. He exhibits irrational behavior but probably nothing to suggest he is an immediate danger to himself or others. The Deputy takes him to a hospital and shelter and neither organization will accept him. What do you do with him then? He isn't under arrest so the deputy's right to detain him is very limited. What do you do then? This deputy got frustrated and just let him off at the corner not realizing who he had. All of these organizations are in place to help people. Granted their resources are limited so they make guidelines on what circumstances they will accept people. Adult protective services are notorious for not helping out at times. I've yet to have a case where APS actually helped me, or anyone I know out. CPS is a hit or miss kind of deal. Officers have worked overtime waiting on a decision from CPS about where to take a child then when they've waited long enough take the child to their intake center only to be refused and told they can't stay there. I've personally told officers to place the child there and walk out and see if CPS will kick the child out of their facility. Explain that to the press. Ben Taub is also a hit or miss deal. Most of the time they are helpful though there have been times when they tried to refuse obviously dangerous, deranged people based on some silly technicality.

Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where all of our organizations and resources cannot or will not help us leaving us to make decisions. While I think the deputy clearly made the wrong decision here I don't think he should get the entire blame for this. The shelters, the hospitals, even the kid's family shares some of the blame the way I see it.

The fight at school didn't end at school. Later on it carried over into a fast food joint parking lot this time one of the participants weilding a baseball bat. As an officer approached them they jump out of a car and skate away leaving their friend holding the bat, literally. Come to find out the car is stolen. While officers are cleaning up that mess some teenage punk decided to show off for his friends. So he walks into the middle of the swarm of officers and tells them they can't do anything to him and said "f*** y'all toy cops!" He was proven wrong. After his friends all went home he started crying on the way to jail.


Two sisters got into a argument. When one sister told the other that she's setting a fine example for her son that sets her off. She breaks a toothbrush in half and uses it to slice her sister in the back. She tried resisting the first officer on the scene then demanded to speak to his supervisor about how she was treated. Needless to say the supervisor didn't want to hear it!

Walmart was having a bad night. In one Walmart parking lot a dead woman was found shot to death. In another one officers chased a woman around the parking lot who tossed items out of her vehicle. She was quickly apprehended. In yet another Walmart parking lot a handcuffed suspect took off running and almost made it across the parking lot when he was apprehended. Good thing I didn't need to go shopping at Walmart.

Some choices I really hate. I was bored. I'm stuck in a district for the moment that's slow so I decide to stop a car for a minor traffic violation and find four gangbangers in the car all decked out in their "money" or "menace ii society" tattoos. I'm thinking maybe if I dig harder I might find something big but all I had thus far was a ticket and a passenger with a Class C warrant. Then a guy comes running up saying his business' front door is wide open. For some reason my gut tells me to go check out the business and let the gangbangers go for now. I know their car so I'm sure we'll meet again. I check the business and find out the owners accidentally left the door open and fortunately nobody went inside and stole anything. I guess that passenger wasn't meant to go to jail that night.


A woman pulls a knife on another woman saying that someone will die today. The district attorney's office doesn't think that's a prosecutable offense!


A robbery streak is over. A duo had been targeting cell phone stores. After enough robberies and enough information to track them down unmarked units found them and chased them and caught them. Two down, hundreds more robbers to go!

Two guys came up with the idea to rob cell phone stores. They've been hitting stores for about a month but today their luck ran out. They hit a store and got away with little money. Later on in the evening they were caught by officers who chased them into a dead end and were caught. Their spree is over.


A young man with a wife and kids lived the ghetto lifestyle dealing drugs. He spent most of the day selling marijuana in an particular apartment complex when the wrong person got into his car and put two bullets into him killing him. His partner dutifully ran off not wanting to "be involved." Just another street statistic that nobody will care about.


A man despondent that his girlfriend dumped him. So he called officers over to "talk about life" and stated he wanted to die. So he got his wish and got transported to the psychiatric hospital. Clearly he wanted help or else he wouldn't have called.

An officer has been eyeing the same three hoodlums hanging out on the same street corner for months. It's apparent they are selling drugs. He goes to stop one of them who takes off running. The dealer leaps over a car and hops over an 8 foot wall like it's not even there. The officer runs around the wall to find a 2-man unit sitting there doing paperwork. His radio accidentally keys up and we all hear him shouting "how the hell can you sit here and not see that crackhead run right past you!"


A 15 year old gang banger who "borrowed" his mom's car rear ends a guy at an intersection. The gang banger flees and is chased by the guy with his kids in the car. The guy cuts off the gang banger who winds up hitting him again. The gang banger gets arrested for hit & run and the other guy is cited for no driver's license and no insurance.


Officers responded to a call of a suspicious Asian male at an Asian restaurant. Huh?????


Three males robbed a woman at an apartment complex. Two were caught and ratted out the third one who eventually surrendered after a brief stand off.


Three other males committed a home invasion and as they fled a resident shot at their car. After a brief chase and a dog bite later all three were caught and arrested.


A man backs out of a driveway and speeds off while weaving across the road. He stumbles during the sobriety tests and has to be carried into the intox station where he refuses to blow. The video is dark and hard to see. As a result the idiot assistant district attorney prosecuting the case calls the 2nd time drunk driver "sober" and dismisses the case.


An officer runs a license plate and gets a stolen hit. When he tries to stop the vehicle a pursuit ensues in which the suspects strike a car and keep going. He goes to his house where both occupants bail out and are soon caught. The juvenile driver (it is later learned) is being investigated for a rash of burglaries. When a sergeant asks him if he even cares about where his life is going the juvenile felon asks "does it really matter." The sergeant says "son one day you'll end up dead or in prison just another street statistic and you know what? Nobody will give a f*** about you or your life!" He just sat there silent.

Wickersham Commission Findings Continue

Chicago PD Lieutenant Speaks Out

Wow! Very interesting read. When I was in the academy many moons ago I remember the instructor saying the biggest danger will not be the crook on the street with a gun. The biggest danger will be our own administration. He was ever so right! More careers are harmed by administrative decisions rather than street crimes. Granted there are officers who bring it on themselves. However there are also officers whose only real offense is they ran afoul of someone in power. Over the years I've seen these types of officers;

Broke D***s or ROD (retired on duty): These guys have been on the job for decades. According to them they have seen and done it all. There is no way to verify this except to find someone they used to work with and ask them. These guys are tired and want to ride the wave into retirement trying to squeeze in a few more years and a few thousand more into their retirement. Some of them won't complain when they just answer their calls and do enough to stay off the radar while the rest gripe and mumble. The latter strike me as having been lazy even in their youths. These guys are set in their ways and are resistant to change and anything short of a direct order will fight all the way to the bank.

Generation Xer: I guess I would fit into the group. We grew up with old school upbringings (unless the parents were hippies) and went through all the trials and tribulations of a teenager of the 1990s. When we get into law enforcement we hear war stories from the old timers and if we're smart we take notes because we can learn from them (both what to do and what not to do). Sometimes we can be a bridge between the last generation and the next generation.

Generation Y: Not sure how these guys/gals were raised. They are embedded with a "me" attitude. Not sure what drew them to police work but they feel they should be given banker's hours with weekends and holidays off. "Someone else" can work the other shifts. They don't grasp the principle's of duty, sacrifice, and paying one's dues. The previous generations learned that sometimes you have to make sacrifices and schedule your personal life around the job. This generation feels the job shouldn't ever interfere with their social life and become upset and act like toddlers throwing tantrums when it does. They tend to feel they are being picked on and love to be the victim. When they tell a story the facts get rearranged to portray them as being the victim. It isn't that they are lying (90% of the time), that is how they perceive the situation. They don't understand that someone is trying to guide/teach them while they are getting spanked. However because of their narrow mindset they cannot see that.

As with every rule, there are exceptions.

On the other hand there are different types of leaders.

