Not a typical Friday night
No, it was not a scene out of "Cops" or "Reno 911" But I think I had just as much fun. On Friday night, I got to ride-a-long with the men of The Bryan Police Department's Directed Deployment Team. The four man team basically takes special assignments and allow patrol officers to do their day-to-day-work.
Here is my article:
http://www.theeagle.com/stories/081405/local_20050814055.php
I am pretty proud of it. :-)
Friday's assignment consisted of strict enforcement. That means that the team didn't take calls, rather they patrolled the parts of Bryan where violent crime has been reported most during the last year and stop cars for something as minor as not wearing a seat belt. The idea behind it is to stop a bigger crime from happening by nabbing someone for a smaller crime.
The shift started at about 4 p.m. and was pretty slow to begin with. That is pretty normal though, the sgt. told me as we drove around looking for any reason to stop a vehicle.
About 2 hours into the shift, he gets a call from his partners who need help with a man they had stopped who had crack cocaine in his car. We arrived at the scene and I let the police do their thing as I took notes. A few minutes later, one of the officers came and showed me how they tested the drug to make sure it was crack. I felt special that they were not leaving me in the dark. They even got to seize the dude's car.
About 45 minutes later, we were off to see what else we could catch.
The night was going really slow and the Sgt. was trying really hard to find something for me to write about. (the crack guy was cool, but we really didn't catch him)
A little after 10 p.m. he found what he was looking for. Blaring a stereo, a Ford Taurus sped by us as we got behind him and pulled him over for the loud music violation. (that was one of the main violations the whole night, the crack guy was originally stopped for that too.)
Upon going up to the driver's side window and asking him for his license and insurance, the Sgt. knew that the guy was acting nervous for some reason. The Sgt also told him the reason he was pulled over and the guy replied with "oh yeah I saw something about that in the paper." HAHA Go us! But then of course the question is, well why did you blare the radio if you knew you had warrants AND drugs? Uh DUH!
The Sgt. came back to the patrol car and told me he was positive the driver had warrants. A call to dispatch confirmed them and he was placed under arrest for the not one, but five warrants. As he was being taken to the patrol car, he told the Sgt. that he has placed some weed in his wife's purse.
After searching the purse, officers found a plastic bag with about 4 ounces of marijuana.
His wife was also arrested for the marijuana as well as two warrants she had.
Police also found a crack pipe and a digital scale. While getting booked in the jail, a small amount of crack was found in the girls purse also. But here is what pisses me off: She was pregnant!!! And she was doing drugs...I mean come on...that poor kid...
I was very excited that we had finally gotten something so exciting. I had hung back in the car for a while not knowing what kind of situation it was. But after a while I got out and was observing all that was going on. I felt special and it was even better that the police were happy I was there and told me everything they were doing.
The rest of the night was pretty quiet and they even called it an early night because they had four hours of paperwork ahead of them. Just another night in the life of.
I had a really good time, and it was much better then sitting in the newsroom by the scanner waiting for something to happen.
I can't wait to do it again sometime.
Here is my article:
http://www.theeagle.com/stories/081405/local_20050814055.php
I am pretty proud of it. :-)
Friday's assignment consisted of strict enforcement. That means that the team didn't take calls, rather they patrolled the parts of Bryan where violent crime has been reported most during the last year and stop cars for something as minor as not wearing a seat belt. The idea behind it is to stop a bigger crime from happening by nabbing someone for a smaller crime.
The shift started at about 4 p.m. and was pretty slow to begin with. That is pretty normal though, the sgt. told me as we drove around looking for any reason to stop a vehicle.
About 2 hours into the shift, he gets a call from his partners who need help with a man they had stopped who had crack cocaine in his car. We arrived at the scene and I let the police do their thing as I took notes. A few minutes later, one of the officers came and showed me how they tested the drug to make sure it was crack. I felt special that they were not leaving me in the dark. They even got to seize the dude's car.
About 45 minutes later, we were off to see what else we could catch.
The night was going really slow and the Sgt. was trying really hard to find something for me to write about. (the crack guy was cool, but we really didn't catch him)
A little after 10 p.m. he found what he was looking for. Blaring a stereo, a Ford Taurus sped by us as we got behind him and pulled him over for the loud music violation. (that was one of the main violations the whole night, the crack guy was originally stopped for that too.)
Upon going up to the driver's side window and asking him for his license and insurance, the Sgt. knew that the guy was acting nervous for some reason. The Sgt also told him the reason he was pulled over and the guy replied with "oh yeah I saw something about that in the paper." HAHA Go us! But then of course the question is, well why did you blare the radio if you knew you had warrants AND drugs? Uh DUH!
The Sgt. came back to the patrol car and told me he was positive the driver had warrants. A call to dispatch confirmed them and he was placed under arrest for the not one, but five warrants. As he was being taken to the patrol car, he told the Sgt. that he has placed some weed in his wife's purse.
After searching the purse, officers found a plastic bag with about 4 ounces of marijuana.
His wife was also arrested for the marijuana as well as two warrants she had.
Police also found a crack pipe and a digital scale. While getting booked in the jail, a small amount of crack was found in the girls purse also. But here is what pisses me off: She was pregnant!!! And she was doing drugs...I mean come on...that poor kid...
I was very excited that we had finally gotten something so exciting. I had hung back in the car for a while not knowing what kind of situation it was. But after a while I got out and was observing all that was going on. I felt special and it was even better that the police were happy I was there and told me everything they were doing.
The rest of the night was pretty quiet and they even called it an early night because they had four hours of paperwork ahead of them. Just another night in the life of.
I had a really good time, and it was much better then sitting in the newsroom by the scanner waiting for something to happen.
I can't wait to do it again sometime.