Halloween Summary

Well the night is over and I survived it (barely). Here are some totals:

Number of people who told me I had a nice costume: 15
Number of people who asked if I was a real cop: 4
Number of people in prisoner or police costumes that wanted a picture: 8

Interesting arrests:

White guy dressed as Poncho Villa (We finally caught the bastard!)
Dallas Cowboys cheerleader (professional quality replica!)
Rorschach
2 Clowns (one of which was crying)
Aladdin
A Spartan warrior

Number of arrests made within the 8 block radius of our bar district: 32

Add the fact that daylight savings time caused the night to last an extra hour and you can imagine how exhausted I am.

Give me strength

Well it is that time of year again when the idiots come out in herds. It's the time when drunks dress up as convicts and want pictures of you handcuffing them. It's when people come out dressed like the cast of Reno 911 and want to hug on you. It is the night when at least 60 people think it is original and hilarious to tell you that you have a nice costume. Others think it is equally genius to ask if you are a real cop or not.

It's Halloween again.

Give me strength...

When in Rome, Do As the Romans Do?

I was having an interesting debate with a couple of other officers last night. Apparently my department has an officer under investigation for going to a foreign country and hiring a prostitute. Now prostitution is legal in this other country but my department is still trying to hammer him for ethical issues.

I think that you should not be punished for going to another country and doing something that is legal there even if it is a crime here. After all, a society determines what should be forbidden or not. If my country/state/city feels that it should be illegal to sell beer on a Sunday but another county feels it is okay, well that is up to them and I am fine with it. The same goes for things such as prostitution, gambling, ect, ect...

Another officer disagreed and tried to argue that we signed up to enforce the laws of our jurisdiction and therefore are held to a higher standard. He said that if is wrong in his city then it is wrong for him anywhere. I had a hard time with this and asked what if our jurisdiction decided to legalize prostitution? Would it then be okay to go to a brothel? He grudgingly said he guessed it would be okay then.

I pressed him and asked if he ever goes to Vegas and gambles. He said he did and I pointed out that casinos are illegal in our area so I guess he should be punished for breaking the rules of where he works. I then pointed out that prostitution is legal in parts of Nevada. Since those areas have cops, is it okay for them to go out of country and solicit prostitutes since it is legal in the jurisdiction they work? According to his criteria, that would be okay right? If it is okay for a NV deputy, why not a cop from another city?

What do you folks think? It was an interesting debate and I am curious about that other people think.

Take Off the Special Hat

Last weekend I was parking on the street in our downtown area. This particular intersection has certain parking spots that become police parking at night. This is because we try to keep a visible presence near the bars and the designated spots keep us from having to park in a lane of traffic.

These spots have signs and arrows that mark the areas as a tow-away zone after 9 PM. If anyone simply takes the time to read the big red and white sign with a tow truck symbol, they will understand that it is a bad place to park. Of course people never read the signs. Or they do read the signs but decide to go ahead a cop if they can park them anyway.

I can never understand this. If it says no parking, why would you go up to a cop and ask if it was okay to park there? Of course it isn't okay.

Well that night I was backing up into an open spot in this tow-away zone when a woman came up to my window. She started waving at me as I was backing up. I held up my hand to indicate that she needed to wait a minute. Once I parked safely I got out and asked if I could help her.

She pointed at the parking spot in front of me and asked if she could park there. While she asked me this she was standing directly under the big "Police Parking Only - Tow Away Zone" sign. I told her that it was currently reserved for police parking and she could not park there. I didn't say it rudely or with sarcasm. I simply stated the information.

She then asked if she would get a ticket if she parked there. *sigh* I replied that she would get a ticket and her car would be towed.

She looked irritated and started to walk to her car. She abruptly turned around and demanded my name. I asked what the problem was and she said she thought I should treat people a little better. I had no idea what the hell she was talking about. Believe me, I can be rude to people and I was in no way rude to her.

As I looked at her, I noticed her designer shoes and Louie Vuitton purse. I looked over at her car and saw it was high end Mercedes. That is when I understood. This chick had some cash and resented being told that she couldn't do something.

She told me that she intended to call the mayor and let him know how rude the police were in this town. I laughed and told her that I was sorry I didn't answer her question correctly. I told that the next time I got a stupid question, I will just politely tell the person to read the big obvious sign that is above their important head.

Her face got red and she jumped in her car and sped off. I suppose I will hear about this one but screw em. I hate people who think they need to have their asses kissed.

Come For the Protests! Stay For the Tear Gas!

The Pittsburgh PD has been dealing with the usual unwashed protesters at the G20. I came across some videos on the net and was impressed. It's obvious that people are doing their best to post some negative footage of the way police handled it. Too bad all they can find is a well-equipped, professional crowd control team taking care of business in a very organized manner.

