My Ride Along With the Montville Police Department - An Invaluable Education

On Friday, May 13 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 Brauchle.  First stop - burglary.

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. David 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, 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 allegedly 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 four 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 dispatcher's 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 motor vehicle 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.

To read the entire article on my Blog, click on the link :

 http://scott4montville.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-ride-along-with-montville-pd.html