There are those who have not forgotten what it's like starting out and working up. He understands their people are going to mess up and depending on how bad and how much damage is done it isn't necessary to toss the wolves fresh meat. He cares about morale and is happy to pass out compliments and "atta boys" to let his troops know they did a good job. He also knows that sometimes someone will need to be made an example of after committing (or omitting) some action that really causes some damage and embarrassment. He also understands that politics play a hand in law enforcement administration. How much depends on the individual leader. Some keep it to a minimum, others allow themselves and their agencies to be an arm of politics.

While there are certainly other categories of leaders I will refrain. If you want to add some categories of your own you're more than welcome to do so in the comments section.


Read the blog post here....

A crew of burglars has been driving authorities nuts. Or it maybe more than one crew. Sometimes the power is cut off, sometimes they just kick in the door.

Things came to a head for a family with a mentally ill son (adult). Several previous calls to that house left officers few options as in nothing had happened. The son finally wound up in a mental hospital and was released to come home and stab his step father to death.

Another young man with issues wrote a suicide note and left the house after finding out his dad refused to pay for the type of internet connection that would support his world of warcraft. When told my emergency personnel he was going to the hospital he began acting like a possessed demon until he was told it was a medical facility, not a mental ward. I wonder what he did when he found out the truth.

A young man is pulled over with his 3 year old son and girlfriend (not the kid's mother) in the car. The inside of the car reeks of marijuana and the man has a long criminal history. He's arrested because his license is suspended. While waiting on his grandmother to pick up his toddler son and girlfriend, she reaches down and picks up a bag of weed right in front of the officer. She wants to protect him so she winds up going to jail herself ruining her clean record. All for a worthless criminal boyfriend.

A prison guard is stopped for a traffic violation. Her passenger, an ex convict boyfriend. I guess you could say they met at work. Nobody should wonder how inmates get drugs and other contraband.

Been incommunicado for awhile. Just trying to stay under the radar.

This falls under stupid criminals. Officers respond to a domestic disturbance. The woman is either upset at her man or was assaulted I'm not sure which. While they are taking her statement he returns home carrying a bale of marijuana! After he is arrested, the still upset woman shows officers where the rest of his supply along with his illegal firearm is! If you're going to be a criminal don't piss your woman off!

Two women are involved in a car crash. They both tell officers that a car hit them and knocked them into a tree. Problem is neither one can give any information about the other vehicle. Also, the only visible damage is from the side of the car that hit the tree! There should be damage on another part of the vehicle from the hit & run car. I don't believe them. I think they lost control of the car, hit the tree, and made up the phantom car!

Two officers respond to an alarm at a business. They enter through the back door which closed and automatically locked. The officers found themselves locked in the place for about 30 minutes until a phone number was found for someone to tell them the code to the electronic lock.

A woman moved back in with her parents to get away from her drunk, abusive husband. One evening he shows up drunk and punches through a pane of glass trying to get to her. He gets into the house and fights with his father in law and gets him on the ground punching him in the face. His mother in law sprays him with mace and ends the fight. The maced soon-to-be ex son-in-law goes to jail.

A man gets a notice he is being investigated for indecency with a child. He decides to eat a bullet. Going to guess that means he was guilty! Pornography was found all over the house.

Two fools drag race on a street. One of them loses control of his souped up mustang and hits a tree. An off duty officer who saw the race stops by to help and be a witness. After destroying his mustang he is arrested for racing. He denies racing saying he was trying to catch up to the other car to say "what's up!" A good reason to wrap a mustang around a tree!

A man is awakened by noises outside. He grabs a pistol and goes outside to find a young man breaking into his car. The man shouts and the car burglar says to shoot him, he needs the money! Sadly some idiots would give that turd a payout. The burglar jumps into a car and speeds off as the homeowner shoots at the car.

An alert officer notices a car backed up to a Walmart auto center that is closed. As he approaches he sees a guy attempt to hide. The officer snatches him up and finds the guy is attempting to break into the place. He goes to jail.

An officer looks up to see a man in the car in front of him beating his wife/girlfriend (not sure of the relationship). He goes to jail.

A resident called about three teens smoking marijuana. Can't be that bright to do it where someone sees them and gets caught. One of them is the son of an officer. Oh well! All cops have black sheep in their families.

In the middle of the night someone blasted a shotgun into a residence. Nobody was hurt!

A man is released from jail and has no money. So he takes his xanax and inadvertently finds a plain clothes officer. He tries to sell the officer the xanax and winds up right back in jail!

Officers are called to look for a missing 2-year old child. The parents are understandably frantic. The child is soon found hiding behind a couch in the house!

My supervisor gets lucky. He is maxed out on vacation time and needs to burn a day. So he picks a Saturday. He tells his wife he will be off and she asks why did he choose that particular date. Then it struck like lightning. That day is his anniversary! He had forgotten. Without missing a beat he said he wanted to take her somewhere nice for their anniversary and she melted. Talk about smooth!!!!!

People who never find fault within themselves never cease to amaze me. An officer working a district has a known dope house. So naturally he pays extra attention to it especially to cars leaving it. He tails a car leaving the house and finds a traffic violation to stop it for. As he stops the car a bag of marijuana is tossed out. Needless to say both occupants get arrested. About three days later the wife of one of the arrested calls into complain that her family is being harassed by that officer! Her complaint was that her house was raided by narcotics detectives who found "a little bit of weed!" The supervisor taking the call is cool and calm and addresses her concerns. Then he calls a contact in narcotics and lets them know they need to keep watching the house. He also finds out the woman works for the probation department so a call is placed to them. See, we can play that game too.


Two homeless men are caught drinking at the same hood convenience store again and arrested. One of them goes on a saliva rampage spitting on both officers. While going to jail he kept spitting on the cage and even vomited. A class act.


A woman calls to report her minor daughter is missing and with an adult relative (and illegal immigrant). Here is the kicker, the illegal is her cousin AND her boyfriend and his side of the family knows it and thinks it's okay. The mom tells officers originally she was kidnapped. However both turn up at his apartment and the story becomes she is being molested by her mother's boyfriend. What a mess that's about to get messier now that sex crimes and childrens' protective services are now involved!

For whatever reason a parent put their 2 year old son in the backyard by himself. The child manages to crawl through the fence into the neighbor's yard which has a swimming pool. A clear recipe for disaster here. After about 20 minutes the neighbor notices there is a child by his pool so he calls for police who show up. Eventually the child's parents realize he's gone and go looking for him and do not seem all that concerned. As usual the DA's office sees nothing wrong and refuses charges.


A man leaves home and flies out of town to deliver a car. When he returns home he finds his wife dead in the bedroom. That's horrible!

Officer's get called to a suspicious vehicle. Inside it are three young men smoking marijuana. One of them is the son of a police officer. Oh well. Most cops have family members who have experienced the criminal justice system from the other side of the bars. I remember one night many years ago I was booking a prisoner into an annex jail. I was the only officer in there when suddenly a sergeant, and a chief burst in. Behind them was a tiny, skinny, blond hair young man who looked no more than 20 years old. He was a runt! I then found out he had tried to break into an off duty officer's home and got caught. He attacked the officer/homeowner and fled. When on duty units found him he fought them too! I was amazed. This little runt took on several police officers and he's still walking on his own? I would've figured out that his little ass would've gotten hurt! A while later one of our officers arrives in plain clothes and I figure out it's his son! He is clearly not happy. I wonder what became of that little punk.


In another case a man's house was peppered by shotgun blasts. My cynical side wonders what more to the story is there!

A man gets out of jail and needs money. So he goes to the light rail platform and approaches a man and tells him he needs money. So he offers to sell the man some bars (xanax). Too bad the man is a plainclothes officer who promptly arrests him. Someone with worse luck than me!

