Liars

Over the weekend an officer was dispatched to a call where someone had thrown a tape measure at the complainant and hit him in the head. There was a related call at a different location where the people called in on the guy that got hit in the head saying he had been at their house causing a disturbance.

The other officer went to talk to the guy that had been hit in the head and I went to talk to the people from the other call. I spoke with a lady who told me that she has had ongoing problems with a guy who had driven by the house earlier in his truck. She heard him outside yelling so she went to confront him. When she did this the man wanted to know where her husband was and called him some not so nice things.

The husband came out and the confrontation continued. At some point the guy in the truck backed up towards the husband and then began to drive off. The husband threw a tape measure at the truck and it went through the half way open drivers window but did not hit anyone. I explained to these people that there really had not been an offense committed.

The other officer could not find the complainant on his call so he came to my location. After hearing the story he also told them that there was not an offense committed. The people were not happy. From talking to them we got the impression that there was more to the story than they were telling us.

Even though we could not determine that an offense had been committed at this time we went to a possible location on the guy in the truck. This information had been given us by the lady. It turns out this was her mothers house and the guy in the truck was also related to her. We were told that there is an ongoing problem between the woman, her husband and other family members because the family members do not approve of her husband.

After talking to these people for a little bit we got another call from the guy that had been hit in the head. This time he gave a good address. The other officer and I went to his house and spoke with him. He had been hit on the left side of his head near the back of the ear. There was blood all over his head and it looked like he was a candidate for stitches. He didn't want any medical attention though.

This guy tells us that he was at a house near his working on a vehicle when the husband from the first house we went to drove by and threw a tape measure at him for no reason. The tape measure hit him and cut his head. This guy had his brother there who told the same story.

We started to wonder about this guys honesty. So I had dispatch check to see when the two calls had come in and where they came from. The calls came in at the same time, but one was from the house I had gone to first, the other was from a cell phone and did not have an address on it. So now we knew that more than likely the guy with the cut head was lying. He stuck to his story though.

I went back to my original call location and spoke with the lady and her husband again. They were adamant that the tape measure had not hit anyone. I then spoke to a neighbor I had seen outside earlier. He told me that he had seen a truck like the one the guy with the cut head drove at the house earlier. He went on to say it appeared that they were there visiting with the people that live at the house. He went inside and a short time later heard a commotion. When he looked out the window he saw the people in the truck in a confrontation with the people that lived next door. He saw his neighbor hit the truck with a metal rod and the truck speed away.

We confronted the guy with the cut head with this information. His story changed and he said he had gone over to the house to tell his sister that he didn't want anymore problems with her and her husband but that a fight had happened.

The other officer ended up doing an assault report with the guy with the cut head as a victim and a report for making a false report with him as the suspect.

You're Grounded

The other day I was patrolling when I turned down a residential street and saw another patrol car in front of me. I followed it as it pulled over and stopped. I saw some guys standing on the other side of the street and figured the officer was going to talk to them for some reason.

The officer got out of his car and started to talk to a rather big kid that turned out to be 14. He told the kid to stop and come to him and the kid kept walking. After telling the kid a couple of times to stop the kid did and walked towards us. The kid had a large stick on a rope on his back. It turns out someone had told the other officer that this kid was chasing around another kid threatening him with a stick. The officer talked to the kid for a couple of minutes and took his stick. The officer then told the kid he was grounded and to get back in his yard because he was not allowed to be on his streets the rest of the day. I had to turn around because I was laughing so hard. I didn't want the kid to see me. We didn't have a problem from him the rest of the day. Sometimes you have to be creative.

Rural cops can't keep up with crime

I am not sure how long this link will be good but it's an interesting article. It talks about strains on rural law enforcement. I have experienced it first hand, although not to the extent the Deputy in the story has. I assure you it is not fun going to a violent call with the actor still in the area knowing your help is not close, or getting into a fight where your radio won't work, not that it matters if you can call for help since it is so far away.