Week 9
In week 9 I went in on
Fourth of July. As you all know there were calls for fire works. By the
time we got to the location we did not see anything. We also had a call for
loud music. It ended up being two different people, playing different types
of music, very loud. Sgt. Lemery asked them if they could please lower it a
bit, they did not have any problems doing that. We had a call for some kids
playing with a tent that did not belong to them. When we got there they had
the tent down and the stuff that was in the tent was strewn all over.
Officer Moulthrop stopped a kid that was around the area, he was one of the
kids playing with the tent. He said that it was him and a friend of his,
dispatch was able to get a hold of the Mother of the other kid, and she
brought them down. They were spoken to and had to pick up the items that
they had taken out of the tent.
We had a call for a
domestic. When we arrived it was complete chaos. There were people all
over, some were yelling. It was hard to figure out who called it in, who
was involved and what was going on. Sgt. Lemery and Officer Moulthrop
finally got the stories out of everyone. It was a complete mess, it stemmed
from an incident from another night. Everyone there was spoken to and Sgt.
Lemery and Officer Moulthrop were able to get everyone calmed down, and
things figured out. There was an arrest made and the victim did come in
later and make a statement. I am not sure what happened with this case, but
I hope all is well for everyone involved.
Week 10 – The End
This was a difficult week
for me to be completely honest. I am very sad that my internship is
officially over. It went by very quickly. This week was not very busy at
all. There was a call for a verbal domestic. Sgt. Lemery and Officer
Moulthrop talked with the victim and the boyfriend.
They both stated it was not physical. The boyfriend was going
to be leaving the house anyway. Sgt. Lemery gave him a ride to a different
residence.
There were also three calls
for vehicle lockouts that Officer Willis handled. I think because of the
heat no one wanted to be outside. There was hardly anyone, anywhere.
I have to comment on the whole experience of my internship, it was one of
the best experiences of my life. I had told them when I first started that
I did not care if I saw a lot but I did want to walk away and say “holy
crap.” There were a few things that I saw that were close to that. Don’t
get me wrong I definitely saw some things that would surprise most people.
Even though I did not experience much of that, I did learn a lot. I also
learned some very valuable lessons.
To be completely
honest, before this internship, I had the opinion that most people
have about Police Officers. Most people believe that they are just out to
get you and that they have nothing better to do than to harass people. I
was very intimidated by them and thought that they were all mean. Until I
was able to spend time with them and get to know a few of them, I never
thought much of them. Most people do not realize and would never get the
chance to realize just what they do for the people. I was
very
lucky and honored to be able to experience this
Most of the time, the
Officers deal with people on the worst days of their lives, so nine times
out of ten the people are not very pleasant and most of the time the people
blame the Officers after they get caught breaking the law. Not only do
they get yelled at, sworn at, attacked, etc., these things that they go
through change their entire lives. Their perceptions of people and things
change dramatically after being an Officer - even if for only a short time.
From what I have learned they begin to not trust anyone, they start to see
the bad in everyone and not the good, they look for what a person might be
doing wrong, and they instantly try and figure out a person. For the most
part they see people at their worst, and some people’s worst is pretty bad.
They have to deal with
things that most people could not handle. For example, child abuse, sexual
child abuse, death, hurt, pain, and tragedy, this is all they ever see. I
know that most people, that had to deal with this, for example most grown
men that learns someone has sexually abused a little girl or a boy would
want to rip the guys face off. But the police can’t they have to hold back,
treat the person with respect, etc. Most people could not bring themselves
to do that, they would think that the person does
not deserve respect for what they have done. Sometimes I agree, I don’t
think that they do, but it is the law, it is in the Constitution.
A lot of times things
are completely out of the Officers hands, they are bound by the laws and the
Constitution. They can know for certain, no doubts that someone is doing
something, but unless they can find the proof the person gets off. It is a
very frustrating job. Finding evidence against a person to prove with out a
doubt is very difficult. They see, deal with and have to do things that
would keep most people up at night, which would haunt a person. It takes a
very dedicated, special, strong person to be a Police Officer. Being a
Police Officer is not anything like what they show on TV. People’s
perceptions of this job are a lot of the time derived from TV, like Law and
Order, CSI, Forensic Files, etc. They all show a case from beginning to the
end, in an hour and it is all solved. They don’t show you just what all the
Investigators, Officers and other agencies involved have to do to solve the
case or what they do. They don’t show you the late nights staying away from
their own families trying to solve a case for another family. They don’t
show the gory details of the scenes and how time consuming everything is.
