Police work can be quite different each day that you come in for assignments. It can be very routine and you pretty much repeat what you do every day. You hate to call anything routine because it can get quite different quick. On some days you hardly get any assignments, what we call service calls, like family troubles, missing kids, loud parties, etc. On those days you can do things on your own like traffic stops for vehicles, FI stops, which stop people walking and seeing what they are doing in the area. Before going out on patrol you go over crime trends that are occurring in your squad area. So, let us say you are having burglaries or car thefts in your general area. You would then check for suspects who might be committing these offenses. So, as you can see, officers are checking for a variety of things going on and around their squad areas. On occasion you might see a dog running loose and you might try to pick him up and bring him into the station.
Things can get profoundly serious and dangerous in a minute’s notice. One of those calls is domestic violence calls. When I was a new, young officer, we were dispatched to a DV, domestic violence, call. The male had battered his girlfriend, and this was a mandatory arrest, we handcuffed him, and the woman was begging us not to arrest him. As we were leaving she jumped on my partner’s back trying to get us to let him go. I got her off and he was taken out. Officers told us before mandatory arrest they would go back to some homes several times a night, usually telling the guy to take a walk.
On today’s date, Tuesday, January 2, 2024, officers were dispatched this morning, to a family trouble on the northside. The officers were talking with the subject from outside and he started shooting at them and they returned fire at him. The officers surrounded the house and in the rear the subject started shooting at them again. One officer was shot in the leg and was taken to the hospital. The lady got out of the home, but she had four kids inside with her boyfriend. A tactical situation was then set up with numerous officers responding plus the sheriff also. Command posts and armored vehicles responded to the scene. Eventually he let two small children out who the officers securely led them to safety. The subject himself came out after three hours or so. Officers then cleared the home and found two more small children inside.
Later Chief Norman gave a news conference and stated this was the best outcome with the suspect in custody and the children out safety. DV related incidents can go very wrong, very quickly, but this ended the way police wanted. Reporters asked the chief the status of the officer. Chief Norman stated I am on my way to the hospital right now to check on him. He is 38 years-old with 16 years of service.
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