Page 11 - NIXBOOK

As a patrol officer, I had to respond to a lot of false alarms. Literally hundreds of them. Only a very few alarm activations were
actually caused by real burglars. I also had to respond to countless 911 hang up calls. Most were misdials or malfunctioning
phone equipment but every once in a while I’d find real trouble at the other end; a medical emergency or a crime victim who
seriously needed help and only had enough time to dial 911 before being interrupted by something or someone.

The 911 operators filtered out most of the prank calls but I still had to respond to a few unknown problems, like the time an old
lady called for 911 for help and it turned out she was just out of cigarettes and very upset about it.

I was in lot of foot chases and car chases and high speed and low speed vehicle pursuits. I stalked and hunted and chased for
fugitives in buildings, in parking lots, and in the woods. I chased people through parks and schools, trails, streets, in buildings,
in parking lots, across highways, and in and through houses. I climbed onto a few roofs and I jumped over a lot of fences, and
navigated rooftops and catwalks. Sometimes I was alone, sometimes with a dozen or more other officers in big manhunts.

I caught a lot of bad guys but there were plenty – too many - who ran or sped and evaded away and escaped clean; some by mere
minutes, seconds or feet. But some I did catch when I was in just the right place at the right time, which was awesome. On very
rare occasions I plotted a successful intercept course (on foot or in a patrol vehicle) and wound up by design being in the right
place at just the right time to catch a bad guy, which is practically an incomparable feeling.