They don’t show you just how many cold cases there are out there, with
killers still running free.
When they do find a suspect
and get a confession, they don’t tell you the horrible things that they have
to hear about. No investigation is cut and dry, there is so much work and
time involved in it. Even a simple case such as finding a teenager that had
run away from home because they were mad at their parents and want to hang
out with their friends, is time consuming and not easy. They have to ask
around to find out who their friends are, where they live where they might
be, etc. It is very time consuming.
The whole time I rode with
them one thing I noticed that happened on a daily basis was that people lie
to them all the time. No matter what the situation is, no matter if it will
help someone or not, or get justice, people lie. I also learned that no
matter what the situation is the Officers always have to be on guard.
Humans are the most unpredictable species. The Officers never know what a
person is thinking, what they are carrying or what they might do. Even a
simple traffic stop for running a stop sign can turn deadly in seconds.
They put their lives in danger every day of their life. How many people in
this world can say that they would put their lives in danger for a complete
stranger without flinching or without thinking twice? It is like second
nature for them to protect people.
In Hudson Falls I have
noticed the loyalty towards each other that is shown. For example, for the
reason above about the dangers the Officers can be put in, in Hudson Falls
when they hear of an Officer calling out a vehicle stop, they will go and
sit and watch to make sure everything goes ok. That to me shows respect and
protection towards each other.
The two worst things I have
experienced were both while I was riding with Sgt. Lemery. One was a
death notification, he had to tell a mother that
her 20 year old son was killed. Going to this house I was very nervous, I
was shaking. When Sgt. Lemery told the mother, I had all I could do to not
cry. When we got back in the car the Sgt. drove around a bit and told a funny story about
something completely different. He told me not to think that he
was crazy but changing the subject was the only way to get through something
like that. He made perfect sense. If the Officers, Investigators, anyone
involved in the Criminal Justice System took anything to heart, none of them
would be able to live normal lives. The next case that got to me was the
domestic dispute with the little girl, I wrote about in a previous blog.
The little girl was the sister of the girl that was fighting with her
boyfriend. This little girl was clinging to me, shaking and crying. I felt
very bad for this girl, she was petrified.
The most interesting thing
I saw was a fire and how the investigation was done. I was able to sit in
on the interviews with the Police Officers and the fire investigators, when
they were interviewing the children that lived there. The Investigators had
determined that the fire was not electrical and was either an accident or
intentional. It was very interesting, because I did learn about that in two
of my classes. So I did know what they were talking about. This was one of
the few things that I had learned about, that we dealt with during my
internship, so I was prepared for what we were dealing with.
For being such a small
department, Hudson Falls deals with quite a bit. The Officers in
this Department are all great people and do a great job. I am very lucky
that I was able to do my internship at the department which was my
first choice and my home town. I am also very lucky and honored that I
could share my experiences with people on this web site. I am hoping that
people are actually reading it and valuing some of my opinions. I hope that
my opinions and thoughts might change the way some people feel about Police
Officers. Their job really is not easy, it is
always dangerous, always hard, and life changing.
The affects of the job and the things they see
will stay with them for the rest of their lives. I hope that Police
Officers will get the respect that they deserve one day. This was by far
one of the best experiences of my life, I am glad I was able to share it
with and those that read this website. Not all that I saw was
bad, I did see some funny stuff and hear some
funny stories. These guys can joke around and when needed they are very
professional and very good at their jobs. I would do this all over again in
a heart beat and I hope that one day, with whatever career path I choose
that I will get to work with this department again. I have such a respect
for these men that I can not explain. Even though it was only for a short
time, I am glad that I was a part of this department. I am very grateful to
the Hudson Falls Police Department for allowing me to do this. I especially
want to thank Chief Clary and Deputy Chief Diamond for allowing me to be the
first intern. I would also like to thank Sgt Lemery and Sgt
Lafay for letting me ride along with them.
7/2/06
Week 7 & 8
Week 7 was a little busier than it has been.
I went in on Sgt..
Lemery’s
11pm -7am shift.
The first call we went on was a call stating that there was a party
where there was underage drinking. When we got there,
nobody was underage, so they were all sent on their way.
