We Are Going To Need A Bigger Car
When I started at the new agency a few years ago, I had a really good shift. Everyone worked well together. The shift seemed full of hard workers but I was still getting to know people. One in particular was my Sergeant, Sergeant “X”. X seemed like a good guy- generally quiet but on occassion, pretty funny! One of the first things I noticed about him was that he showed up when you needed him and had no isssue teaching new officers the right way to do something. He was younger than most sergeants i’ve experienced before, not much older than I was. All in all, it was good having X on the force and as time went on, I became more supportive of him.
One night, X told everyone at roll call (the debriefing we have at the beginning of shift), “Last night our cameras got a car going into apartments off of Main Street Road Pl. The registered owner of that vehicle is wanted for Aggravated Assault! Im going to catch her…” As X continued talking, the rest of my shift just said, “Ok.” I sat their confused at everyone’s nonchalance about the information we received because the apartments that X mentioned were extremely dangerous. Officers from our agency were contstantly dispatched there in reference to fights, shootings and suspicious activity. I knew that X should not be going there alone; so after the role call, I spoke with X and asked him what time he would be waiting for that car to arrive. He shared more details with me, including the time he was planning the stake out. The shift continued like normal.
Later in the shift, many of my colleagues ironically ended up at the same apartments that X discussed earlier in response to reports of a suspicious person. Once that issue was resolved, those responding to the suspicious person left to answer other calls on hold. However, none of the other calls looked that serious to me, so I told my friend, Lee, “Hey man, I’m not going to let X go after a dangerous subject alone. Cover my calls for me.” Lee thought about for a second and said, “I got you. Once I finish up these calls, I’ll come right back and help you out.” I thanked Lee and went to find X. X had pulled his patrol unit to the front of the apartment complex to initiate the stake out. I walked up to his unit and said, “X, I’m with you.” X said, “Good! Park behind me.” Before I did, X described the car, who we were looking for, and shared the subject’s the license plate number. He tells me, “The person we are looking for is a black female, about 5’2, 290lbs and her name is Judy Smith. Be prepared for a fight. Her warrant says she is ‘armed and dangerous’.” I got back in my patrol car and waited.
About 15 minutes later, a vehicle matching the description that X gave me drove by. I got behind it with my patrol unit and saw that the license plate matched the one that X gave me. I held my breath and hit my blue lights. I was expecting a some kind of car chase or worse, someone to get out running or shooting. Nope! The car pulled right over! It then dawned on me- she has no idea she had a warrant out for her arrest.
I walked up to the driverside and X was right behind me. I did my trade mark traffic stop speech but the whole time I was staring at her to see if she was the right person. I asked, “Hello Ma’am my name is Officer B with the police department. I pulled you over because your license plate is obstructed. Do you have your driver license on you?” The lady responded, “Oh sure. No problem officer.” The driver seemed relax but I noticed her passenger, a taller male, looking extremely nervous. The lady gave me her license and I told her I will be right back. I walked over to X and whispered, “It’s her.”
A few minutes later I returned to her car and addressed her by name this time, “Miss Judy, let me show you why I stopped you.” Judy replied, “Sure.” and hopped out of the car. I noticed that Judy had a hurt leg when she got out her car so she hobbled over to the back. As I am watching Judy, I also notice X perplexed. I had a feeling X wanted to discuss the warrant with her. As he was about to say something, I gave him “the look”-one that X understood meant “please don’t say anything.”
I explained the issue with the car to Judy and then I said, “Miss Judy, you have a warrant for your arrest.” I quickly told her to remain calm and then grabbed both of her hands. Judy asked what the warrant was for and when I told her, she said, “Oh no! They found out about that?!” X and I looked at each other and grinned. I put a hand cuff on Judy’s wrist but she was pretty wide. I could not bring the handcuff to her other hand with out seriously hurting her. It took three handcuffs linked together to safely restrain her hands.
Once restrained, I walked Judy over to my patrol unit and told her to sit down. Judy tried to sit in the back seat normally but she was too large to enter my car that way, only able to put one leg in. I told Judy to turn around and try to shimmy backwards to fit but this didn’t work either!Around this time, Lee showed up on scene. I thought that Judy might be able to fit in the back of his patrol unit so Judy was taken over to Lee’s unit. She shimmied backwards like she tried with my car, trying to hop in. As Judy jumped backward, she just stopped and started crying- Judy got herself stuck! Her butt was wedged into the car and she could not move even an inch! Judy started yelling, “Help!” So I grabbed her arm trying to gently pull her out of the car while she just continued to cry and scream. I pulled a bit harder and she came free. Judy continued to cry but thanked me.
While all this was going on, X refocused on Judy’s passenger saying, “Hang on.” I look over to X moments later and he had the passenger in handcuffs too. It turned out that X felt something was off with the passenger as well. When X checked the passenger’s information, it turned out that the passenger also had a warrant for arrest! I finally understood why he appeared so nervous in the passenger seat when I first spoke to Judy in at her car. It was great to see X and I picking up on similar things during the stop. I went over to X after this and said, “We are going to need a bigger car.” X regrettably told me we didn’t have one, but I remembered that the jail has prison vans (called a “paddy wagons”). I called my friend at the jail and told him the situation. He paused and said, “I’ll be there in 20.” 20 minutes later, I see a paddy wagon pull up and my friend pop out. We got Judy inside and she thanked me for not stuffing her inside one of the patrol units.
Afterwards I could tell that X warmed up to me a bit more and we slowly became good friends.
Posted here first [https://ourstoriesfrombehindthebadge.wordpress.com/2022/07/24/we-are-going-to-need-a-bigger-car/]