I stop a vehicle for driving without lights at night. As usual it's someone who has automatic front lights but cannot fathom that he has to turn on the rear lights at night. I figured I was going to cut him a warning and let him go. As I run him I get a surprise. I find a ten year old warrant for obstructing police. Now had it been a ten year old traffic warrant I wouldn't have even bothered with it. However obstructing police, no I can't let that go. What happened was he butted his nose into police business (more than likely on behalf of a friend or relative) and was told to back off and he refused and got arrested. He then failed to show up in court and a warrant was issued. I have him step out of the car and ask if he used to live where the warrant was issued and he said yes, but denied ever having had an encounter with police there. I speak to his wife who gives me enough information to convince me that it's him in the warrant. Finally he admits he was arrested (he lied initially). He claims he was looking for his then girl friend who was hit in a barfight. What that tells me it was a bar fight call and he butted in and was told to leave and refused. I can see that from how he kept acting when I showed him the warrant hit on my computer. The whole time he kept switching from arguing about the case was dismissed and his record was expunged (if that were the case there never would be a warrant hit). Then he would whine that he has a 6am flight and has important business meetings all over Asia and if I let him go he'd take care of it. I didn't believe him on both counts. The warrant was confirmed and his past had officially caught up with him. I see it as a reminder as the choices we make now can always come back to haunt us when we least expect it. I did let him speak to his wife to arrange to bond him out and maybe make his flight. However when he decided he wanted to run the scene he had to be dragged to the transport vehicle. I had lost my patience and wasn't going to explain his options again. He can figure it out downtown!

An officer is working an extra job. He's a young guy, wet behind the ears. He hears a disturbance. More specifically a woman screaming at some people. So he goes to see what's up and finds a school teacher screaming at the staff. This is a school teacher, by a bus full of students providing a fine example of how certain people act when they don't get their way. They throw a tantrum and act worse than a bratty child. The officer tries to calm her down but she isn't hearing it. Well she is actually because she responds that he can't do nothing and "ain't sh**!" Remember, students are watching their teacher act this way to a police officer. What kind of message does this send. The teacher then slaps the officer's hand. Now, the officer decides he is going to arrest her but encounters a small problem. He left his handcuffs in his car! My guess is he was in the mindset that on an extra job nothing is going to happen. He tells her to stay put and runs to his car. Guess what? By the time he gets back she has hopped on the bus and left! Needless to say this officer's supervisor was seriously upset by this and made him pursue the case. Now there is a school teacher with a felony warrant out for her arrest!


In another incident a drunk gets into a disturbance at a Latino club. He fights the security guards who plant his face into the concrete bloodying it. When police arrives he isn't done yet so he spits on the arresting officer. He had a bad night!

I noticed the accident on the side street. I saw the lights of the ambulance and other officers' cars working the scene. They looked like they had it well in hand so I kept going. About 20 yards right into another accident. A young woman hit another car from behind. Simple accident. Traffic was slowing, one car stopped and the vehicle behind him didn't. As I was gathering information for the report the woman who hit the man from behind said "this is what I get for lying." I asked "huh?" She tells me her boss asked her to work so she lied and told him she had to go out of town when in reality she was going to the airport to pick up her mother who had just returned from service in Iraq! Not only that, the vehicle was brand new! As I wrote her tickets for the accident I did feel sorry for her having to explain to her mother what happened.

The big news at the moment is the alleged video tape beating of a suspect by some officers that happened about two weeks ago. I remembered an incident about 10 years ago when I worked the night shift. I went to IHOP for what turned out to be a breakfast of runny eggs, cold sausage, and stale coffee. I saw another officer eating by himself. I approached him and asked if he minded if I joined him and he said no. So we introduce ourselves and get to talking. I was brand new and he was a ten (or something close to it) year veteran and he said he was burned out. I remember him saying he was considering getting out of law enforcement altogether. About a month later a group of two guys and two girls rob an all night restaurant. One of our officers spot the getaway car leaving the scene and the chase is on! The chase goes for about half an hour up three highways and ends in a wooded area. However by the time the vehicle chase ended news helicopters had shown up. It was even broadcasted that the media was overhead. Some of the robbers flee the car and the rest stay behind but they are all caught. I remember one woman laughing! Thinking this was all a big joke. I also remember the main robber getting caught and lead back to the cars. Well the very same officer I had breakfast with the month before, the one who was considering getting out of the field walks up to the crook and slaps him! On live TV! It didn't go well for him!

Walked into the usual end-of-week eatery and saw an old, familiar face. Ten years ago when I started he was the supervisor of the fugitive warrant division. I remember he had a tendency to roll up his sleeves to show his pumped up biceps. I imagine in his youth he was the muscle and the guy you wanted fighting alongside you. I shook his hand and told him I remember him and it's nice to see him again. I had dinner in the company of the 'old timers' (for lack of a better term-nothing against older people). I listened to their stories of antics done back in the day that would be near impossible to get away with nowadays. If I ever tell the stories I'll have to change a few things to protect the officers. And change the dates, times, places, and what actually happened. Well hell, perhaps I better wait for the statute of limitations to run out before those stories are told. He told some stories of some current people in charge about how they were like when they were street officers. All I can say is why am I not surprised! Some habits never change.

I got a little reminder in basic police wisdom today. I hear a call go out that a man is holding a gun to a child's head. The first thing that popped into my mind is a crazed lunatic holding a child hostage with a pistol to the head. I'm many miles away but I felt it prudent to head that way. I looked at the computer looking for the call and find another call at the same location. Well I click on the first call so I can read the map. Had I bothered to look at the other call slip I'd have seen an off duty officer was calling in with robbery suspects at gunpoint. To be fair I was driving so it wasn't really prudent to go reading all the call slips while rushing down the freeway! Turns out that "child" just robbed someone and happened to get caught by an off duty officer. Just a reminder what dispatch says isn't always the situation you're facing!


An officer is riding through a hood apartment complex when he finds a stolen car. As he is recovering it he hears several gunshots then sees a group of people running past him. A search of the area turns up a gunshot victim outside an apartment that is occupied by dope dealers and dope heads. He gets taken to the hospital. As we're holding the scene there is a crowd of people standing outside the trouble apartment talking amongst themselves. No doubt they are talking about the shooting. No doubt they know who and why the shooting took place but they will never tell us. A woman drives by us in a car and mumbles "it all started where those people are standing" and keeps going. She's trying to give us a hint and help us out but can't be seen talking to us. She has to live there. Poor woman.

A couple slept soundly as at least two burglars came into their house and stole their keys and then two cars belonging to the family. Later on in the day the same burglars, using another stolen car, kick in a door in broad daylight. An alert neighbor called police and the two were arrested and charged with burglary. One of the burglars tells where the cars from the previous burglary was. One of them was later recovered by an officer working an extra job. So, two stolen cars recovered, and two burglars off the streets. The annoying thing is one of the crooks is just 17 and already facing two felonies. Knowing this place he will be out at a ripe young age probably to commit more violent crimes against people!


A woman gets into a minor accident earlier in the day and makes a report with another agency. She later calls us and is afraid because she gave her information to the other party in the accident. She demands another report! She is told nope!

An officer enters a major freeway and spots two vehicles racing at about 120 MPH and cutting in and out of lanes amongst traffic. He catches one of them as the other takes off. The one who stopped realizes he's being arrested and doesn't want to go alone so he tells who his friend is. His friend actually agrees to come back to the scene and goes to jail with his friend. Talk about a friend!


There is a sandwich shop that has an unwelcome guest. Some bum who keeps coming onto the property drunk and harassing customers for money. He keeps getting arrested and charged with criminal trespass. This last time on the way to jail he asks the arresting officer when will he give up on arresting him!


In the annuls of dumb criminals here is one for the books. Two officers are on bicycle patrol through a bad apartment complex when they approach a guy. As they get closer he blurts out that he is a parolee and had just smoked marijuana. The officers quickly determine he doesn't live on the property so he is arrested for trespass. On his way to jail he protests that he can't be arrested because his rights weren't read! What a stupid ass!

Everyone knows when there is an accident that a dozen wreckers get there before any emergency personnel. People often wish we had a response time like wrecker drivers. In this case a wrecker driver who had warrants and a suspended license was speeding to a crash when seen by an officer. The wrecker driver actually fled from the officer until he got to the scene. He went to jail and his tow truck got towed!


