|
Patrol Tips & Tricks: (By retired Police Officer Mike Chilton, Santa Monica Police Department, Los Angeles County)
Responding to “hot” calls without immediate back up. Lets say your working the night or morning watch in the wee hours of the morning. Some of the shift is off sick, some on vacation, the remaining officers or deputies are booking prisoners or out on reports, the other one is on his or her dinner break. A hot call goes out, "Any unit to assist. Gang fight in progress, shots fired!”
Prowler calls. Listen for barking dogs and things being knocked over. Look for gates ajar or open, potted plants knocked down, open or ajar doors or windows. Things that look out of place. Be quiet as a mouse. Park away from the location and walk in! Keep your flash light off unless you need it. It is not the Luke Skywalker light saber. It just announces your presence and position. If you have an ear piece for your radio, use it or at least turn the volume way down!
Vehicles out of place. For instance, night / morning watch, look for cars that are parked illegally, if it is a cold night and all the windows on parked cars are fogged up, and you see one with shinny windows, or the windows down, that car is newly arrived! Check to see if the engine compartment is warm, are there keys in the ignition, car stereos in the back seat and so on.
Breaking your perimeter. Suspect may be within 30 feet from you command post. This happened to me several times and once with an armed robbery suspect. We had taken 3 out 4 suspects into custody on a string of armed robberies with shots fired. A K-9 officer and I were certain the 4th was still in the area as the perimeter had been set up immediately after a vehicle pursuit of the suspects, crash and foot chase. After several hours well into morning watch, the perimeter was broken and the Command Post removed. The K-9 officer and I were not about to give up. We knew the suspect was in the vicinity. We went back and checked the immediate area if nothing else but out of frustration and looked under some cars. BAM! There was suspect number 4! With the help of the K-9 he was taken into custody with a few bite scars, I mean marks. All in custody!
IF you have a perimeter set up and you see or think you see someone running out of the perimeter! Say so! Don't tell your friends the next day, I think I saw a shadow run out of the perimeter, but was afraid to say something. I can't tell you how many times I held a perimeter, because I knew the bad guy was still in there. I have held up joint agencies because I knew in my mind the suspect had to be there! AND THEY WERE! Once the Sheriff had a court prisoner escape from the court house lock up. He was a high power inmate, most violent. The court house in my city is next to the police station. I got STUCK on the perimeter and did my job and watched the building. Hours went by. They were just getting ready to break away and call the perimeter off when I saw on the roof what looked like the head of someone bob up and disappear for no more than a second. I put that out over the radio. Now lots of overtime was involved for lots of officers, Departments were on a tight budget (as always). They held the perimeter and searched the building again. I was relieved and sent home for my end of watch. Later that evening I had an L.A. Sheriff LT call me at home and ask me how sure I was. I stuck to my guns. Now I had credibility and they asked my bosses how reliable I was. They reaffirmed my reliability. They searched the building again and finally found the suspect wedged in an air conditioning vent below the roof line! Be a participant, not a spectator!
Silently. Don't announce your position or location. Be stealthy when you can, especially on prowler calls and when doing building searches. Your equipment should not make a sound. No keys jingling, nor clanking of equipment. You know you’re good when you walk right up on a burglar and they don't see or hear you. If they don't know your there they can't hurt you, nor ambush you. You have the upper hand.
Responding to crimes that just occurred. Lag Time: The time from when the crime or incident occurred, until the R/P calls it in, and the dispatcher takes the information and then puts it out over the air. This can be anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes. Ask your dispatcher, “What is the time delay!” Don't roll to where the incident occurred, the suspect may have already split! The handling unit should go immediately to the scene and get more info and immediately put out a supplemental crime broadcast. You go to where you calculate the suspect could have made it to by this time. Main arteries out of town, freeways and interstates. If you are far enough out, get on the road out of town ahead of the suspects and quietly sit, blacked out. Lie in wait for them! I have caught more felony suspects this way i.e.; car jackers, armed robbery suspects, burglary suspects and such! But you had better be ready to rock and roll. At one point I had a Captain who use to call me the Freeway Kid. We have a freeway running through town. When a crime occurred near the freeway, if I was at the far end of town, I would hop on the freeway get ahead of the suspects pull over and wait. Always look for a trail car or a secondary vehicle. I found my primary vehicle speeding down the freeway and said those magic words, “6 Charles I have got the vehicle!” I looked in my rear view mirror and saw the secondary vehicle following me and the primary. I had pulled right in between the two. It was a car jack situation. I got the plate of that vehicle and put out its description and the occupants description and the pursuit was on with the primary vehicle. Other units picked up the secondary vehicle and all were subsequently taken into custody.
|
|
Officer Survival Tips |
