APD Zone 2 Fangirl Report – Ride Along

I am six weeks into the Police Academy training and got to do one of the fun parts last night – a ride along with the Zone of my choice on the shift of my choice. I, of course, chose Zone 2 on a Saturday night (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.) so I can truly understand what goes on.  Let’s just say – whoever said “nothing good happens after 2 a.m.” is right on!  And so it begins…

I was a few minutes early to my 10 p.m. report time, so I cruised through Buckhead to see what it looked like and was surprised by how quiet it was. I remarked on this when I arrived at the precinct and received a round of “ooooooh nooo – you’ve jinxed us!” (They were not wrong.)

I was paired with a 34-year-old female cop from Philly who has been in APD for about a year. She has a degree in criminal justice and was on her way to being a lawyer but decided that she didn’t want a desk job. I figured she got the short straw for the evening and even said, “Sorry. I guess you will get all the boring calls tonight since you have me along for the ride.”  (I was wrong.)

We started off by waiting 45 minutes for a car – the previous shift had a homicide so they were all on the scene. Once we got the car, we hit the road. On weekend evenings, officers focus on responding to 911 calls. They don’t go out looking for trouble because it will most certainly find them.  (They are right.)

The night started out slowly – we responded to a call about a disabled vehicle at Cheshire Bridge and Lenox Road. We had a tough time getting there because GA State Patrol had several on ramps to the interstate closed. By the time we got there, the disabled vehicle was nowhere to be found. Then we cruised by the bars on Roswell Road and Cains Hill as things were starting to happen. There was a sea of people everywhere and in every kind of outfit imaginable. (I feel really old now.)

We stopped in at a few key hot spots and checked in with officers working extra jobs. I now understand why APD encourages clubs to hire their officers for security – they are essentially on duty and can function as an expansion of the force when they’re at their second jobs. (Definite benefit.)

Things picked up a bit when we got called to a wreck on I-85. Dispatch said a Suburban was on top of a Volvo on 85 north.  They were close – callers got the situation right, but the location wrong – it was 85 south (big difference when you are trying to get to it!). It was bad. The vehicles were crumpled messes, but fortunately (in a testament to the safety of cars these days) the people were minimally injured. We blocked traffic for the EMS (which was quite scary) and then when it became clear this was DeKalb County – we left the scene and let DeKalb County Police take over.  (Jurisdictional boundaries don’t make sense for this kind of work).

We headed to a pending situation in the apartments behind Phipps. A woman called saying her boyfriend was beating her. We got there to find her covered in dried blood, dried blood droplets on the floor, broken glass and a drawer pulled out and on the floor. It turns out that she had found texts between her beau and her bestie that made her lose her mind, but she didn’t want him to leave. The officer made him leave and told her to get a grip on herself. (She needed that advice!)

Next, we headed out to another accident just around the corner – a head-on collision with two cars totaled with all airbags deployed. Grady took one person to the hospital. If there had been a passenger in one of the cars they would have been dead – whew.  This scene was very frustrating for us. We tried to get camera footage from the VIC, but they couldn’t get playback to work. Fortunately, the officer was able to log into the system so she could see exactly what happened to know who was at fault. We kept traffic blocked and waited for over an hour until the tow truck arrived. This is when I realized how much of an ecosystem policing is. They rely on these other services like ambulance and towing to be effective. (It takes a village.)

Next, stuff starts to get weird! We got a vague call about a drunken guy injured in the street and another about a woman getting attacked. We really didn’t know what we were going into, and I’m still not sure what it was. We arrived to find a guy being restrained on the ground by a bunch of drunk but helpful young guys and two older ladies including the guy on the ground’s mother!

It seems mom and son came to town (and left the 12-year-old younger son in a hotel room downtown) while they went out to party and celebrate her birthday. The son “went off” and started beating her. A good Samaritan got the mom in her car to protect her while the group of guys restrained the son. Grady arrived, got the kid in the ambulance and a few minutes later it was like the Hulk was inside fighting with the EMTs. The APD officer jumped in to help and it took about 15 minutes to get the kid sedated and under control. He was spitting, kicking, covered in blood and clearly tweaking on something. Meanwhile, his mom was standing outside talking to anyone who would listen, but not appearing to care AT ALL about her kid in spite of his screaming. She said this was the first time she’d seen anything like that from him, but the magic 8-ball says all signs point to no. (I trust the 8-ball.)

We clear the scene, take a minute to decompress, spray down with Lysol and generally get our heads back together – and immediately get called to a 200-car street racing scene at Lenox and Peachtree. We had been hearing about street racing in other areas earlier in the evening and I have to admit that I had secretly hoped I’d get to see it for myself. The experience did not disappoint! (So much for taking that  minute to regroup!)

The officer says, “Hold on!” and guns it. Lights, sirens, flying down Roswell Road to Piedmont to Lenox. Cop cars coming from all directions and kids running everywhere. The officer was driving like a bat out of hell and yelling out tag numbers to dispatch as we went… she was amazing! And the teamwork here was fantastic… the officer reported the tags and then circled back to Cheshire Bridge where she knew they were headed based on intel other cops gave us. We sat at the light and waited for them, then followed and stopped them.  Three other units joined, including the Sergeant. Thanks to Georgia’s new law making it illegal to be a bystander to street racing, those five young boys in Mama’s car joyriding for the night got to take advantage of GA’s new bystander to street racing law and will now be held responsible for their part in the evening’s activities. (The new law works!)

A quick personal aside.  I am not a wuss when it comes to speed, I used to ride with my parents when they raced cars at Road Atlanta, I drove a stock car on the Charlotte Motor Speedway for fun and I am a roller coaster junkie… BUT I was shaking after this. Jacked up on Mountain Dew? Adrenaline rush? Total Fear? (Let’s just say YES.)

The last case of the night was a “simple” drunk and disorderly, again on Cheshire Bridge. The man got thrown out of a strip club and had two guns on him. The officer ran the guns through the system and they came up clean, but the entire situation still added up to an overnight stay in jail.

Summing it up.

• Buckhead’s party scene is alive and “well” — making for lots of Saturday-night activity for APD.
• APD is just one piece of a crime fighting system that relies on a lot of pieces and parts.
• Never say it’s going to be quiet tonight to a police officer.
• Cops need good cars.
• 911 calls are often very confusing and unclear.
• Not a single gun or taser was ever touched during my night of mayhem. That is clearly NOT the first line of thinking for these men and women.

THANK YOU to the amazing men and women in APD and especially to my ride along officer who was an awesome person to ride along with.