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.