We then had a call from a husband whose wife had called him and
stated that she had heard some strange noises around her house.
We went and checked the area and then made contact with her.
She showed us where she had heard the noise coming from.
It was by her bedroom window. She stated that it
sounded like someone was going to the bathroom on the side of her house.
We did not find any evidence that someone had done that. We told her
that we would check the neighborhood and see if we can see anything. we
checked the entire area but could not find anybody.
We then had
a call from a woman that stated that her apartment was flooding.
We went up to the apartment where it was coming from.
There were other neighbors out there that it was flooding their
apartments as well. They said that the people were home,
and that they had been there for an hour pounding on the doors and throwing
stuff at the windows trying to get them awake. We could
see where their whole kitchen was flooding. They had
either a washer or a dish washer that you hook up to the sink that the hose
had broken. The Officers knocked and knocked, and then
tried to break out a window in the door to unlock the door.
The glass was very tough and would not break. It
was extremely loud while they were trying to break it.
So Officer Moulthrop had to force the door open. We went
in and woke the people up. I can not believe that
they did not hear all of that. Officer Moulthrop was
driving and saw a young man walking down the street with an open beer in his
hand. The man got an appearance ticket for open
container.
I went in with Sgt.
Lafay on his day shift also.
It was a slow day. We only had one call and a follow up
to do. The call was from a store, they stated that
someone had gone to the bathroom on front of the store right on the main
road. We located the person and advised him of the
consequences of what he had done. Then we went back to
the store to find out if they wanted to press any charges.
They said they did not, they just wanted
to get him out of there. We then had to go issue
appearance tickets to two brothers. The oldest got one
for assault in the third degree, he got into a fight and the other kid had
to get stitches. The other brother got one for breaking
into the basement of the apartment building he lives in.
The landlord wanted to pursue charges against him.
In week 8, I rode with Sgt.
Lafay on my first night. We
had a call for a domestic between a mother and a daughter.
I guess they got into a fight and the daughter was going to leave
with her children. The mother did not want her to bring
her children because she said she was worried about their welfare.
She was crying hysterically about her grandchildren.
We calmed her down so that the daughter could come in and get her
stuff and get out of there. The two of them were crying
and you could tell they were very hurt by the whole thing.
The daughter got her stuff out and left. We had a women come into the
station to report one of her mothers foster children missing.
We took the report and then went looking for her.
We went to where her mother lived. A young man answered
the door and said that the mother was not there. Sgt.
Lafay told him we were looking for the girl.
He said that she was not there. Sgt.
Lafay asked him if we could come in and look
around a bit. He was very hesitant but let us in when
Sgt. Lafay told him that he could get into trouble if he was lying to us
about her being there. He finally stretched and made a
motion to where she was. He didn’t want her to hear him
telling us that. She had locked herself in the bathroom.
We knew she was in there but she would not answer.
It was almost five minutes before she finally answered and then
stated she was going to bathroom, so we had to wait for her to come out.
When she did she was not happy and not very nice.
She had quite the attitude. We brought her back to her foster home which she
was not happy about either. She said that she hated it
there, Sgt. Lafay told her that all she had to do was talk to her case
worker and maybe they could place her somewhere else and
that all she was doing was causing more problems for
herself by running away.
I went in with Sgt. Lemery on his evening
shift. The first call we had was an alarm at the high
school. We went there and spoke with a janitor. He said
that everything was fine and that there were some games going on.
He wasn’t sure exactly how the alarm went off but that nothing seemed
out of the ordinary.
Our next call
was a vehicle lockout. The girl had three sets of keys
that were all locked in her truck. Sgt. Lemery and
Officer Moulthrop both tried the Slim Jims but both could not get the truck
unlocked. They had a new device which is called a
bladder. There is a plastic piece that gets put into the
door jam and then it gets pumped up, which pushes the door enough to get a
metal rod inside to push the lock open. We also backup
up Officer Moulthrop on some vehicle stops. The one thing that I have
noticed that all of the Officers do in Hudson Falls is whenever they are not
tied up on something and another Officer is on a vehicle stop, they go and
sit near there to make sure everything goes well. I
thought that was a very good thing to do. Our last call
of the night was a call for a kitten that had been hit by a car.
