Busy Thursday!

So far, I have enjoyed my week's vacation.

Today, I had the opportunity to do a ride-a-long with a Sergeant from the Oklahoma City Police Department. I arrived at the Santa-Fe Briefing station at 7 am this morning and informed the Lt. in charge that I was there to do a ride-a-long. I signed the proper waivers that a person is required to sign in order to do a ride-a-long. Then, I met the officer I was going to be riding with, Sgt. Joey Laughead. His area covered from S. May Ave to Gregory Rd (far west Okla. County) and from SW 89th to I-40. So, much of his area covers the outskirts of Yukon and Mustang.

We headed out to his district and waited for calls to come in. Knowing it was a day shift and knowing that not much goes on in the Yukon/Mustang, I figured it would be a slow day. Not much happened. We drove through a couple of truck stops and checked on several vehicles to see if they were stolen...they weren't. We went to several areas out west where he had found stolen vehicles before, but we found nothing.

Our first few calls were loud alarms at residences. Each time we arrived on the alarm calls, I went with him to investigate. No problems were found on either alarm call. Then, we were dispatched to a "check the welfare" call to check on a mental patient with some other medical issues. When we arrived, we could not get anyone to come to the door. We both walked around the house and looked into the windows to see if we could see anyone inside. Finally, a rather large black male came to the door. He was the one we were checking on. He was ok and his mom was on her way to take him to the hospital. We could not leave him by himself, so we sat in the patrol car in front of his house for 45 minutes until his mom got there.

Once we left that call, we headed up Czech Hall Rd. The Sgt was running his radar the whole time and clocked a lady, going the other direction, doing 73 in a 55. He pulled off the road, did a u-turn and took off after her. She turned the corner and went down a side street. We caught up with her and he turned on his overheads...she pulled over. He wrote her a citation and we left.

Call after call came in on his computer, but none were in his district, so we continued to drive around and patrol the area. We were running radar as well, but we only made one traffic stop the whole day. At one point, we were going down a country road, following a Suburban, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a trash can blows into the street, right in front of the Suburban. He hits it and knocks it over. He stopped and we checked on him. Neither the trash can or the Suburban received any damage.

At around 1 pm, we stopped at a Mexican restaurant at around SW 38th and S Council. We met with another officer and had a very quick lunch. Afterwards, we went back on patrol. Since all the calls were closer in to the city and we had no calls holding in our district, the dispatcher dispatched us to what would be our last call of the day....a signal 7 (which is a deceased person). It was way out of our district, but they sent us on it anyway. The deceased was a lady in her lower 40's that lived in an apartment by herself. She had some serious medical problems, so it was believed she may have had a seizure which caused her to pass away.

When we arrived on the scene, EMSA was still there. They had responded to a "check the welfare" call and when they arrived, they determined the individual was deceased. Since the person was young and the cause of death was unknown, the police are always called. Once we entered the apartment, we saw the three EMSA paramedics and then saw the deceased on the couch. The Sgt checked the apartment to make sure there were no signs of foul play, or anything suspicious and then started gathering information.

He then proceeded to interview witnesses that lived at the complex. One thing I can say is paperwork is a BIG part of the officer's duty. I have never seen so much paperwork involved in making a report. Then, to arrived on the scene where a person has died, it seems the paperwork tripled. We spent almost three hours on this call, doing paperwork and then having to sit and wait for the Medical Examiner's Office to show up and remove the body. Once the ME showed up and took the body away, it was finally time for us to clear off.

While in the apartment, we found many prescription drugs that had to be taken into custody as evidence. Since the ME's office would not take it with them, we had to take it and check it into the police property room downtown. So, we gathered up all the medication and drove downtown to the property room. It was a pretty interesting place. There were other officers there as well, checking in some evidence they had collected on a crime scene.

Once the Sgt checked in the evidence, we headed back to the Santa-Fe Briefing station (in rush-hour traffic). On the way, we made two different stops to assist motorists with broken down vehicles.

All in all, I had a very good day and, although there was not much excitement, I enjoyed my ride-a-long.

This evening was our monthly CFAAA meeting, which was held at fire station #12, located just south of NE 23rd and MLK. I was not very well prepared, but we still had a great meeting and a great time with the firefighters.