Failure

I had an encounter go South on me today. Tried to get a burglary suspect cuffed up and it went downhill from there. The unit I was backing up on another stop was about 200 feet away and didn't get involved until I had lost control and the suspect was already fleeing down the street. This is the same officer from January 29, 2010. Go ahead and take a look at that post, I'll wait.

The officer in dispatch said it sounded like one of us got murdered from the fight being transmitted intermittently. He called the next city(who was looking for the suspect) and they sent almost every unit they had to help. Too little, too late. It was just more cops to witness my failure and embarrassment for not getting the guy. At least I got them his name and description. They're familiar with him and will pick him up eventually.

Still, I've never had one get away like that before. How depressing.

Interesting calls make the time go by

Last night's shift was a little busier than normal.

We were notified of a wanted person in our area, given a good description and location, and the information was very fresh. Myself and my partner went out to investigate. Fortunately, we had both dealt with this guy before and the information we got was dead on. That's unusual in my experience. Anyway, he sees us and tries to duck away before bolting. My partner is small and quick while I on the other hand am most certainly the goon. We both take off across a muddy field after the guy and just before he's about to be leveled by my partner, I yell out in a booming voice "Stop!" Would you believe he stopped? That's really unusual. We got him cuffed up and hauled him in without any problems.

Later we dealt with a guy who had somehow managed to get himself so intoxicated, he had no motor function. He'd also somehow managed to soak himself in his own urine from head to toe. It was wretched. The guy was two years younger than my Dad, but looked fifteen years older. I've been pretty drunk at times in my day, but I can't fathom how a person could get this way. We called an ambulance and pawned him off on them to take him to the hospital. Is it wrong I felt worse for the paramedics than I did the drunk himself?

Finally the last case of the night was with a drug addict. I really don't have any sympathy for these people, since they do it to themselves. It's hard not to judge and label when you're crying in pain from a "knee injury" but you've got more track marks in your leg than Grand Central Station and you're refusing all medical treatment unless it's in pain pill form. Please. I may have been born not long ago, but it wasn't yesterday.