Another guy tried to run from an officer. He ran to his home and pulled into his driveway. Perhaps he thought he was safe. When he realized he wasn't safe he shouted "I'm not giving you my name I ain't giving you sh**!" A stellar member of the community to be sure!

I was catching up on paperwork when I got asked to tag along for a felony warrant service. Not being able to resist a good time I said sure. A group of young men were burglarizing houses for another person and then bring the stolen goods to his house where they were stored. He had been running around bragging to his friends that the "cops are too f****** stupid" to catch him. His house was the first one we hit. We get him no problem. Of course he uses "I ain't did nothing" line. Yet he didn't say it with any passion. He said in a tone that suggests it was expected of him to say it to continue the game. Keep in mind had the police just come in my house and said they had a felony warrant I'd act out the "aggravated" portion of the statute! As I'm walking out to the car I tell him his little burglar ring is over. I then add "by the way who is too stupid to catch you?" He looks at me and replies with an insincere "what are you talking about!" I tell him we hear he's been saying we're too stupid to get him. He laughs as he denies it! We then go to the next house and park right behind it. As we walk around to the front door we hear the front door shut. We start knocking and nothing, nada, zilch! Someone is hunkered down in there trying to wait us out. We debate kicking in the door and just going in (felony warrant) versus trying out other options. As we're pursuing an option a man calls into our dispatch wanting to know why the cops are at his house. He claims his neighbor called. Problem is that I talked to his neighbor and she didn't call! The only one who could have called was inside that house! He further tells dispatch that nobody is in his house! This gives us an angle to use. I call him and he repeats his story. I then tell him what I know and that I want son #2 for a felony warrant. I tell him not to lie to me because I know his neighbor didn't call. I tell him either there is a burglar in his house or it's his son and asked him to treat me like I treat him. It worked, sort of. He tells me son #5 is in the house. I reassure him I don't want son #5 and if it is just him all he has to do is talk to us and we'll leave him alone. After some more reassurances son #5 answers the door and says his older brother is inside. We weren't expecting son #4 (at first I thought he was our subject). After we clear the house we start chewing into the two boys who are telling one lie after another. Even when confronted with their lives son #5 doesn't skip a beat when changing his story to cover up his exposed lie. I imagine the whole family lies to each other so much it's pathetic. Unfortunately for son #4 he has traffic warrants which he claims his fugitive brother used his name and the warrants aren't his. Well, technically they are and really I didn't give a damn! He hid in his house for an hour and wants to play games with us so we'll humor him and put him in jail for "his" warrants and let him clear that up on his own!


The rest of the night was mostly uneventful. Until I spotted some fool driving on the wrong side of the road with cars swerving to avoid him. I pull him over and in a thick accent says "my bad!" He isn't drunk, he says he is not familiar with the area as he is from the southside. I guess they don't drive on the right side of the road on the southside. He has an assault warrant for his arrest so he takes a trip anyway.

Officers have a notorious reputation for divorce. I consider myself a statistic just another divorced cop myself. However I digress. I know an officer going through a separation. He can't get divorced yet because his wife hasn't given birth yet. Ouch! Well her boyfriend decided to make a false ad on Craig's List with the officer's email address looking for gay sex! I guess dumb ass doesn't know that's a crime now. I want to file charges on the guy myself but the officer wants to handle it himself.





A teenager with mental problems along with alcohol and drug use decides to take a shotgun and start shooting slugs throughout the apartment. With slugs they are lucky they didn't pierce the walls and kill or injure someone in another apartment. When officers get there he is gone with the shotgun. He comes back later and his mother claims she got rid of the shotgun but can't quite remember where she put it. Okay that's a lie right there. They later learn the mother lies about who she is so they return and arrest her for fail to ID. Her lying caught up to her that night.


Someone decided to shoot up another hood apartment complex. We get there and of course the gunmen are gone but the entire complex was out "seeing what was going on." There were maybe five of us and about a hundred people milling about. Many of them not fans of the police. One guy walked right by us not even acknowledging our presence muttering "I'm gonna beat that n***** ass! I'm gonna beat that ass!" Wonder what his issue was. Another guy comes walking his pit bull and actually stops to thank us for being out there. He said there was too much "bullsh**" going on out in that complex. He's right about that but I couldn't tell if he was being sincere or sarcastic. As I was leaving I looked up and saw little children looking down from a second story window. I smiled and waved at them and they smiled and waved back. Poor kids have to live in that rat hole apartment complex.

A woman makes an appointment for some meeting and asks her mother to watch her five kids ranging in age from 16 months to 8 years. About five minutes before the meeting she calls her mother who says she is around the corner. So the woman leaves. About half an hour later the 8 year old calls saying he is home alone with the kids and scared to death. The officers arrive and get pissed off that these young kids are alone. The father is located and comes home and has no idea his wife left the kids. The woman's mother eventually shows up apologizing saying she lied when she said she was around the corner. She said she was really still in bed and didn't want her daughter to miss her meeting so she told her to leave.


A wrecker driver is speeding to an accident in hopes of getting a tow. A friend of mine spots him and tries to stop him. The wrecker driver flees and starts a pursuit. He is eventually caught and arrested. His excuse? He was rushing to an accident scene oh, and he had a suspended license! Another wrecker was called to tow his wrecker. I wonder if he got fired by his wrecker company.

In another pursuit a guy runs a stop sign and flees from the officer. He pulls into his driveway and runs into the yard. He is caught and arrested and when asked his name "f*** y'all I ain't telling y'all sh**!" Damn I wish I was on that scene!

The shift starts with an officer following a "rolling stolen" vehicle. Units from further away start en route with one notable exception. The officer ran the plate on his computer as they passed going opposite directions. About a minute later the stolen hit comes through. So the officer has to make a quick U-turn and try to catch up to the stolen car. Apparently the driver noticed the officer make the quick U-turn and realizing he's going after him so he makes a quick turn and guns the engine. The high speed catch-up goes right in the middle of a particular officer's district. The officer calls for him to help catch him and silence. They bump the officer again and nothing. I have to shake my head. This officer has a bad history of not answering his radio and being absent when something is going down. Needless to say the stolen car gets away and people are cursing the officer who never answered his radio. He later claimed he was talking to a "belligerent" citizen and had his radio down. How convenient!


Later on in the shift an officer sees a dirty looking woman sitting on a curb. At the time he thinks nothing of it. About two hours later as he is passing through the same intersection she is still there and hadn't moved. So he goes to check on her and she claims she used to be a beautiful woman. Unfortunately the government conspired to make her ugly and did so. She went to the psychiatric hospital!

It was one of those nights I was tired. I really didn't feel like doing anything if I didn't have to. It was the end of the night and time to head home. I notice a truck in the other lane and decide to run the license plate. The return comes back to some 1980s model car that isn't manufactured anymore! Okay now I'm going to do something! I get in behind the truck and hit the lights to pull it over. We turn north on a road and I'm waiting for him to stop. Then I notice something odd. The last digit in the truck's plate wasn't what I entered into the computer. Uh oh! I ran the wrong damn plate! Great! Now I am behind this truck with my lights on with other cars on the road watching me. I spot the nearest crossover, tap my air horn a couple of times and make a sudden U-turn heading back the other way. I accelerate a little to give the impression that I'm going to an emergency call. When I'm safely out of sight I shut everything down, take a look around and say "geez I hope nobody saw that!"

I told my supervisor what I did. He laughed at me. I told him I learned that little trick from my dad. He told me a tale once on night shift he wasn't paying attention and wound driving the wrong way down a road. So he activated his emergency equipment to make people think he was going to an emergency call then he turned off the nearest side street and hid. My supervisor told me a tale of how he and his partner were looking for a fugitive couple who kept eluding them. So they decide to hit their house at 3 in the morning. They black out the cars and get out. The partner is retrieving a shotgun which accidentally hits the siren button and now everyone knows they are there ruining the surprise!

