Tango-Zulu II

Posted by: Blue

Last night, our first call was at one of the hospitals in our district.  A psych patient had barricaded himself at the end of the hallway and armed himself with a chair and a pillowcase with two billiard balls inside.

He was an ex-C.O. and had gotten into coke and meth, ruining his career, his marriage, his family and his brain.

We tried for about two minutes to convince him to drop the weapon before I pulled the trigger on the X2 and gave him a 5 second ride.  He tensed and the other three officers moved-in.  He was brought to the ground safely, disarmed and handcuffed.  He was uninjured and the nurses were able to sedate him.

I much prefer the Taser to my other intermediate weapon options when it comes to certain scenarios like this.  There are fewer chances of serious injury both to the subject and to the officers.

Intelligence Quotient

Posted by: Blue

Me: "Man is he ever dumb, hey?"

JT: "I don't think he could pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel."

Donations

Posted by: Blue

We are currently using phones at the work desks in the station which have been donated to us by a local Catholic charity.

The Service didn't have a budget for telephones.  The station didn't have cell or radio reception until recently either, so using a cell phone was out too.

Last week, a signal booster was installed which allowed us to text our spouses that we would be home late... Or call for help if the station was under siege.

Soup Can Cops

Posted by: Blue

Of the toil of policing, JT quipped the other day: "It's like trying to empty the ocean with a soup can."

Murders

Posted by: Blue

There were two murders in the city last night.  Two districts were tied-up.  At one point, I counted 92 dispatchable calls pending in the queue (not including around 100 call for report cars for break and enters and property crimes.

JT and I bounced from call to call, trying to put out fires before they spread before we were chained down to a Mental Health Act (MHA) call that required a hospital wait.  That carried us through the last half of the night.

Ugly City Bitch

Posted by: Blue

The drunk woman we breached two nights ago oscillated between pleasant and jovial to bouts of maniacally violent rages.

During her down swings, she would spit and kick at the doors, while "rapping":

"Rack-rack city bitch!  Ugly, ugly city bitch!  Ugly city bitch, ugly, ugly city bitch!  Rack-rack city bitch!"

Find a link to the song here.  Be forewarned, the link contains explicit lyrics and mature video content.

Summer

Posted by: Blue

I'm looking forward to the summer.

We are doing some renovations to the house; I'm putting up a garage.

The only fall-back has been a caveat that the city put on my property 65 years ago for an intended drainage basin on the easternmost five feet of the lot.  It was never put in, and it's clear that it never will be.

Nonetheless, the city won't allow a variance.  Red tape is red tape.

We decided to move the garage over six feet and leave room for a greenhouse on the East side, which doesn't require a permit.

I suppose it could become a problem in another 65 years, if the city decides at that time that it is suddenly absolutely necessary to stop procrastinating and put in a pipe.

A Life Changing Moment

Posted by: Blue

Three nights ago I had an impaired driving arrest. He blew 230 mg% (.230 for the Americans). He was around three times the legal limit when we arrested him.

On the way to jail, he told us that we had ruined his life and that his marriage was over.

I looked him in the eye and told him I hoped his marriage was strong enough to weather the trouble he had got himself into. Then I told him that he had no one to blame but himself if it wasn't.

He hung his head and started to cry.

Dad

Posted by: Blue

My father died on February 17. He had a sudden pulmonary embolism.

It has been a hard month, but would have been much more difficult without loving co-workers, friends and family.

I have been reminded of the beauty in life and the things I have to be grateful for.

Numbers

Posted by: Blue

When a person is fingerprinted for a criminal offence, their fingerprints are numbered. Canada wide, the number is known as an FPS number for Finger Print Serial Number. Our service has its own serial number for each person. Generally, on a first offence, it will take some time to have the fingerprints numbered federally. If the charges are stayed prior to obtaining an FPS number, typically the person only has "inside" numbers for our service, rather than "outside" numbers as well. When they have both, they are often referred to as an FPS-er.

When we run people on the computer, generally a red-flag is when they have numbers.

Example:

Me: "Did you run this guy?"
JT: "Ya. He's got numbers. I'm just checking what they're for."

