The Civil Service Test

The city gave the civil service test to create a hiring list earlier this week. Several guys I used to work with at the county took the test. Another friend that is a Federal Agent took the test also, he made the top score. Maybe some people I know will get hired.

A Drunk

Last Sunday night I had just left the jail and was headed to the station to eat my dinner and work on my report from the earlier arrest. I saw a guy cross the street in front of me and walk over to a mini-van parked in front of a closed body shop. It was about 9:30 so it was dark and there was no foot traffic out.

There have been burglaries in this area of town so I made the block and found a place to watch him. As I watched he looked at the van and in the windows. Then he moved to the front and leaned over it. It looked like he might have been trying to get the hood to open.

I drove up to him and got out of my car. I spoke to this guy and he did not respond, he just laid there with his head burred in his arms on the hood of the van. I yelled at him a couple of times saying hi and asking him what was up, but he did not respond.

He finally picked his head up and looked at me. When he looked at me he gave me a drunken stare. So I knew he was drunk, but it was something I could not articulate for court....yet. He had snot stringing from his nose onto the arms of his coat. He was Hispanic so I began to communicate with him in Spanish. He just looked at my like I was stupid. I don't speak Spanish very well, but what I was saying I have said many times to people and have been understood.

I thought that I might have to arrest the guy so I backed up to my car and put some gloves on. I really didn't care to get his snot all over me. Once I had some gloves on I talked to the guy some more. He had the classic signs of a drunk, he smelled like an alcoholic beverage, his eyes were bloodshot and watery and he was unsteady on his feet.

A couple of other officers arrived to assist. One of the officers used to work in El Paso and speaks Spanish. He talked to the guy for a few minutes and the guy told him he had never been arrested.

I then took the guy into custody for public intoxication. At the jail he said he had been arrested before. We found his information and saw that he had been arrested for DWI in the past. The paperwork also indicated that they had put a hold on him because he was illegal. That means he probably was deported. Since our southern border is so secure he probably just turned around and came right back.

A Fatality Wreck

Monday as I was about to pull into the station parking lot at the beginning of my shift I heard dispatch send some officers to a major wreck where one of the vehicles was on fire.

Since I was not on duty yet, I was not too concerned. As I walked into the station the Chief went walking past me on his way to the wreck since it sounded serious.

I began to prepare for briefing when I heard the officers that had arrived on scene ask for some more officers to help with traffic control. I got a car and went out to the wreck. While I was in route to the wreck the Chief came on the radio and said he needed a road closed because there were going to be three helicopter ambulances coming.

I arrived on scene and found that two Sheriff's Deputies I used to work with had blocked off the road. Since it was in my city I relieved them. I spent about the next hour blocking the roadway while the helicopters came and went and while the accident investigators did their work.

The media showed up and began filming. One of the accident investigators is a motorcycle officer. He had been on duty when the wreck occurred and had gone to the call. At one point he needed to move one of the expeditions another officer had been driving. He got in it and began to back up. He backed into his motorcycle hitting it with the expeditions door. He said he didn't damage his motorcycle too much, but it sure messed up the expeditions door. Anyway he managed to do this in front of a camera that was recording.

An elderly lady that was driving one of the cars ended up dying at the hospital later.

A Wreck a Liar and an Overdose

Last weekend I was dispatched to a wreck. It was a cold rainy night so I was not too thrilled to be going to this call where I would have to be out in the elements.

I arrived on scene and found a truck and a car blocking the road. A lady walked up to me said hi to me and told me that the other person had caused the wreck because she was driving too fast. I had dealt with this lady on a previous call where she wanted to report her boyfriend was stealing her medication and threatening her. She said she he might hurt her. I asked the lady what car she was in and she pointed to a parking lot. I asked her to get her drivers license and insurance for me.

I found that the truck belonged to witnesses so I got them to pull into the parking lot. The lady from the car in the parking lot gave me her drivers license and insurance. I then spoke with the young woman driving the other car involved and got her into the parking lot.

Once everyone was out of the road I talked to the witnesses. They told me that the woman who had given me her drivers license and insurance had not been driving and that a man had been driving. The also told me that the car did not have any lights on and had turned in front of the other car.

I then spoke to the young woman driving the other car involved. She was not injured but was shaken up. She could not tell me who was driving the other car or if it had had its lights on.

I then confronted the woman who claimed to be the driver of the other car. I asked her if she was the driver and she told me she was. I then told her she was lying to me and she responded that she was.

I completed the accident report and showed the liars to be at fault. I also gave the male that had been driving three citations. Two of which I would normally not issue, but when you lie to the police there are consequences.

The man she was with is the boyfriend I had talked to her about before. She had been scared to death of him then, or so she said.

A couple of days later another officer was dispatched to her apartment. It seems her boyfriend had overdosed on some medication. He will be fine, but I wonder if the citations I gave him had something to do with him overdosing.

Drunk Driving

The other day I was finishing up lunch with another officer when the dispatcher asked if there was an officer near where we were. I answered her and said I was. She then said there was a person following a possible drunk driver and gave a vehicle description.

The other officer and I got up to throw our trash away and go to our cars. As we did so the other officer looked out the window and said he thought he saw the car. I looked out the window and saw the car and agreed.

We got in our cars and started after the possible drunk driver. Dispatch then told us that the car had been involved in a wreck and that it had kept going. By this time several other officers that were in the area were looking for the car also.

They found it in the Wal-Mart parking lot right in front of the front doors. They tried to get the occupants out but they wouldn't get out at first. I arrived on scene in time to see the driver and passenger being "helped" out of the car. I then put the driver in my car. While this was going on the Wal-Mart shoppers stood there watching.

I went and looked at the car and saw that the airbags had deployed. The driver in his intoxicated state just kept on driving after the wreck even after the airbags went off. He went to jail along with his two passengers.

The car he hit was not seriously damaged, but his car was. For once the drunk got the worse end of the wreck.