Hindsight is always 20/20. The man in his late 50s had been depressed for a long time and taking psychiatric medications. This is never a good recipe. His daughter and grandson went out to run some errands. As they pulled into the driveway and opened the garage they were horribly greeted by the image of their relative hanging dead in the garage! She cried over and over "I never should have left him alone!" To have to live with that "coulda shoulda woulda" is terrible. Shame on him for putting his own family through that torture!


I'd been hearing of a con man who is living with a disabled old woman and her alcoholic daughter. Their house tends to be a meeting ground for drunks, drug users, thieves, and other types of societies undesirables. I'm just glad they don't live in my neighborhood. One of my officers has been trying to arrest the con man, R for months but can't get a good case on him. A fight call drops at that address. I'm the first one there and I meet R for the first time. He looks like a little runt. I find the woman that was hit and she's lit up and not making sense. As I'm trying to get the story a vehicle drives past and everyone points and says "there he is!" I watch which way he goes (past experience from rushing into the car putting it in gear then realizing I didn't see which way my target went). I go after him and catch him in his driveway. I rush out, put him in cuffs and stuff him in my car. After about another hour of shifting through stories I determine my new friend and R were fighting in the driveway and drunk woman tried to either break it up or get involved and inadvertently got herself hit in the eye. No charges were filed and I take the guy home. I go back to the original house and find some other people have shown up. One is chubby, ugly as hell guy. My officer tells me he's a known male prostitute. I shake my head. I really try not to judge other people but sometimes other people don't make it easy.

A man is pulled over on traffic. He first lies to the officers about his name. When that doesn't work he tries running. When that doesn't work he tries to fight. Come to find out has a federal warrant for drugs. The district attorney's office refused to take charges for fail to ID and evading/resisting arrest! Whether it be laziness or ineptness I'm sick of these Mickey Mouse assistant DAs not wanting to prosecute anyone unless it's a news story!

Some things astound me! One of them is officers who cannot make a decision and have to call someone miles away to make an assessment and a decision. An off duty officer from another agency was on his way home from work. He saw a wreck on the side of the road and stopped to help. Another car whose driver wasn't paying attention hit his car pushing it into him injuring him. The officer who came to work it cited the officer!!! Hopefully his supervisors will fix that problem and maybe educate the officer to use some common sense!


In another example of inadequate communication a husband and wife are separated. The husband drives the van which is both of theirs. For some reason the wife reports the van stolen. It is found with the husband driving it. He isn't arrested for auto theft however he is arrested for the warrants he forgot to take care of. Oops!


A person calls to report two people having sex in a vehicle in a church parking lot! Officers find the two 17 year olds. For whatever reason the parents are called. Now the normal parental reaction would be anger. However with these two sets of parents their reaction is the ostrich approach of sticking one's head in the ground. The girl's parents insisted she was a virgin and that the semen stains on her dress were planted. The boy's parents claimed the girl is trying to get his money! I wish I'd been there. Those parents wouldn't have liked what I would have said to them. "Denial is more than a river in Egypt!"

Sometimes well meaning people make big problems for themselves. For example a guy was out for a walk and sees three young males he knew didn't live in the neighborhood. He decides to follow them and see what they were up to. He wound up getting robbed by them! Guess he'll think twice about following strangers again.


A watchful neighbor calls police when he sees two people going into a house knowing the owners are on vacation. When officers arrive one gives themselves up and the other hides in the house. The officers go in and drag him out. Turns out it is a husband and wife burglary team. Well the couple who steals together, gets incarcerated together.


A patrol officer gets flagged down at an apartment complex. He is told that there is a vacant apartment in which a homeless squatter has been staying at. Nobody has seen him in a long time. The apartment is locked up and flies can be seen gathering at the window accompanied by a pungent odor. This is the classic sign of a dead body inside. The officer takes his gun out, kicks in the door and goes inside. There, he finds a dead cat!

Security guards were fighting with a group of hoods. Police arrive and detain two individuals. One gives a name and date of birth but nothing comes back on the computer. The general consensus is the little turd is lying. His mother shows up and gives a different name. They take his print and and his true name comes up. Turns out he and his mother are lying. The prize is he is wanted for murder! It is very rare a wanted murderer is found. While enroute to jail he slips his hand cuffs so they restrain him with hobble restraints. Only 17 and his life is screwed! I looked up the charges and come to find out he and his friends killed another gang member. No big loss to society. One gang banger dead and three others going down for it. Just another statistic!

An officer drove by one of the many cantinas that litter the city. The cantinas are a hotbed of drug use and prostitution (many involve underage girls smuggled in as sex 'workers') yet good luck trying to get them shut down. As the officer drives past he sees three guys in a truck trying to duck down to avoid being seen. An obvious red flag. He finds three drunk illegal aliens one of them with his pants unzipped. They are arrested and inside the truck he finds a medium sized stash of narcotics packaged for sale!


I wonder if most people realize it's state law if you get into a minor accident to move it off the roadway to reduce congestion. However some people are so anal they think they have to block the road for a scuff mark. As was the case with the guy who got clipped. The woman who clipped him pulled into a parking lot. He stops right where he is at and blocks a lane of traffic. It was my first accident in about a year. Usually I get an officer to work it but since the format has changed I decided to work it to do it for myself and see. It wasn't hard. I've heard gripes that the new format takes two hours yet it only took me about 45 minutes!


A drunk peddles his bicycle right into a parked truck. A man gets out of the truck and calls the drunk into us. He then leaves and goes to his apartment. It's oddly funny. He says that the drunk is on the ground and not moving yet not concerned enough to stay and help. He goes home. Talk about living in the hood where they'll step over the body to "holla at a playa!"

Two arrests for the same offense in one day. One person altered his inspection sticker and the other simply took one off a truck and put it on his car. I did that when working the hood. I mean arresting two people for that same offense in the same day!

I run a plate and see the registration expired last year. He pulls into a parking lot. I look down and notice a word buried in my readout "stolen!"
Uh oh! How did I miss that the first time? I get the driver (a 60 year old man) back in his car. I finish the return but nowhere else does it say stolen. I figured the car had been previously stolen and then recovered. Funny thing is nobody checked by. Good thing I was under control the whole time.

A young man hits a car and keeps going. Sadly for him the other driver got his plate. His car was found in the parking lot of a nearby college. The officer waited on the driver who showed up and presented an altered alien card. The illegal alien said he didn't have time to stop! What nerve!

A thief was being watched on camera stealing clothes. The store initially called the police. The thief went into the bathroom. Per store policy they can no longer stop the thief because they lost sight of him and don't know if he has the merchandise on him anymore so they call back to cancel the call. About 30 minutes later they call back to report they chased him in the parking lot where got into his car and fled after striking two parked cars!

A man gets stopped by an officer on his way to pick up his kid from school. Maybe it was ego, or sexism, or just stupidity he tells the officer he has no time for her and tries to leave. He gets arrested in front of his kid. What a damn fool!

I was working an extra job at a school and walking through the parking lot. I then hear a kid saying hi. I look around and find a little boy in a car by himself! "Oh hell no!" It's not hot and the window is down and he's been there for about 5 minutes because I saw the car pull into the parking lot. I learn that he's 8 and his mom is inside the school. The mom and a her boss (a teacher at the school) come out and the mom has been bawling. They tell me her son got thrown out of school for the day. The story they tell me is that he brought a ruler to school and hit another kid who grabbed him in a bear hug. Apparently at this particular school one cannot bring a ruler! Excuse me isn't a ruler a school supply? Talk about getting stupid! Really! Why stop there may as well ban pens and pencils since those can be used as shanks!


A gang member was caught trying to break into a car but he set off the alarm. He jumps in his car and drives off and is caught by responding units. A weapon is found in his trunk and he is arrested. Funny, the intake DA takes the charge and the gang member is taken to jail. Hours later another DA rejects the charge because the weapon was in the trunk and not "on or about the person." To be fair the statute does read that way. The legislature really needs to address that issue. Crooks can easily avoid arrest with this handy little knowledge.