First Aid Details

Posted by: Blue

Some quick info from my tactical officer first aid course recertification:

• It takes as little as 90 seconds for catastrophic blood loss to occur from an untreated femoral artery bleed. As little as 150 seconds from an untreated brachial artery bleed.
• The most common death by a treatable injury in battle is a bleed-out from a femoral or brachial artery. 
• Chances of survival for a person whose heart and lungs have stopped functioning with CPR alone is between 2% and 5%. Survival chances increase to between 70% and 75% in the event that an AED is available and used appropriately. 
•  Tactical first aid changes the typical ABC (airway, breathing, circulation) of civilian first aid to  CAB, because catastrophic blood loss becomes more dangerous than breathing in the first four minutes. 
• A bleed from the torso is treated by packing the wound and applying indirect pressure. 
• A sucking chest wound is a hole in the rib cage area of the torso which allows air to enter the body, causing danger of collapsed lungs. An occlusive dressing prevents further air from compressing the organs. A gloved hand is one of the simplest ways to apply an occlusive dressing. 

A Broken Family

Posted by: Blue

Last week, our last call of the night had an officer on our shift deploy the new Taser for the first time. He hit the accused with both cartridges, after the first blast wasn't enough to convince him to get off of his ex-girlfriend, whom he was straddling and pummelling to a bloody pulp. 

We arrived on scene a few minutes later. I learned that the two shared children had been trying to pry daddy off of mommy. The four year old was seemingly OK. But the two year old had blood covering his face, from one of his father's back-strokes taken to his nose as he rained blows down on the child's mother while the toddler tried to wedge himself between the two. 

I asked the mother for a cloth. She was already more concerned about the whereabouts of her cell phone than the wellbeing of her bleeding baby. I cleaned the boy, changed his day-old diaper and then put clothes on him that I found in a pile on the couch. He had been shivering each time the door opened. 

By the time we were finishing the video statement with the victim, she was expressing regret that her baby daddy was going to be locked-up. She refused the hospital for her injuries, instead deciding to head home and not pick up her children from her sister-in-law's until the next morning, so she could get cosy with the guy she had been beaten for texting to that night. 

Dad won't be convicted, and will almost certainly be out on bail long before trial. She wasn't going to show-up to testify for his upcoming case from the last time he beat her senseless. This time won't be any different. 

Stoplight Conversation

Posted by: Blue

Today, we stopped at a red light next to an SUV full of a family.  I locked eyes with the driver; the mother. She smiled. I smiled. Then she laughed. I laughed. She waved. I waved. She kept laughing, turning to her passenger. 

I rolled down my window. She rolled down her window. 

"What are you laughing at?" I asked. 

"You guys!" She replied. "I was just saying how we have a nice escort with us now."

"Well, very good then. You guys have a very nice day! Merry Christmas!"

"Are you working Christmas?" She asked.

"No! We're off this year! We work New Year's Eve. On Evenings. It should be interesting."

"Well, Merry Christmas!"

"You too!"

A short time later, a message came across our terminal. It said that a gentleman had called the comm centre on the non-emergency line just to say "Thank-you" to the police for doing what we do, "especially in light of what happened in New York".

I am always very, very encouraged to have an uncharacteristically positive interaction with a citizen. It's a bright spot on a day typically filled with people's misery, complaints and dissatisfaction.  

A very merry Christmas to the majority of the citizens in my city who I do not typically encounter on one of their good days. 

Bitten

Posted by: Blue

Today was a first for me. I was bitten while wrestling with an impaired driver arrest. She locked onto my left thigh. Fortunately my badge wallet was in my cargo pocket and she got a mouthful of cloth, leather and tin instead of skin and muscle.

She told me she would be filing a complaint against me.

I must not have tasted as good as she thought I should have.

New Tasers

Posted by: Blue

The service will be switching from the X26 to the X2 Taser Conducted Electrical Weapon in the New Year. 

There is no way of sitting in the new Taurus Police Interceptor while wearing the mandatory drop-leg cross-draw holster. 

They have been ordered in banana yellow for everyone but Tac and K9. 