When we got there no one claimed the cat so we had to take it to an
emergency vet’s office. The cat had a severe head wound,
so bad that you could see its skull. From what I could
tell it also had broken ribs and what looked to be an upper respiratory
infection. I used to work at an animal shelter and a
vets office, so I had experience in this type of thing.
It was very upsetting to see the poor cat. I figured it
would just be put down and not helped because it was a stray.
It turns out though that the cat was adopted by a vet tech there.
The cat had a broken pelvis, serious head wound, broken ribs, and an
eye injury. It was infested with fleas and had an upper
respiratory infection. But the vet tech was going to
adopt it and take care of it. I was very happy to hear
this. No matter how much I have seen working at the two animals places it
still bothered me to see a hurt animal. But it all
turned out very well. I only have two weeks left of my
internship. It has all gone by way too fast. I am very
lucky to be able to experience this and am going to miss it very much.
Hudson
Falls has a great Police
Department and a great group of Officers working for the Village.
I appreciate everyone reading my blog.
Thank you!!
Week 5 & 6
In week 5 I rode with Sgt.
Lafay on the 3-11 shift.
When I got there Sgt Lafay was on his way to go
speak to someone about a case he was working on. Before we were able to
speak to that person a call came out about a structure fire. When we got
there we could see the smoke and the flames. Sgt Lafay
and Officer Earl went in to make sure no one was left in there. They spoke
with others that lived there and they told the Officers no one was left but
there were oxygen tanks in the downstairs. So they went in and got them.
The Fire Department arrived and the fire was under control quickly. Sgt
Lafay and I spent the rest of the night
questioning people about the fire. Sgt Lafay
and the Fire Investigators spoke with people in the neighborhood and
established the cause of the fire.
I went in the next day for the day
shift with Sgt. Lemery. We were not busy at first. We got a call about
some packages that were missing from a lady’s mail box. Sgt. Lemery
questioned neighbors but no one seemed to know anything about it. While we
were questioning people Sgt Lemery had questioned the way one of them was
acting. It turns out the person had a warrant for them out of another
agency. We went back and Sgt Lemery took him into custody and turned them
over to the other agency. The person was very cooperative. We then went
back to question other neighbors that we not there when we had been there
earlier. While we were finishing up with that we received a call for a
violent domestic. When we got there you could see that a fight had
definitely occurred, but the resident stated that everything was fine. Sgt.
Lemery questioned the female and advised her that in situations like this he
is required to make an arrest. The female was not happy about this and
started to flip out. There were two children there that were completely
mortified. The one child was holding on to me trembling and crying. I felt
very bad for her. Sgt. Lemery and Officer Kibling
ended up having to arrest both parties. They were both fighting with the
Officers and making a scene. The worst part about the whole situation
between these two was the children. The younger child didn’t even flinch
when they were yelling and carrying on. The child was used to it, which is
very sad. The other Child that was there was not their Child and was
completely mortified. I have never seen a child so scared before.
Hopefully they will get help and not put their child through anymore of
that.
Week 6
In week 6 I rode with Sgt. Lemery on his 3-11
shift. We were not very busy. We had to give an
appearance ticket to someone that a neighbor had made a complaint about. We
had a call to go check a home for a man that was not allowed to be there.
The man had a restraining order against him and the Officers were advised
by someone that he was at the house. The resident let Sgt. Lemery check the
residence and nothing was found. We did a couple of vehicle stops. Other
than that it was slow.
I also rode with Officer Moulthrop on his 3-11
shift. It was not busy at all. We had a call
about a dispute between a boyfriend and girlfriend about a cell phone. The
woman wanted the phone back because she paid the deposit on the phone but
everything was in the mans name. There was
nothing that the Officers could do. They could not order the man to give
the phone back because of the fact that it was all in his name. I will be
back next week with more thanks for reading.
Week 4 of my
Internship was quite slow. I went in during the day shift
with Sgt. Mark Lafay. We only had one call. It was down pouring all
day long.
We had a call about a dispute
between brothers. They were fighting
over a van, and personal property that was in the van. The one brother
wanted the other one out. He had said that he was a drunk and was
starting to treat his daughters really bad. The other brother we spoke
to said that the mother of the girls was not able to take care of them
and all he was trying to do was raise his children and the brother was
making things very difficult for him. He also said that the brother had
worked for him. The brother that was causing all the problems had taken the
other brothers van and had let someone that was intoxicated drive it. The
other brother had gone to get the van so that no one was hurt or killed and
the van was not totaled. The brother that was causing the problems said that
his money and his ID were in the vehicle and that the other brother had
stole it. The other brother said that the van would be there shortly and
that he could have his stuff when it came back. He was not trying to steal
it. Sgt. Lafay let the brother know that,it was not stealing, he was going
to get it back. He also advised the men that the fight was civil and there
was nothing that he could do about it. Also that if the one brother wanted
the other out of his house that he had to evict him through the court system
because he did live there.
