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Old 11-29-2018, 01:09 PM   #9
Mach351
Psycho Dog is Psycho
 
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Lewisville, TX
Posts: 1,989
Re: Police Ride Along?

Quote:
Originally Posted by carfixer View Post
Anyway, please post your adventures as you get to go on ride alongs.
Did my first ride-out with Patrol (not Traffic) yesterday and it was totally cool. Although, I'm a desk jockey that has been an "empty nester" the last 16 months so my view of what is totally cool is likely skewed.
Also made it the whole 12+ hours, which went really fast with all of the running around.

Not naming specific stores, but we worked primary responder on one retail store theft and back-up on two other retail store thefts.
It was an eye-opener to find out about the massive surveillance in these retail stores. All I'm going to say is they have the ability to have a good look down your wife's blouse anywhere in the store.
In all three instances, store security had reported suspicious activity to dispatch before the thieves had even left the store and Patrol was pretty much waiting for them to get in their cars and drive off.
First one was only Class C misdemeanor (under $100) ticket; the next one lead to two people getting arrested because 1) they already had warrants in another city, 2) theft was over $100; and the last one ended up being an arrest for possession of a controlled substance (weed).
An issue for a suburb of a large metroplex having two major highways running through it is that these people come from somewhere else to rob us and try go back home. (None of the perps resided in my city, yet police funding and city crime stats tend to be related to population.)

Another eye-opener was that according to Texas law, the term controlled-substance "includes the aggregate weight of a mixture or a solution of different substances that contains a controlled substance."
This means if you are carrying over 2 ounces of sugar cookies with a little bit of weed in them, you are looking at first degree felony; whereas you could have a big bag of just weed under 2 ounces that is only a misdemeanor with local jail time.

The fun one... An aggravated assault call - the one time the lights and siren came on.
First report from dispatch was that a person in an apartment complex was hit on the head with a firearm.
Two assailants had fled in a car; assailants blockaded in another apartment complex by massive police response; assailants arrested at gunpoint.
The funny thing (to me) was that the "victim" ended up getting arrested for possession of a controlled substance - weed again; think I'm starting to see a pattern in this little glimpse into Patrol's life. Turned out to be a drug-buy-gone-bad when the buyer tried to rob the dealer.

There were a few other "contacts" but nothing much worth mentioning.

One other side note on the cliché of it is a small world...
The patrol officer I did the ride-out with went to the same college at the same time that I did. We had "hit it off" pretty much from the start, so it was a really good experience.
He has a psychology/sociology background and said he became a cop because he had found it was the best place to study people.

_

Last edited by Mach351; 11-29-2018 at 02:29 PM. Reason: reworded a thing for clarity
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