It’s been quite a bit since I posted. Whether it’s the emotional drain, the bottling it up, or simple laziness, I don’t know. But, today marks one year since I’ve been a police officer.
At this time, the political climate sucks. I feel as if everyone hates us. But, I have also had more of an outpouring of support from random citizens than I have ever had before. That is my reassurance.
Regardless, I don’t do it for the approval, the fame, or the fortune (there is none).
But, I can very confidently say that I have built so many amazing relationships with my coworkers. You simply cannot understand the camaraderie built among police officers until you have experienced it yourself. If you heard squad mates speak to each other without knowing the context, you’d think they hated one another; shit talking is our language of love.
To put forth this idea, today, marking my one year anniversary as an officer, I had my first fleeing vehicle. It first appeared to be a normal, routine thing. I observed a vehicle pull into a closed park. In my mind, I was going to pull up behind it, as I’ve done a hundred times, run their license, inform them the park was closed, and tell them to go elsewhere. Not this time.
I pulled behind said vehicle and activated my take down’s, a bright, LED light, meant to illuminate the vehicle in front of you. I did this as I’ve done a million times. I grabbed my radio microphone and began to call out a “suspicious vehicle”; just common terminology. Said vehicle then began to slowly creep forward, and I became confused. What were they doing? They continued creeping towards the entrance. At that point, I decided to engage the famous red and blue lights to signal to them that I wanted them to stop; maybe they didn’t understand.
The vehicle continued on, and made it’s way through the exit of the park and onto the main road.
I activated my sirens at that point, to further affirm my want to stop them.
The vehicle then veered into oncoming traffic, and ducked onto a side road.
I grabbed my radio once again, and called out to dispatch “10D53, copy a fleeing vehicle”. They told me to go ahead “It’s headed northbound.. no it’s headed leftbound onto… uhh.” I couldn’t remember the side street. I clammed up. In my slight panic, I skipped the direction of travel and gave the vehicle description, along with part of the tag (I hadn’t been able to get the full license plate). I then turned off my lights, slowed down, and told dispatch I was no longer pursuing, as per department policy. (We do not pursue a vehicle unless it is a forcible felony).
During that split second. I became leftbound. And I feel I won’t ever be forgotten as such.
You’re taught from day one that you call cardinal directions, you know? North, South, East, West?
In my moment of thinking “This car is fleeing. OH SHIT WAIT HE’S FLEEING.” I forgot said golden rule. And now in the beautiful brotherhood, I was shit talked by my best buds about calling a car leftbound. And it will follow me forever.
In the end, we lost the car, then found it unoccupied. It was stolen out of a very distant state, with a stolen tag. Luckily, said car will be returned to the owner, and said tag will be returned to the owner. We may have prevented some car breaks too.
My first fleeing vehicle on my anniversary of being an officer? A coincidence? I think not.
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