Most of the Officers at Hudson
Falls have had to deal with these brothers before and had to deal with the
one that was causing all the problems the night before. He was trying to
take off without paying a cab the night before. He was drunk at about 10or
11am when we dealt with him. The brother that was intoxicated was not happy
with what Sgt Lafay stated and was running his mouth to Sgt Lafay when we
were walking back to the car.
I went back on Saturday night for the over night shift at 11 pm. I rode
with Sgt. Todd Lemery. We did not have any calls. We did do some
traffic stops. We pulled over a lady that the Officers have dealt with on
numerous occasions. She was straddling the yellow line and it seemed as if
she was drunk. She was not though.
We then assisted Patrol Officer
Mouthrop. He had two men pulled over, when
he walked up to the car
he could smell marijuana. The men consented to a search of them and the car.
Neither Officer could find anything. The man that was driving was incredibly
nervous. They have also had to deal with him before and his actions were
extremely out of the ordinary for him. He usually is a wise guy and not
nervous at all. We were not able to call in a canine because he was not
avaiable that night. The man that was driving kept playing with his
underwear. The Officers think that they had done something with the drugs
and made it so we could not find it. So needless to say the men had to be
let go as there was nothing the Officers could do. We did go back after to
see if they had tossed the drugs out the window before the officer had
caught up with them. We were looking to see if we could find it or if they
came back for it.
From what I have heard from people that I know that have grown up in
this village, it was a lot nicer years ago. It seems as though this
village is going down hill rapidly. It is great that we still have
people that are willing to become Officers and deal with the problems
and the rising crime rates. Being a Police Officer or anyone of the
Criminal Justice profession is very difficult and demanding. Becoming
a Police Officer can truly and sadly, completely change the person that they
are. There are many lessons like this that I have learned, even though it
had been slow, as far as calls. I sit with these men and listen to the
stories and you can tell that their whole out look on life and people is
much different than most peoples. Most people think that Officers have it
good. They have the money and the authority. But, most Police Officers do
not make nearly enough money to compensate for the life and mental changes
and anguishes that they have to go through. If only more people could have
the wonderful and amazing opportunity that I have, then more might
understand and be more respectful towards these men. I have also noticed
that even the Dispatcher’s at the Police Department have it pretty rough as
well. It is not what I would call easy to run the dispatch. A lot of the
times it is non- stop. They can not even take a breath. They have to talk on
the radio and answer calls, most of the time all at the same time. They
could be trying to talk to someone on the phone and someone will call on the
radio, or two lines might be ringing. They also have a lot of documentation
that have to do and try to remember to do during all the chaos. They get
two
earfuls from people that call. A lot of people also take their anger
and frustration out on them as well. I also wanted the chance to
commend them for the wonderful job that they do for this Village and
Police Department. I will be back soon. Thanks so much for reading. Please
do not forget what a wonderful Police Department that your Village has.
5/30/06 More calls
One of the calls we went to was, a man called
and stated that he had just talked to his sister that stated that she was
going to kill herself. This alarmed him so he called the police. We went
to the house that she lived in with her other brother. When we got there
she was very upset, and crying. She stated that she has been having a lot
of problems and fights with the brother that she lives with. She clearly
needed help and admitted to stating to her brother that she was going to
kill herself. The officers have to take a person to MHU to at least try and
get them help. She was not happy about going and
did not want to go at first. Sgt Lemery let her know that she had two
choices. She could either go voluntarily or she could be arrested under the
Mental Health Law. Either way she was going to get some help. If she goes
voluntarily she can leave after she speaks to someone. If she is forced to
go, she has to stay there for a mandatory 72 hours. She finally calmed down
and was brought to the hospital where her brother that had called the Police
and a friend met her there.
We also had to do a death notification.
It was incredibly sad and the worst thing I have seen so far. Sgt. Lemery
and the other Officers that have to do this type of thing are so strong.
