Arrested!

The following is a true story!

My partner and I walked into a fancy law firm in down town Mesa and asked to see the supervisor of the business.  The supervisor seeing the police uniform and gun sensed things were not exactly right and invited my partner and I into her office.  We then told her we were there to arrest one of her employees.  Not wanting to make a scene, she asked us to wait just out the front door.  We obliged and were standing outside the door when a nice looking well dress woman in high heels came outside and asked what was going on.  

You should have seen the look of shock on her face when we told her we were there to arrest her! My partner explained she had failed to appear in court on an issue dealing with domestic violence.  She was crying explaining how she had endured abuse and now she was being arrested!  How could that be?!  I was feeling sympathetic to her cause and thinking maybe we needed to go reason with the judge, but my partner kindly explained our duty was to follow the orders of the judge and asked her to come with us peacefully.

He handcuffed her, put her in the police van and we hauled her off to court.  We stayed with her through the process.  She saw the judge, was ordered to pay some money and renew her address with MVD and then my partner and I took her back to work.

Next my partner and I rushed off to the scene of a couple fighting in the parking lot of a Jack in the Box at Main and Val Vista.  They were in an argument what to do next after they had been sitting in their car and 20 random young men came up with baseball bats and broke all the windows in their car while they were sitting in the parking lot!  There was indeed glass everywhere.  We checked their auto registration and found the auto to have an expired registration.  Now that the auto had broken glass and no registration they could not legally drive the car anywhere.  My partner interviewed them some more.  We couldn't really do much so advised them to get someone to help move their car.  My partner said this was all part of a drug war and they showed all the signs of being druggies.  There wasn't any more we could do, so left.

Next my partner and I made a high speed chase trying to catch up to a car we thought was being driven by a man who had a $300,000 reward on his head.  When the car pulled into a drive way and he got out, it wasn't our man, so we smiled and waved and drove on to our next adventure.

This time we went to a woman's house who had graffiti on her garage door and sidewalk.  This poor woman had been harassed for the last 4 years with phone calls, messages, emails with lewd pictures and messages, entry into her home, threats to family and friends, etc.  While there the bad guy actually called her several times.  We were recording the conversation between the woman and the bad guy without the bad guy knowing.  Finally my partner broke into the conversation and talked to the bad guy and told him to leave her alone.  Then we took the woman to the City Court with a stack of emails she had received over the years and helped her filed an order of protection against the bad guy.  Because of my partner's diligence and persistence, this is the first time this woman has had the courage to do something solid to stand up against evil.

Wow!  What a day.  We worked all day and didn't even have time for lunch.  At the end of the day a message had come across the computer saying the City was at "Critical Service Levels" and there was a general call for officers to work another 6 hours = 16 hour day.  I was too tired, so I went home.

So was accomplished my assignment with the Mesa Leadership Class to have a 'ride-along' with a City of Mesa Police Officer.  I don't want the job.

My take away from this experience:

1. I have a new respect for the service being provided by our Police officers.  I find them to be a little big-headed, but it looks like a certain personality is really needed for this type job.  The Police are in harms way every minute of the day and have to deal with an element of society that moves about around us that the rest of us fear and want nothing to do with.
2. I found this officer to be and I believe most officers are compassionate and really do want to help people, but they must be vigilant and ready for action at any moment.
3. I feel stronger than ever that Question 1 the City of Mesa is pushing purportedly to fund Police and Fire is a big smoke screen.  The City Council has neglected the Police department for a long time, yet they always have money to do other less important projects.  Really Question is intended to pump money into the general fund for pet projects down town.  There is no guarantee the Police and Fire will get anything and the funds collected will be collected forever and used for whatever pet projects a Politically minded Mayor wants as his legacy. 
4. If you really care about Police and Fire, vote no on Question 1.  Tell the council to analyze the budget they do have, get rid of the fluff and then if necessary propose the Question again with just Police and Fire and I would vote for it.