Bad Boyz (and Girlz)..Whatcha Gonna Do....

Just wrapping up another great weekend. Started off with a short 750 mile airplane ride, first to Morristown and then to my final destination. These pictures are not from this month’s trip but rather last month’s when there was snow on the ground in NJ. As we headed westward, the dull brown landscape 32,000 feet below started showing the remnants of the latest snowfall. It was a total white out with only the roads and occasional lake showing signs of color. Due to daylights savings time we landed while it was still light out, rather than the cold dark nights we’ve grown accustomed to for the past five months.




The weekend sure was a tiring on. From Wednesday to Friday night at around 2am, I slept a total of 6 hours; 5 on Wednesday night, 0 on Thursday night, and 1 on Friday morning before booting up the computer and getting to work. Yep I got to work from home on Friday. I definitely couldn’t do that all the time. Sure it’s nice to dial in to a conference call in you PJ’s, but with all distractions such as the TV, the refrigerator, and you friends calling you, I would never get any work done. Absolutely none.

So why didn’t I sleep a lick on Thursday you may wonder. I was out keeping the city and streets safe. Yeah me. It was a slow and cold night with not too many criminal elements out and about. We stopped a few cars with defective equipment (police talk for headlight burned out, brake lights malfunctioning or anything that could potentially make the vehicle hazardous to other drivers or pedestrians). We didn’t cite them for the most part…it depending on their attitude when we walk up to the car....but gave them a stern warning to get it fixed or else :-) And usually, 9 out of 10 times, there are other things wrong with the person or car that would lead to a ticket or arrest anyways. Could be no proof/valid insurance, the car not registered properly, or the person is wanted or has an warrant for their arrest.

One of our stops on Thursday was due to the license plate lights were not working. I know, some of you might be rolling your eyes, but trust me that is a valid reason to stop a car. And at 3 in the morning, it's a good opportunity to check out the driver and see what they are up to. You just never know what you will discover. This poor fella, couldn’t speak any English. We learned though he was heading home after working his shift at McDonalds. His insurance had expired a few weeks prior…so we cited him for that and not the license plate light. Without insurance, if he was to kill or injure someone, that person or that person’s family would have a hard time collecting the money necessary for their hospital bills or lost wages due to the accident. The could lose their homes and livelihood, so the ticket forces him to get insurance and thus the well-being of the public is ensured. Surprisingly there were no 911 emergency calls. We had one non-emergency call for loud music, some neighbor complained. In these types of situations, we try to make contact with the violator, but in this instance no one answered the door. All the lights were on in the apartment as we could see inside and we could hear the music blasting…all at 2 am. I'm just glad they are not my neighbor! Our city has a sound ordinance and if the police can hear the music more that 15 feet away, the perpetrator can actually be arrested. Yes, CUFFED and put in the back of the police crusier and taken to JAIL. J-A-I-L. There is no passing go and they don't collecting $200, but we sure will from the ticket! Truthfully I don't think it's that much, but they do get a ticket. They might actually get evicted as well because, well now they have a criminal record, and who would rent them a place. For these types of calls, it’s usually loud music in apartment buildings. We like to give at least one warning before throwing the cuffs on, and I’ve seen cases of two warnings. It all about the attitude the give us. Usually the first warning with the threat of a citation and arrest forces people to respect their neighbors right to live in peace and quiet.

The rest of the shift was pretty quiet, except for the last two hours….it was just before 6:00am and we noticed a car with defective equipment….we pulled out of the parking lot of the bank we were sitting at and followed the truck. It was about 5 cars in front of us on a one lane highway and we had trouble getting behing it..it was during the start of the morning rush hour… We were going to let it go as we were approaching the city limits and it took us 4 miles to finally get behind the Jeep and find a safe place to pull it over. We finally get the car stopped. My partner and I were just going to give her a warning and send her on her way….but when the dispatcher took too long responding on the driver's background check we knew something was up……….

Stay tuned until the next post to hear how it went down…… ;-)