How they kept their composure and continue on with this job is beyond me.
With the things that they have to deal with, it amazing how great of people
they are. After experiencing this, I have a new found respect for them. So
far during my Internship I have been shown exactly why these men deserve
respect, but it becomes more and more real every time I ride along. They
have to put their lives on the line every day of their life to protect
others. How many people can say that about them selves? How many people
would put their life on the line to protect someone they have never met in
their life? Not too many. They may not be in constant battle with guns
drawn, but even on a simple traffic stop, or a search of a building, they
are putting themselves on the line. They don’t know what might be lurking
around a corner or what type of person they are stopping. And they do all
of this to protect the people and the Village of
Hudson Falls. A place and people that I have noticed do
not have much respect for the Officers and who treat them terribly. There
are many things in this Village that the Officers can not change, but
they try their best to do what they can.
The next day we were riding around trying to
find a truck that was accused of stalking someone. On our way back to the
main road we saw a girl riding a moped with traffic stopped in a cross walk
with a girl walking next to her. Sgt Lemery recognized both of them,
because he had dealt with them before. They could not for the life of them
understand what they did wrong. Sgt Lemery tried to explain to them that
first of all, they are driving a motor vehicle in a cross walk, there was no
insurance on the moped and the girl did not have a license. The girl that
was walking owned the moped. She went ballistic. She was yelling at the
Officers and talking down to them, like they had no clue what they were
talking about. They were stopped right in front of a restaurant where
people could see and hear and the traffic was pretty busy. She then
proceeded to dry heave and then vomit all over the side of the road, stating
that the Officers made her do that. She said Sgt Lemery was yelling at her
and made her throw up. She called and wanted to make a complaint about him
afterwards. Stating that he didn’t have any right to stop them, didn’t know
what he was doing, etc. He was far from yelling at her, he had to raise his
voice to talk over her but did not yell.
The other girl riding the moped was
arrested for driving without and license and was given tickets. We then
went to the station where the tickets were filled out and we waited for the
Judge to come and arraign her. She told the Judge that she did not
understand why she was given 5 tickets. She stated that Sgt. Lemery told
her she was only getting two which was not the case. She stated that was
why she wanted a supporting Deposition from the Sgt, when the Judge asked
her if she wanted one. The Judge told her that the amount of tickets she
got was the Officers prerogative and that the Supporting Deposition would
not tell her why he gave her those. She was not a happy camper. She could
not come up with the bail and was sent to jail. Her family had came in and
sat with her while she waited to be arraigned and were making a lot of
comments about how this was wrong because she had a 4 month old baby and
that it wasn’t her moped. Which none of that matters.
So needless to say it was a little more interesting.
I can not believe the way people act. It also
amazes me how people think that they know the laws better than the Officers
do. People also think that if they cry or act out that they are going to
get out of things. I have to say I also have so much respect for Judge
Feeder. He has so much work to do and he gets called in sometimes in the
middle of the night. From what I have seen he is a wonderful and fair Judge
and does a great job.
I sometimes have a hard time
understanding some of the laws and things that the Officers do. This is
because I am taking courses mainly for Crime Scene Investigation, which
doesn’t deal with what I see riding along with the officers. But the
Officers are very good at explaining things to help me understand. I will
be back soon to write some more. Thanks for reading!!!
5/20/06
Hello,
I have been riding around with Sgt. Mark Lafay
and Sgt. Todd Lemery. So far in the past couple of weeks I have been to a
variety of calls. Sgt. Lemery, Officer Kibling,
Officer Peek and I responded to a call about an intoxicated man that had cut
himself. When we arrived Sgt Lemery had me stay in the car, not knowing
what this man might do. The man did cut himself pretty bad there was blood
all over him. EMS arrived and attempted to
put bandages on him. He was not very cooperative and he kept putting his
fist up like he was going to hit either his mother or one of the officers.
Finally he let EMS bandage him up. The man’s mother told Sgt. Lemery that
he had a knife in his pocket. Sgt. Lemery got the knife out and they were
able to get him against a vehicle and get cuffs on him. He was transported
to the hospital, where they let him go. My opinion on that is that he
should not have been let out. He was a danger to himself and others. The
mother stated that the hospital felt he was too intoxicated to speak with a
counselor. Which is all the more reason that he should
not have been let back out on the streets.