I have been involved with several mass protests and I am very impressed with the way the police responded in Pittsburgh. There are multiple videos out there but this one shows a compilation of footage. My favorite spot occurs at 00:20 on the video. Let's just say that a riot is a bad time to try to hug a cop.

I've got no sympathy for the folks that got caught up in this. You can clearly hear the announcements to disperse. If people wanted to hang around and watch after hearing that, then they take their chances.

Have a Plan

This is something that my training officers stressed constantly. I was taught that you should always be getting mentally ready for that moment of danger. While I am approaching a car on a traffic stop I'm judging which direction I am going to throw myself if a gun comes out the window. While I' biking around, I'm planning on where take evasive action towards if a car comes into my lane.

It really becomes second nature after awhile and it works. I've had people try to bolt away while in mid-sentence with me but I was able to snatch them as soon as they started to move. It's not because I have super-human speed. I was just watching them and pre-planning how I would react if they tried to run.

Last night I was dealing with a guy whose car was getting towed. He was very irate and carrying a strange type of shoulder bag that had his hand next to the opening. As he got more and more angry I was scanning objects to use as cover in case he had a weapon or charged me. The incident ended with him calming down and apologizing. As he left I wondered if he had any idea that I had a pretty solid plan on how to kill him if it came to that.

While this may sound horrible and paranoid to the public, very bad things can happen to officers who are caught with their pants down.

For example:



Always have a plan.

Another Blast From the Past

I first posted this back in 2006 when I worked in a unit that handled street level dealing.
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The other night we were rolling around trying to buy some dope. It was an uncover operation but it wasn't anything out of Miami Vice. No meeting the Columbians in some airport hanger with a suitcase full of flash money. Nope. No big takedown with SUVs full of cops. That's a mythical undercover op.

This undercover op consisted of two white boys (cops) in a beat up car driving around street corners and trying to get a rock or two of crack for $20. We were just killing a slow night by trying to catch a few people on the bottom rungs of the drug trade. Aka, bottom feeders and corner boys. Once the deal was done, we'd call it out over the radio. Nearby takedown units would grab the dealer as we skipped out of the area and drove down to the next corner.

We pulled into one hotel parking lot and a guy ran up to the car to see what we wanted.

Me: "Hey can you get me a rock?"

Dealer 1: "You a cop?"

They always seem to ask this. Somewhere out there, crooks teach each other that the police have to tell the truth when asked this question. I don't know why they think this but it is one of the pleasures of policework to see their hurt expressions when they realize we lied.

Me: "Gimme a break. No way."

Dealer 1: "You look like a cop. I think you're the law."

He looks at me hard as he says this. He then motions over to another guy standing in a dark corner. This guy trots over.

Dealer 1 to Dealer 2: "This motherfucker wants a rock."

Dealer 2 looks at me and starts to smirk.

Dealer 2 to me: "Let me see your wallet." He leaned deep into the window at this point.

Me: "What are you talking about? I have the cash right here."

I was holding the money in one hand as my other hand started slowly inching towards my gun that was stuck in the seat cushion.

Let me say that there is something about this type of operation that always makes me a bit nervous. When you are in uniform, you have on your bat-belt, weapons, badge, and vest. You are The Man and you are in charge. During undercover buys, all you have is your badge in your sock and a small gun under the seat or in the small of your back. Dealers may see you as a customer or they may decide to just rob your ass. When things start to go bad, you just have to hope that your back-up in on the ball.

Things felt like they were about to go bad.

Dealer 2: "Let me see your wallet first."

Me: "Why do you want to see my wallet?"

Dealer 2: "Cause I know that's where cops keep their badge Officer."

Enough of this shit. Undercover or not, I wasn't gonna sit there and be disrespected by some piece of street trash while my co-workers listened in on the wire.

Me: "Man, fuck you. Either sell me the shit or not. If you're scared, let me know and I'll fucking go somewhere else and score. I said I'm not a cop and I'm not gonna tell you again."

The guy looked at me with a slightly surprised expression on his face. I don't think he expected me to go off on him like that. He nodded his head and said, "It's cool. It's cool. I'll sell to you."

Dealer 2 gave the dope to Dealer 1. Dealer 1 gave me it to me as I gave him the twenty. Dealer 1 then gave the twenty to Dealer 2. This is another misunderstanding in the criminal world. For whatever reason, Dealer 2 thinks that if he didn't actually give or take anything from me directly, he can't be charged. Wrong. If that dope passed through five hands to get to me, five people can be charged.

Deal done, I rolled off and called in the takedowns to collect the suspects.

Back at the office, one of the takedown guys said that Dealer 1 and Dealer 2 kept repeating, "I knew he was a cop," over and over again while enroute to the jail.

Then why did you sell me crack cocaine, dumbass?

Another night in the big city