Here's a "war story" that say it all when people from outiside of California ask me about our relationship with the citizens we serve.
One night I found myself in a foot pursuit attempting to take a person into custody who wanted to kill himself. The individual jumped a fence that led to HWY 101 (a very busy hwy) and yelled that he was going to run into traffic. I of course followed him, and manged to grab him just before he entered a lane of traffic. We struggled while units from my agency, the city police, and the highway patrol were attemting to locate us. It was dark outside and I could see responding officers drive past me.
While the subject and I were struggling, he was yelling for me to shoot him. All I could think about was this guy was going to get us both killed by a passing car.
I finally gained control of the subject and was handcuffing him, when I noticed a vehicle pull off to the shoulder of the road. I assumed it was an off duty officer or a concerned citizen who saw a uniformed officer struggling with a subject and wanted to help out. I was wrong. The "concerned" citizen demanded that I identify myself, and demanded that I tell him what agency I worked for. So now I'm trying to keep the suicidal subject, who is now handcuffed, from standing up and running into traffic and I'm having to deal with a knucklehead who just knows I must be in the wrong.
I radioed for units to slow down their response, eventually city officers and my agency arrive, the "concerned" citizen walked to his vehicle and drove off.
When I told the Sgt. from the PD what took place, he said that he wished I had told him about the "concerned" citizen before the knucklehead left. The Sgt. said he would have cited the guy for parking on the side of the hwy.
One night I found myself in a foot pursuit attempting to take a person into custody who wanted to kill himself. The individual jumped a fence that led to HWY 101 (a very busy hwy) and yelled that he was going to run into traffic. I of course followed him, and manged to grab him just before he entered a lane of traffic. We struggled while units from my agency, the city police, and the highway patrol were attemting to locate us. It was dark outside and I could see responding officers drive past me.
While the subject and I were struggling, he was yelling for me to shoot him. All I could think about was this guy was going to get us both killed by a passing car.
I finally gained control of the subject and was handcuffing him, when I noticed a vehicle pull off to the shoulder of the road. I assumed it was an off duty officer or a concerned citizen who saw a uniformed officer struggling with a subject and wanted to help out. I was wrong. The "concerned" citizen demanded that I identify myself, and demanded that I tell him what agency I worked for. So now I'm trying to keep the suicidal subject, who is now handcuffed, from standing up and running into traffic and I'm having to deal with a knucklehead who just knows I must be in the wrong.
I radioed for units to slow down their response, eventually city officers and my agency arrive, the "concerned" citizen walked to his vehicle and drove off.
When I told the Sgt. from the PD what took place, he said that he wished I had told him about the "concerned" citizen before the knucklehead left. The Sgt. said he would have cited the guy for parking on the side of the hwy.
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