Cold Nights

It had never occurred to me, when I was a young bride, that there might come a day when Blue and I would spend a large amount of evenings apart. When we would text each other our good nights and sweet nothings instead of whispering them, because of distance and commitments and work and overtime. I figured once-in-awhile we'd be out with friends or have to work late, but not once did I think it would be normal for me to go about my night alone. 

We had plans to be lazy this evening. We were both having shit days and we wanted to cuddle-up and forget about the rest of the world. We wanted to forget about the people bringing us down, the stress of parenting, the city and its problems, the icy cold right outside our door. We were going to sit and enjoy each others company, joking and laughing and most-likely drooling while watching Anthony Bourdain eat some crazy street food in some far off place we'll never visit. 

Instead the city needed more time from him. And what can he say? He's a hard worker. I love that about him. I also hate that about him. 

So I got the text and my night was altered. I'm used to it by now. I'm used to getting the kids fed and bathed and off to bed by myself. Sometimes it goes well. I put on music and let them dance around the house like crazy monkeys so that when they're older they hopefully remember those times and forget how tired mommy always was. 

When the house is finally quiet and resting I take a big deep breath. I grab my glass of wine and run myself a bubble bath and go to bed early. Cold winter nights are usually the hardest. It's so dark and our bedroom is freezing. I tend to feel more alone than in the summer. 

One thing is for sure, I'm thankful for wine and bathtubs and heavy duvets and flannel pj's. 

Remembrance Day

Posted by: Blue

Today, I am wondering how much fighting it will take to bring peace to our own country.

All of my love, prayers and support to those overseas and those still at home waiting.

Shotgun

Posted by: Blue

I completed the Shotgun Operators' Course Friday, despite high winds, rain and bottomed-out mercury at the outdoor range. I had been trying to get onto the course since spring, but manpower on our shift wouldn't permit it until now.

For the new qualification of SGO, you must successfully utilize tactical "00" buckshot out to 25 yards and rifled slugs out to 50 yards with 100% accuracy.  You must also demonstrate an ability to transition to pistol upon failure of the shotgun, speed-load from behind cover, use the weapon-mounted light while shooting, and properly deploy from the cruiser car.

The slugs are accurate beyond 100 yards, but the iron sights diminish in accuracy at that distance. A scope would be necessary at that range, and a rifled barrel with sabots would increase accuracy as well. The guns are currently zeroed at 50 yards.

The old Remington 870s have been retro-fitted with new furniture:

• Magpul bantam stocks
• Magpul QD slings
• Magpul forends
• Streamlight TLR-1 weapon lights
• Mesa Tactical 6 round shell carriers
• Trijicon Ghost ring and front post sights

Duty ammunition currently consists of:

• Federal Premium Law Enforcement Tactical 2 3/4" 00 buckshot, low recoil, flight control wad, 9 pellet
• Federal Premium Law Enforcement Tactical 2 3/4" 1oz. rifled slug, low recoil, tru-ball

For the Fallen

Posted by: Blue

Today, my first day of duty since the shooting in Ottawa, we wore olive green under-shirts which peeked through the open collars of our blue uniform shirts; a tribute to the fallen soldier.



A portion of now famous cartoon by Bruce MacKinnon, originally printed in the Chronicle Herald. If you would like a print, the proceeds will be donated to the family of the murdered soldier - Cpl. Nathan Cirillo. Please see here for details on ordering a print.

God bless his family.

The Princess and the Pee

Posted by: Blue

Our 17 year old arrestee had to wait for about five minutes for a female officer to search her. She remained handcuffed and wasn't permitted to use the washroom until she was searched. She kicked at the door for three minutes and then intentionally pissed herself, then rolled around and dragged her hair through the puddle, soaking her clothing and head. 

She ended up in a spit sock and RIPP hobble restraints after spitting at us when we walked through the cell door.  While we dragged her off to jail as an intoxicated and violent direct lock-up, she left a soggy trail of urine from the cell all the way to the cruiser car. 

At the hospital (a mandatory stop for all intoxicated youths), she asked the doctor to check if she was pregnant. She was not.