On Squad Patrol Again

I sometimes like to take you on squad patrol with me and let you see what officers go through on a particular night. This helps you realize how we perform our job and put yourself in an officer’s position. If you have read some of my previous patrol descriptions some of this will be familiar to you. I reported to roll call and checked in with the sergeant in charge this night. Then it was time to go over crime updates and other facts about my squad area. Some sheets had to be signed stating that you have read and understood them. Then the sergeant played the roll call tape again with updates on issues department wide. Once the tape was over the sergeant read off updates from the previous shift about critical issues and wanted people we were looking for. We then stood in for inspection and checked our firearms before falling out.

The last thing before going on patrol is giving your squad a once over checking that it was in good working order. This includes checking the emergency lights, siren, shotguns, etc. Usually if you have a partner, we take turns driving the squad where one of us starts out then change up at the halfway mark. On this night we were assigned to patrol the eastside areas of the city including the lake front area. Part of our lake front patrol duties is to check for what officer’s call car jobs. This is done because in the past we have had women being sexually assaulted along the lake area. We normally drive up to the cars and shine the lights inside to make sure everyone is okay inside. Usually, we get both the man and women outside the car, separate them, and ask them is everything okay. Some of the people are upset but we advise them this is a safety issue for us.

We then patrol the night life areas and walk through some of the taverns again to try and keep everyone safe for the night. There can be rowdy folks in some of these bars, but many will act better when they see the police in the area. We also check other open businesses in the area and stop in to get coffee on theses late nights. Once the taverns close, we try to monitor the outgoing traffic to make sure everyone is driving safely. We do get a few car accidents we need to take care of on some nights. Plus, we look for people that have had too much to drink because that can be extremely dangerous. Once the streets are clear it is time to patrol some neighborhood areas and then eventually go back into the station for the night. If there are important reports to file, we will go back into the station to finish. We normally go back into the station about ten minutes before our shift is finished.