Ride Along With One Of The BEST!!!

A few weeks ago I had scheduled to do a ride along w/ Nate tonight. It was so interesting to do a ride along tonight, in light of the shootings of police officers in Dallas that happened yesterday. It brought tears to my eyes to see the break room FULL of food, homemade treats, thank you notes, etc. that the citizens had brought to show their love & support for our city's police officers.

I started my ride along at 10:00 pm & finished at 5:00 am!!! Some parts of the night were quiet and boring but other parts were crazy. We got a call from one of the fast food restaurants that there was a person just sitting in the drive thru for 7 minutes and they hadn't pulled up to order anything. It's scary to watch an officer (especially when it's your brother) walk up to a car and have no idea what they're walking into. The person in the car could have had a gun and shot him, could have been in a diabetic coma, etc. It ended up that they were just drowsy from a mixture of sleeping pills and illegal drugs. Nate had to inspect the car but didn't find enough to arrest them.

Then we got a call around 4:00 am from a neighbor calling to complain that there were kids out in the street looking into cars and being noisy. We headed over there & on the way we got notice that the same neighbor had called to say they think the kids had some sort of gun, but they couldn't tell in the dark if it was a paint ball gun or a real gun. GREAT! So, we get over there and Nate puts on his lights and they scatter like roaches. He didn't chase after them since the report said they might have a gun.

Once another officer arrived they went up to the house they think the kids ran into and long story short this STUPID 17 year old was mouthing off to them as to why it was such a big deal that they were just quietly hanging out outside. The other office WENT OFF on him and told him that A) it's 4:00 in the morning, B) they weren't quietly talking if the neighbors heard them and called, C), they shouldn't be looking into cars, D) there is no way an officer would be able to tell in the pitch black that all they had was an airsoft gun instead of real gun, E) why did they run if they weren't guilty, and F) officers can't tell in the pitch black if the kids are teenagers or adults. People need to think through their choices!!!

It was for sure an interesting night, and I'm so glad that I got to do another ride along w/ Nate. I know that there are bad cops out there, but until someone does a ride along w/ a police officer and sees what they have to deal w/ on a regular basis, they just can't understand. They really and truly do put their lives on the line for every single traffic stop, every domestic violence call, etc. They never know what type of situation they are walking into. I have so much more appreciation & gratitude for such amazing civil servants (especially Officer Johnson).