Sgt. Mark
Layfay, Officer Earl and I went on an attempted suicide call.
Sgt.
Lafay did not have me go into the apartment
because he had dealt with the boyfriend before and he was not always an easy
person to deal with. I was able to hear a little bit of what was going on
from outside of the apartment. The boyfriend absolutely did not like the
fact that the Officers were there, and also did not seem very concerned for
his girlfriend. He was more worried about drinking his beer and about the
Officers being there. I am not exactly sure what happened with the woman
after she was brought to the hospital.
Sgt. Lafay
received a call about a young man walking down the street drinking a beer.
Officer Peek located him and stopped him. The man had an attitude at first,
but then calmed down. He was also found to have Marijuana on him as well.
When he was located he did not have the beer with him, but he did admit to
having one. He was under 21 and was with some younger females. He was
issued an appearance ticket and sent on his way. He was very grateful that
he wasn’t arrested and put in the Police car, which is what I think he
thought was going to happen.
Sgt. Mark Lafay
and I also went to a call at the Little League field about a coach that had
lost his cool. They wanted to ban him from the fields. The parents of the
children were threatening to pull their kids from the league. I do not
blame them one bit.
There are a lot of misconceptions
to police work. Most people I think get the impression of what a police
station would be like from TV. Shows like Third Watch or Law & Order. I
thought walking in there it would be all intense, there would be a bunch of
Police Officers at the front desk, and phone’s ringing off the hook,
constant chasing, gunfire and arrests. It is nothing like that. From what
I have seen so far the officers try to give people a chance and the benefit
of the doubt. Unless they do something really bad or right in front of
them, they try and give them a chance to stop what ever it is they are
doing. For example, Sgt. Lemery and I went to a call about a verbal
confrontation. Sgt. Lemery spoke with both parties and advised the one man
that if he went back and started anything with the other man that he would
get arrested. He told him that it was not worth it. A little while later
there was a call in the same spot. The man had come back and was shouting
and swearing at the other on the front lawn. So needless to say he was
arrested. My point is that the officers are not there to just arrest and
take people to jail. A lot of the times they are problem solvers. A lot of
people seem to have problem with authority and all that is needed for them
to stop what they are doing is for the officers to come by.
I can also tell you Police work
isn’t just arresting people, driving around and giving tickets. There is a
lot of paperwork and documentation. A majority of their time is spent doing
paper work and inputting information into a database.
Well that is all I have to write for now. The
weather hasn’t been too great which slows many things down. I’m sure that
soon enough I will have more interesting things to write about. Thanks for
reading.
May 8, 2006 -
Hello! Well I have seen some pretty
interesting things so far since I started riding with the officers. I am
sure that I will see more. I will see more things that will shock me and
make me think and feel differently about things. I have to say that people
amaze me. Some of the first words that come out of these peoples mouths are
“I hate pigs”, with the use of more vulgar language that I will leave out.
The Police are there to help them. They might be the ones that are getting
in trouble but the police are not there to just throw them down and cuff
them as soon as they get there. When these people have the police there
because of something they did, they hate them. But if they need the police
for something, they expect the police to be right there and help them. That
is what I think sucks about a job like this,The people can treat them
like absolute crap but the police still have to be nice to them and be there
for them when needed. What I mean is, take you and I
for example, if someone treats us badly and says things to us, we can just
walk away and never have anything to do with them again. The police have to
deal with it over and over again.
They don’t have the option of
removing themselves from the situation; they have to be right in the middle
taking all the abuse. All these people that hate the police do not realize
what they actually do for us. Could you imagine what Hudson Falls would be
like without the Police Officers. I have heard
some officers say how this job can change you as a person and your
perception of people, and they aren’t kidding. Then you have the teenagers
that the police have to spend hours upon hours looking for because their
parents think they are missing, when in actuality they are not.
They are just out having a grand old
time trying to make their parents mad. Then when the police find them, they
think it is hilarious and laugh the whole way to the station to meet their
parents. There are so many young kids out there that cause so many
unnecessary problems. I don’t want to sound rude, but some of these parents
really need to get a handle on their children. There are 13 year old girls
walking the streets with 20 year olds that are drunk and high. And the
girls are not dressed appropriately. I want to know where these parents
are.
Well, that is all I have to say for
now. I will be back soon with some more! Thanks for reading.
Jessica Clark