Today was a day I really didn't feel like doing much. Maybe because I was mostly tired. There are days when I feel like kicking ass and taking names. There are other days when I don't want to do a damn thing! At the end of the shift I was with two other officers who have been around 10 years like myself. The topic came up how we all got started out. Both of their stories were pretty much the same as mine. They were called into the office by the recruiter and rushed through the hiring process. With me it was the same. I had a job at a local store and had to be at work right after the interview. He then scheduled me for the polygraph right then. It made me late for work and my then-boss was uber pissed off but hey the recruiter told me it was going to come at me fast and I needed to run with it. Since this job is what I worked my butt off for I couldn't pass up my chance to get on board. The rest is history!

Overheard at a gas station while stopping in for a pit stop and a drink:

Two black guys in du-rags and baggy clothing. The standard banger attire. Then a van comes into the parking lot with two Middle Eastern men in robes and long beards. One of the black guys says "awww hell dawg! Them mutha f••••• about to blow us up!"

That is funny!

The best explanation yet! A 19 year old is caught in a car with his 17 year old girlfriend. Not statutory rape but public lewdness had one wanted to push the issue. His pants and undies were off. When asked if he could have found a better place to have sex he said he was a Muslim and didn't engage in such behavior. The reason he was naked waist down was that it was hot and he needed to cool off. Brilliant! If I'm ever busted in a car with a woman that's exactly what I'm going to say!


I get called to a domestic violence scene with my camera. A pissed off father took a belt and beat the hell out of his daughter. Now, I'm all for beating the hell out of kids when they deserve it. However belt marks on both legs. Naaa! That's too much. I take the pictures of the injuries and then we go arrest the father. He wants to protest but I don't give him the chance. His son stands up and I thought he was going to try to interfere. At this stage I'm zero tolerance and told him once to sit his ass down. While we're finishing up the man's mother shows up all upset. Now had I known that he had a pending case for beating his wife before his daughter I'd have shattered mommy's bubble view of her son. I've got his family saying he's trying to raise a wicked daughter and she is the cause of all the trouble. I've got neighbors saying the father in a sociopath, smooth talker who beats women and his family seems to accept it. I don't know any of these people however my gut is inclined to believe that although the girl is no angel her father is worse.

On my way into the station I see someone running radar up ahead. That has to be Mrs. H! She's a sweetheart! I hit the accelerator to get my car up to 60 to have a little fun with her. As I get closer I realize it's not Mrs. H. Oh sh**! It's an officer from another agency and she's waving me over! Oh boy am I going to look stupid when I explain this to her. "Well officer I thought you were someone else!" I can see the letter already; "dear chief I thought it was someone else or I would have obeyed the traffic laws!" Thankfully as I slowed down to pull over she saw my uniform and waved me off! God bless her!


A drunk ex-employee stormed into a fast food restaurant and began tossing things around. As officers were en route he ran into the street banging on cars as they passed. Finally an officer found him and arrested him.


A robber hit a store ran by a man and his son. The robber shot the son and fought with the father who managed to take the gun from the robber and shot him in the head. Killed him instantly. Good job clerk!


A drunk and delusional woman goes to a department store with her 4-year old daughter and starts raising hell. She harasses customers for money and when she's told to leave she starts yelling and cursing and making a spectacle of herself. The officers get there and one recognizes her from past experience. Instead of taking her to jail he decides to take her to a psych hospital and the girl to CPS. Turns out she had two other small kids waiting at home. Those kids already have a major strike against them.


A man comes home drunk and starts yelling at his wife. He hits her and knocks her down. As they are fighting their elderly neighbor hears it and instead of calling the police. He shouts over his fence for them to shut up! Remind me not to have this fool for my neighbor. The bloodied woman refused to press charges however thanks to state law doesn't matter. He went to jail anyway.

A commander at another agency ordered an officer in his command to take his deptartment issued car to get it inspected. The officer wrecked his commander's car on the way to the inspection station. I'm still laughing!

Word gets around pretty quick. An off duty officer apparently laid down his motorcycle on the interstate and hurt himself pretty bad. Life flight came out and flew him to the hospital where last I hear he is talking. Thank God! As much as motorcycles are appealing they can be hell if you lay them down at 80 MPH!





Someone was telling me about the former officer who got arrested a couple of days ago for drunk driving. Apparently he cut off the arresting officer and refused to do any tests after claiming he was still an officer. He also urinated on himself. Real classy! Again can't say I feel any sympathy for him.





I'm on the road and need to get over into the lane yet there is another car there. I turn on the signal and slow down for the car to pass me. It brakes and slows down significantly. He is sure reluctant to pass me. In my line of work this is known as a clue. I practically come to a stop to get him to pass me and I see an expired sticker. Okay that's a start. I pull him over and all he has is the expired sticker and a license plate that was cancelled two years ago. That's it? That's all? Damn I thought it would be something better than that. I write the tickets and go on my way.

I hate to sound politically incorrect here, but what is it with Asians and driving without headlights at night? I'm serious the only people I ever find anymore driving without their headlights at night are Asian drivers. Tonight was no exception. She drives right past me with no lights. Then when I turn my lights on she stops not on the side of the road, but in the middle of it! With cars coming up behind me. I finally get her to move to a safe spot and show her how to turn on her lights then I let her go.

Then a luxury car blows through a red light. I stop it and find a pregnant woman driving. She's my age. She's upping her breathing trying to cry. Oh please! Little does she know that if she has a valid license and insurance I'm going to let her go. However I want to see her little game here. She says she was on her way from a baby shower and that her husband is in the hospital and life is hard. Apparently he's not critical if she's out at a baby shower. This woman strikes me as very spoiled and not good at this game. Lucky for her I already made up my mind to let her go. During all that fake crying she did not shed one damn tear! I thought about pointing that out to her but na! No point in doing so.

Then comes an emergency call. A teenage girl hears someone at her door and calls 911. I'm on the other side of the highway from her house so I hit the lights and noise and haul ass and I'm the first one there. As I walk up to the door I see a note jammed in it. This is what the girl heard when she panicked. I knock on the door and she and her friend open the door. I felt like I was in a bad teenage comedy when the girls open the door wearing almost nothing. I show her the note. Of course we check the house and find nothing and try to reassure her it's okay. Being teenagers they are still in a state of panic and probably still not old enough to be left home alone.

Right after that EMS calls us saying they are trying to transport an elderly lady who fell down to the hospital but her son is giving them problems. Now, I get really pissed off when someone interferes with us doing our jobs! Same goes for fire and medical people (oh and a little secret I do have a fondness for lady paramedics). I get there as the elderly woman is being loaded up and the officers are fussing at the drunk son. He's about 40ish so he's not kid. One of the medics says he was telling them he has a black belt in kung fu. I raised my flashlight and said "amazing coincidence, I have a black flashlight and two black boots!" I go talk to the drunk son who is just pathetic in my opinion. I flat out ask why is he giving the nice medical people problems and he says he isn't. Well what the hell am I doing here if that's the case? I warn him he better sober up before he leaves the house to see his mother. As we're leaving he comes out claiming harassment and why isn't his mother being cared for. I whisper to the other officers if he gets to the easement before the street I'm going to arrest him. I see he is wearing flip flops. A thought crosses my mind. I wanted so badly to say that I have a boot for his ass but that would be unprofessional. I tell him he better not come out onto the street. Yet I'll admit part of me hopes he disregards me and walks up to me. I'm so wanting him to give me a reason to arrest him. However fortunately for him he stops and goes back into the house, exactly as I tell him to do. Damn! One of the few times a drunk actually does what I tell him/her! I turn around and the ambulance is leaving along with the pretty lady medic. Out of my life, for now!

Man calls the police saying he was followed home by a man possibly on drugs. The sure sign of drug use. He gave the caller "the finger!". Sounds more like a road rage deal!

Woman calls police because someone came into her house and changed the decor of her house and she doesn't like it.

Someone fired a shot into a house through the window. The caller needs an ambulance not because anyone was shot! Because she wants her blood pressure checked. I think it's safe to assume if someone shoots into your house that your blood pressure will rise.

