If The Cops Won't Do Their Job I Can't Do Mine.

[The Night Rider]

TL/DR: AUS sucks, Tweakers suck, Cops are lazy.


My last gig was as a third shift roving guard/alarm response for AUS.

This crackhead showed up at a mall that I was supposed to check twice a night. The first time I saw him I called EMS because he was passed out in the parking lot. I think he must have lived in the area because every time I saw him he was wearing different clothes and he never ever had a pack or a shopping card or anything like that with him. And every time I saw him he had pissed his pants.

Over the course of two weeks I called EMS on him three times and I called the cops twice actually I think I called the cops three times as well. Two out of the three times that I called the police they told me they were on priority reporting and they weren't coming. In my town if I had tried to physically remove him from the property I would have been guilty of assault, plus I'm too old for that ****.

It got to the point where I'd pull into the mall, see him, give him the "Sir, if you don't leave right now I'm required to call the police." speech, then call the police. He would lay there while I was on the phone with the cops and as soon as he heard me get the call screen number he would get up, walk right over the property line and lay back down. I even told him one time that if he was on the other side of the property line I would not trifle with him.

I finally got the cops to show up one night but by the time they got there he was over the property line. When the cop got there she got out of her squad, walked up to my truck and flat out told me that with "The current public scrutiny of police officers" she wasn't going to make any contact with the guy unless she absolutely had to. Then she handed me her business card with the call screen number already written on it and drove around the perimeter of the mall looking for the guy. I didn't stick around so I have no idea if she ever found the guy or not but I never saw him again. I also decided that I was never again going to waste time waiting for the police on a trespasser. I would call, make the report , get the call screen number, tell them that the client had a trespass letter on file and I was gone.

[Condo Guard]

I know your frustration. Our crazy drug vagrants barricade themselves in the bathrooms for an hour, then figure the cops might show up, and then they vacate. We do issue ban letters; it works about 25% of the time.

We can detain people, but only for specific crimes that endanger others (assault, arson, etc.). Then we get to wait for the cops to show up. We've released people more than once because we have a time limit and if no police officer show up, they walk.

Its a Catch-22. These people are so unpredictable that you don't want to leave them on your premises - they could start doing damage or hurt people the minute you drive away. But if they aren't doing anything, they aren't a threat, so you can't do anything. Observe, report and hope for the best, I guess...

[Condo Guard]

And I don't blame EMS - they know half these people by name, because every time it gets cold or starts raining, suddenly the subject becomes very ill or deliberately gets too high, so they can get a warm bed and a meal. I'd either not respond or find an excuse not to transport some idiot I've seen 28 times before, whose only real medical problem is poor life choices and no desire to change.