Last Friday I had the privilege of spending the day with a Montville police squad for a "ride along". My motivation was to develop a better understanding of our Police Department's operations, and I felt a ride along experience would provide significantly more insight than a written report.
My day -
I arrived at
7:00am and was greeted by Lt. Rudy Appleman, and patrolmen Jason Blustein and Eric Brauchle. After a "rules of engagement" chat (stay in the car and duck), I was handed a kevlar vest and jumped in a patrol car with Officer Brachle. First stop - burglary at Gencarelli's.
7:35am - pulled up to the scene and met Sgt. George Vuolo and the Detectives who were investigating the burglary (by the way, there is a big difference between a robbery and a burglary...seriously). Apparently, the suspect(s) gained entry by prying open the back door, grabbed the cash and ran. This appeared to have taken place after the store closed the prior evening, and the Detectives interviewed the manager for more details.
Lesson #1 - When there is a burglary, not only are patrolmen called to the location, but additional personnel including road supervisors and detectives get involved immediately. The County arrives later to "process the scene" (usual CSI Miami stuff without the Who soundtrack), but the Montville police officers can be tied up at the scene for hours.
8:00am - Lt. Peterson finds a car with two occupants parked behind Dunkin Donuts (OK, I know it's tempting to go with some donut jokes, but since Dave can't eat a bear claw and ride his motorcycle at the same time, I will resist the urge). The driver is sleeping in a car with Pennsylvania plates, and, well when it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.... Officer Brauchle and I head over to the scene since it is right around the corner, and confirm it is in fact a duck. Drugs are found in the vehicle, and one of the the passengers is a minor (the driver is 18). Both individuals need to be transported back to Central (Police headquarters) for
"processing"
.
Lesson #2 - Two cars are required to transport a prisoner - one for the actual prisoner transport and the other to follow the car back to the station. Why? Safety and liability issues. Here's the catch with this incident. One male, and one female minor. This now requires 4 cars - one for each prisoner and two cars to follow the transport cars. That's 4 police officers off the road. Fortunately, we had the manpower that day because there was a full squad on duty. I can't imagine what would happen if the squad was "short" and there was another crime/emergency while the four cars were in "transport mode".
8:40am - time to process the two prisoners. In addition to the finger printing/mug shot routine, the officer is required to contact the minor's guardian in order for her to be released. That was a chore in and of itself. Twenty minutes later, Grandma was brought up to speed and the minor was released later that morning. Now the paperwork. While Officer Brauchle began filling out the reports, I ran up to the Dispatchers station (more on that in a minute).
Lesson #3 - The paperwork, or "processing". Everything must be documented, and this could take hours particularly when reporting a MV accident or a domestic dispute. The officer who made the arrest, or was first on the scene is responsible for filling out the reports, and this is done WHILE he is on duty that day. Ergo, he is off the road and not on patrol. In lacrosse, we call this a "man down situation". We are now on "defense" and not proactively roaming Montville. If the squad is already "short", they may have to cover Montville with parked patrol cars South (near rt.46) and North in the Towaco zone.
While I wait for officer Brauchle to fill out his paperwork, I walked up the flight of stairs to sit with Lt. Appleman and one of the Dispatchers. Since there was a lull in activity, he had the time to provide a broad stroke explanation of the systems they use to communicate with the patrolmen, and coordinate with EMS, and the Fire Departments
. It was a lot to take in, so I plan on returning to spend half a day with the dispatchers to see how multiple calls for service are handled.
9:40am - Fortunately, since he drew the short straw and had to drag me around town, officer Brauchle's colleagues (who were also at the scene of the arrest) pitched in with the balance of the paperwork, and we went back on the road. Officer Brauchle is a member of the Traffic Bureau. Among other responsibilities, he roams around town looking for moving vehicle violations ranging from drivers using their cell phone, not wearing a seat belt, speeding, drunk driving and everything in between. It didn't take long for us to make our first MV stop - the driver of a minivan was using a cellphone. Not exactly a heinous crime, but how many times have you almost been t-boned or sideswiped by a distracted driver on their cellphone? We spent a fair amount of time riding around randomly checking license plates, and after a series of stops for seat belts, cell phones, and riding the shoulder (all residents by the way), we decided to set up on 287 for radar speed checks. Well, apparently it was "drive above the speed limit, but not enough to really warrant a ticket day", so we made our way back to Central.