I wonder why she did it. Someone found a woman dead in a car. Apparently she had taken her own life. Women used to rarely commit suicide by shooting themselves however now it's becoming more prevalent. I know they say suicide is a straight ticket to hell however (and maybe I'm too compassionate) some of these people need peace. Why can't they have it in the afterlife at least?


Officers had to chase two home invaders throughout a neighborhood and called three different agencies looking for a K9 to come out and aid in the search. By the time they finally found one the second suspect (after the first had been caught) was found hiding in a drainage pipe and at first refused to come out. However he was persuaded to come out eventually.


Rumor has it a former officer got arrested for drunk driving. Knowing who it is I think karma finally caught up to him!


Repeatedly had to check the radio because it was quiet for too long. I get nervous when the radio is quiet for a long period of time. I have to make sure my radio is on and on the right channel. After all that radio silence at the end of the shift a big fight goes down at a popular restaurant full of families and friends just wanting to enjoy a night out. I'm the first one on the scene and snatch up one guy who people are pointing out. Come to find out it's two different groups of people from different something or other who agreed to meet at the restaurant to fight it out. How stupid! As I'm talking to one guy he actually tells me two guys got naked before fighting. I had to have him repeat it. In this cold weather two guys got buck ass naked to fight? Too bad they're gone I'd would have gladly taken them to jail naked and thrown them in the tank with the other inmates.

The word on the street is the Sheriff gave a TV interview in uniform. However he forgot to put his badge on. If someone has a picture or the video please send it to me. I'd like to see that for myself.


A man is walking with his dog not on a leash. He's violating the leash law and an officer (real easy going guy) politely tells him to put his dog on a leash. The man says he disagrees with the law and isn't going to obey it! Uh oh! Never tell that to a cop. Regardless if you agree or disagree with the law disobeying it and challenging a cop isn't the wisest course of action. He proceeds to give a fake name and is caught at it. On the way to jail for fail to id he says he gave a fake name because he "disagreed with the law!" I hope they did something with his dogs and not leave them there.


Another clown decides to grab some beer at a grocery store and run. The manager chases him and they fight it out in the parking lot and inadvertently exchange cell phones. I like going through crooks' discarded cell phones you can find some interesting stuff. Not only did I find a good picture of the suspect, I click the 'next' icon and see a blurry picture of a woman looking into the lens. Her cheek is sunken in, she's got something her mouth....WHOA!!!!!!!!
Now seriously, I can understand wanting to photograph yourself getting your freak on. However you really ought to be smart about it and password protect those pictures for obvious reasons. For you Iphone users 'there's an application for that!'


I'm driving with my supervisor in the car. We're chatting it up when a vehicle passes up like we're standing still. I pace it at over 90 MPH and it's still leaving us behind! I catch up to him his the lights. We go on for about a mile when he pulls over. I'm entering information and he drives off! He isn't trying to get away from me he is just out for a casual drive. I finally get him stopped and it's a damn teenager! He said I was talking too long to exit the car so he didn't think he had to stay. He didn't seem like a bad person, just thick headed and thinks he doesn't have to take any responsibility. He had a traffic warrant out for his arrest. So I arrest him and tow his car. I wonder if being arrested and his father's vehicle getting towed will drive the point home.

I was going over some paperwork when a man walks into the lobby. He says he was in a crash over the weekend and fled the scene when he was scared. Wow! That hardly ever happens. A unit comes to get his information. Now, I figured he was going to arrest the guy for fail to stop and give information but instead gives him a ticket for his part in the accident! Huh? Oh well I can see the DA's office refusing to prosecute saying his walking in and confessing isn't good enough. I can see them saying he would have to be in a photo lineup and identified by the driver of the other car who never got a look at him.


A drunk is discovered in the street and arrested for public intoxication. I get there and the officer is hoping he has drugs on him. He doesn't want a simple Class C arrest, he wants to file charges. He finds a lighter on the drunk and asks where his dope is. The drunk denies ever using drugs (despite the fact he has a history of drug arrests). The officer then asks if he doesn't use drugs where are his cigarettes. The drunk replies "in my pocket you missed them dummy!"
That was pretty funny! The officer got his wish when the drunk threatened him with retaliation for arresting him! What a damn fool! That was his 25th arrest!


Another guy decided he just had to relieve himself sexually so he chose a park to go do it. Too bad he chose to do it next to an officer! He went to jail!

Occasionally I get frantic calls from officers. One calls me up freaking out because his girlfriend stormed out of the apartment after a fight. I wasn't feeling very sympathetic but he said his mind wasn't right to come to work. He said since she left he's tried calling and texting her. Whoa! Hold on! I ask him many messages has he sent and he says about 100! Damn! I tell him that she's doing this to play with his mind and he needs to quit chasing her. I finally convince him to take my advice and later on she comes home. The next day he comes up and tells me I was right about her. I never tire of hearing that. In fact she came back to yell at him for not pursuing her like she wanted. Definitely a case where the younger generation can look up to us who've "been there done that!"

We're being warned about the cold weather. I don thermals and hope it doesn't rain along with the cold temperatures. I turn on the radio to listen to a pursuit that's going on. Some idiot lead three agencies on a chase then said he ran because he was thinking of his kids. Talk about retarded!


I run a call where a man got threatened by a man who parked in his driveway to pick his kid up from school! Talk about disrespectful!


We then responded to a call where a man came home to find his back window broken, his humongous TV set left outside in the rain and his laptop stolen. Talk about sucking!


Some snow started coming down as we ate dinner. It didn't last long. I looked up, saw the snow coming down. Took a bite of my dinner and looked out again and it had stopped!


Saw a vehicle that had a hard time driving straight. Made me wonder if he was drunk or just couldn't see the road. I decided to find out which and pulled him over. The guy was an illegal alien. I ran his name and found different arrest records with the same information except for the date of birth. I decided to arrest him to be sure who he really was.


After than I'm going down the street when a car turns in front of me with no tail lights. I go ahead and stop him too. He hands me an expired license which is suspended. He has insurance this time but has a prior conviction meaning he can't get a ticket. What kind of surprised me is the assistant DA gave me a hard time about the prior conviction. She sounded like she was going to flake out so I told her I had the case number, the date, all that good stuff. I arrest him too and since he's cool I let him call his friend to get his car. I really didn't want to tow the car. The guy strikes me as having enough problems. I call his friend for him and he says he's been arrested. His friend says "for DWI?" The prisoner says "naw man I ain't drunk, my license is suspended!" Hell of a friend to automatically assume that!

I walk into the office and hear about a home invasion that occurred earlier that morning. A man woke up and found two punks in his living room. He thought they had a rifle. The two flee and he calls us. One of our guys finds the suspects' car a block away with one of them outside so he gets snatched. The other is found hiding in some bushes a short while later. They find one is an adult and other is a juvenile. Both are charged with the same felony and taken to their respective jails.


Went driving through one of our many bad neighborhoods. I notice all the cross looks I'm getting from the locals. I am surprised when two young kids start waving so I wave back. I hope those kids grow up to remember the nice cop who waved back. As I pass an apartment complex I see a guy with his pants hanging down. He's showing off for two young kids throwing his signs. He sees me staring at him hard. If he mocks me I'm turning the car and gonna get out and make his acquaintance. He stops and then starts scuttling away. Probably to get rid of his product.


I get notified by dispatch to call the juvenile jail. Come to find out one of the little burglars from that morning really isn't a juvenile. So now someone has to come get him and take him to the correct jail and the charges and jail hold have to be redone. I have to do all that from the station. On my way a van flies past me like I'm standing still. I pull him over and the moment I get a look at him I know there is no way in hell he has a driver's license nor is he an adult. Sure enough he's 16 and took his dad's van without asking. I go back to my car and call his dad to come get him and the van. Meanwhile I run him and find a missing person hit out of New York. After some digging around I figure out it's not him, just amazing coincidence. He seems annoyed that I'm holding him. When his older brother arrives he tells me he thinks he's a man and at the age where nobody can tell him anything. I tell him to beat his ass! If he were my kid he'd be limping!

I make it back to the station and pull the report and after an hour take care of the charges. All that idiot did by lying about his age was extend the time he was in custody!

The call goes out as a man beating a woman in a parking lot. I'm just a mile down the road so I cut a sharp turn and head up that way. I'm the first to arrive and I see nothing going on. I see a couple of people in the parking lot but nobody is trying to get my attention. I pull up to a man getting into his vehicle and ask him if he calls. He answers no with an attitude. Something inside me tells me he's not being totally forthcoming. However I have no suspect description and I'm hesitant to hold him with such limited information. Another unit arrives and goes inside the business. As we're waiting the man leaves. The officer comes out and says the man who just drove off is the guy we're looking for! After saying "oh sh**!" I jump in my car and go down the freeway after him. I'm a little embarrassed at this point. I had the man but because I didn't have enough information to be sure I let him go. I see two vehicles ahead of me that split up. I choose one and catch up to him and I'm thinking "please God let this be him so I can redeem myself!" I can hear the other officer get on the radio and tell the world I talked to the suspect before letting him drive off. Great! I pick one of the vehicles and thank God it's the right one. I stop him and he gets out and I put him in cuffs and throw him in my car and chew his ass out for misleading me like that. Granted he didn't call us, but he damn well knew we were there for him. Come to find out it was just an argument and the people in the business over reacted. At least I found him and didn't lose him. That would have been embarrassing.

I was going to another substation for a briefing when the call went out. Supposedly on a major freeway there was a man sitting on a barrier with a weapon! Normally I look for excuses not to have to go to the stations and this was pretty good one. Then I realize I'm about a mile from where he's supposed to be. Now, if he has a gun and is sitting on the barrier and I roll up on him I'm a sitting duck in that car. In my mind I formulate a plan. If I do find him, and he does have a gun and he does point it at me. Since I can't get to my own gun in that car I'm just going to aim the car at him and go Clara Harris on his ass! I reach the intersection he's supposed to be at and nobody is there. I exit, U-turn and go back the other direction checking the other side when someone says they have the guy about 3 miles up the road. So I head that way. Right before I get there they announce "oops it's not him but wait we have him at..." which is 3 miles the other way. So I exit and make another damn U-turn and arrive along with 10 other units. He had no weapon and turned out to be some nutbar walking along the roadway.

One of our districts gets swamped with calls and we run out of units. Thursdays and Fridays are our shorthanded days so I head up there and run calls as well. I get stuck on a half hour call with a pissed off woman who wants to complain because her ex-husband called us to accompany him to pick up his kids. I've talked to him before and he's paranoid. After listening to her rant I flat out tell her she's wrong. Her complaint is with her ex husband not the officers. I also tell her if we're called we're coming and perhaps she should try being friendly and not a bitch! Okay I didn't say that last part like that. I used a little more diplomatic approach.

I arrive back at the station and see an officer look like they are hiding by a port-o-potty. I ask what they are doing. They hesitate. Then tell me more I need to know. Apparently they had to use the restroom and didn't have a flashlight so they pee'd on the closed lid and on their pant leg. That's the first time I've had someone tell me that one!

I guess my annoying weekend carried on into the work week. I get to the substation and load up and get ready to head out. I see a lone officer from another agency on a fender bender right in the median in front of the station. He is in a semi bad spot. At least people are slowing down in this spot. However what galls me is that the other officers are too busy loading their gear into their cars and who knows what to notice. This is a little embarrassing if this officer in the road needs help and the substation he's next to just goes about their business. I pull up next to him and offer to help but they are just going to exchange information. Situation easily resolved and our agency doesn't like an ass just passing by another officer.


There was no water in the main station today. A water main busted leaving the water pressure way low. I don't have to stay there but the poor dispatchers do!


Driving down the streets still irked about the weekend. I hate it when people can't follow through on what they say....hey that truck in front of me has an expired tag! I walk up and see he has the registration sticker for another car. He even admits it! He claims the inspection is legit and he is a state inspector! So he knows if I find out the inspection is fake I can arrest him but the MVI office is closed after hours. So he gets all the tickets I can write him.

Still raining and still cold as Siberia! This is the kind of weather where you do not want to get out of the car for any reason whatsoever. Alas that wasn't going to happen when I drove up into a busy intersection to find a dead car and two women standing outside of it in the freezing rain. I hit my lights and creep into the intersection so I can block off the car and the ladies. I put on my hat along with the cold weather (not rain) jacket and stand outside waiting on a wrecker to move the car and get the women out of the roadway. Finally one shows up. I think it took me 20 minutes to warm up and dry off inside the car.


A young man decided he was going to see if he had the "courage" to kill himself. He didn't. He pulled a knife and walked towards an officer who had his gun out. The young man changed his mind and briefly shut himself in his bedroom then he surrendered. I heard he later tried to hang himself in the jail using his belt.


Found out an officer I know is back in the hospital for chest pains. Poor guy! I'd be majorly upset to still be having to put up with it. I hope he will be okay.

I was running too close for comfort today. I lagged getting ready and headed out the door at the last minute. I had to make a stop at the cleaners and get my clean uniforms including the long sleeve shirt for the cold weather. I arrive at the station at the last minute and start putting my gear into the patrol car. At one point I walk out from my car and take a sharp left to the patrol car. Good thing I did because one of our dispatchers must have been running late because she comes flying through the parking lot right past me. When she passes me she has to slam on her brakes because an officer is coming slowly around the corner and they almost met!


I hear dispatch broadcast a stolen Mustang taken by an officer in the next county's own daughter who ran away to see her convict boyfriend. That sucks. That's like a slap in the face the girl would choose a criminal over her own father. However her cop/father kind of makes himself annoying when he calls us demanding we issue an Amber alert. He isn't happy with the explination that his daughter running away and stealing the car doesn't qualify for an Amber alert. Surely he would have read up on it before he would call to make a demand.


I'm driving down the street about an hour before dinner time when I get stuck in a traffic jam. I figured it was typical rush hour traffic until I see the wrecker lights up ahead. I then see a disabled vehicle in the intersection. I see the two occupants and ask if they are okay and the man (driver) is looking at me rather strangely. I ask where the other car is and they look at me funny. I then ask in Spanish (she said they don't speak English) and they still look at me funny. I get the car moved and we quiz the couple some more. The man was driving but the woman seems to want to do all the talking. Another clue something is up. I silence her and ask the man (via interpreter) what happened and he said he hit another vehicle that went into the parking lot (about half a mile away). I ask him why is he over here and not in that parking lot with the other vehicle. He said he figured they were meeting later. Oh hell no! This fool tried to flee the scene and his car broke down in the intersection. Though why he didn't run on foot is beyond me. We give sobriety tests and on HGN he's got all the signs. We try the walk & turn which he cannot do and then he starts getting aggravated and tensing up. I thought he was getting ready to fight so I come up behind him and grab him and cuff him before he makes up his mind. He goes to intox and I'll have to find out later how that went.


It's time to go to dinner so I clear that and head on down the road. I hear a siren coming up behind me and watch as a transit officer rushes past me. I flip to their channel to see what's going on. I don't need to activate my equipment I just go with the flow and reach the scene after him. Come to find out some drunk had to go pee and whipped it out and urinated all over the bus and even some passengers! I'm surprised he was still walking. If some fool urinated on me on a bus I'd stomp his ass right then and there! I follow the officer as he turns onto a side street and stops by a guy coming from a dead end. The guy says he has no idea where he is but that his partner dropped him off to meet some woman that he has no name nor address for. I ask him if he was on the bus and he says "I didn't do nothing to nobody!" That's not what I ask. I suspect this is him. I tell him he's going to be brought back to the bus and identified and he still acts dumb! Well maybe he wasn't acting! We bring him back and come to find out, it's him!


I finally get my dinner and try to lay low the rest of the night. I make two traffic stops on people who were both weaving. I suspected they would be intoxicated but one was just learning to drive and the other was just, well I guess old. No offense.