Lesson #4 - When a patrolman pulls over a car for a moving violation, he immediately checks the licence plates to see if the car is stolen, or if the owner of the vehicle has existing warrants, among other things. Why check? BECAUSE THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A ROUTINE TRAFFIC STOP. In addition to checking the plates on his computer, he radios in his location, the plate numbers, vehicle description and the number of occupants. He then checks the driver's license, registration and insurance card. He checks for anything peculiar - suspended license, warrants, if the driver looks 20 but the person in the photo looks like your 75 year old Aunt Helen. If the owner of the vehicle (based on the plates) does not match up with the driver's license - yellow flag. In some patrol cars, the on-board computer may be out of commission, so the patrolman will ask the dispatcher to run the plates and the
driver's licence. That's acceptable when there is a lull in activity, but not when the dispatchers are juggling multiple calls and one is a "medical". By the way, tinted windows do not put a smile on a patrolman's face. It's just another reminder that there is no such thing as a routine traffic stop.
11:25am - Back at HQ I receive a tour of the prisoner processing area and the holding cell. I spend some time with Sgt. Vuolo, and patrolmen Blustein and Brauchle discussing the computer systems, and general operational procedures.
12:15pm - Officer Blustein and I head out to lunch. No lesson here other than I learn that we both like the pizza at Joe's.
12:45pm - Back to Central for the car switch. Sgt. Viola and I take tour of Montville, and he explains how a squad is setup to patrol the Township. Montville is divided into 4 sections, and if a full squad is on duty, one patrolman is assigned to each section.
2:00pm - Car switch. Patrolman Blustein and I begin "roaming" the south end of Pine brook by rt 46. Again, because a full squad was on duty that day, he is free to proactively patrol the section instead of "hanging south" waiting for a service call from Dispatch. Patrolman Blustein cruises around the section keying in license plate numbers, eyeballing cars to check for moving violations, and monitoring his radio. Of course, we continue to find drivers using cell phones (FYI... waiting until you see the flashing lights before dropping your cellphone on the floor only results in a chuckle from the patrolman... and his ride along passenger). We loop around to get onto Rt. 46 west. We pass the Burlington Coat Factory in the right lane and a car riding the shoulder zips right past us (you see the police car and still pass him on the shoulder? Really?). Patrolman Blustein checks the plates, and we both notice a white car with tinted windows "parked" in the entrance to Bank of America. The car is partially blocking traffic exiting rt. 46, and idling parallel to the building (plenty of parking spots 20 feet in front of the vehicle to the right). Of course, the shoulder rider is a Montville resident, and the white car becomes the main focus. To make a long story short (there were some white knuckle moments), it turns out that the driver and passengers were waiting for their friend to make a withdrawal (from his own account) and thought he would be in and out quickly. They also thought it would be a good idea to position the vehicle in a way that makes it look like a getaway car - it's a good thing that you can't get a ticket for being stupid.
Lesson #5 - Roaming and proactively checking plates, especially near highway entrances to Montville Township, provides an added level of protection that can significantly improve the security of our community. A roaming patrol car can also be a visible deterrent; a signal to would-be criminals that Montville may not be the ideal place to commit a burglary or sell drugs.
3:40pm - While heading back to HQ on Changebridge we hear the dispatcher call for a car to respond to a medical emergency. We zip down Changebridge, 202 and up Pine Brook Road to the location. We are the second car on the scene, and EMS is already inside the house to provide medical assistance. That in and of itself was pretty impressive considering patrolman Blustein's lead foot. The resident is OK, and the EMS crew leaves in a hurry to respond to another call. Patrolman Blustein explains how the PD and EMS coordinate while we head out to the patrol car. He unlocks the passenger door and we both get into the vehicle when we realize we are in Officer Kenny's patrol car. Oooops.
Lesson #6 - The police are the first responders for all calls for service including medical emergencies and fires. Response time is critical. Staffing levels and a functional system that reduces incident "process time" can have a material impact on response time.
4:00pm - Back at HQ. After a 30 minute debriefing, I return my vest to Lt. Appleman and thank everyone for taking the time to educate a layman.
Final thoughts :
1.
This was a relatively quiet day with a fully staffed squad. I have a feeling that this is NOT the norm.
2. If you see two police cars driving together, they are not on a donut run.
3. A parked police car in the north or south end of town doesn't mean the officer is on break. It may indicate that one or more patrolmen are tied up at HQ, or the squad is short staffed.
4.
I will need to spend additional time with the dispatchers and take another ride along in order to get a better handle on how we work through some of the operational issues.
5. There are some misconceptions regarding the Township Committee's potential cost savings initiatives involving Emergency Services. There is NO timetable for a decision on County Dispatching, the TC did NOT proactively engage in a discussion with a neighboring municipality to consolidate PD's, and the TC cannot initiate a consolidation of the Fire Districts (that's beyond our purview).
6. I firmly believe that the Township Committee should look for opportunities to deliver tax relief without sacrificing the quality of Emergency services. It's not just about the numbers, and I remain committed to developing an informed opinion before making a decision that could unintentionally impact the safety of our community. The ride along was extremely helpful towards that end.
As an aside, the Towaco Fire district budget cuts will NOT impact firematics. The Commissioners will need to work with their attorney and the DLGS; there is a solution. This topic should be covered in a separate blog post.
