Page 401 - NIXBOOK

So…did I ever wreck a police car? Well I never broke one bad enough to retire
it, but like most cops who drive a lot for a living, I did do some damage here
and there to a few, like the time I quickly turned on a bad guy getting away and
I misjudged time, space, and speed and I slammed into a curb too hard, which
almost broke the right front tire off completely. (I still managed to catch the
bad guy though – AND he went to prison!) And I collected a few dents and
scratches and destroyed a couple tires running over random metal debris, and
I changed a lot of flat tires, and I got my share of chips and cracks in
windshields. I did bump into two – literally just bump, and literally only two –
other cars, causing just some minor scratching. I saw a few coworkers over the
years who did completely destroy their cars by colliding with other cars or
immovable objects, but for the most part I was a pretty good driver and had nothing really major happen to me. Here’s a picture
of a patrol car that needed some extensive front end repair; the body shop
as you can see removed a lot of broken parts. The red thing is a portable
battery jump back. And like I said, no this was not my car.

I will readily admit that I did like having the authority to drive fast, legally.
Although because Poulsbo was a small town, full speed from one end of
town to the other would take only a few minutes, even in full traffic. So it
was a welcome change when another officer or deputy out in the county
needed some assistance and I could then stomp on the gas and get in a good
high speed run lasting 10 or more minutes. But those times were actually
pretty rare.
My fastest I ever went was a little under 130 mph, on highway 3 when there were no other cars around. Over the course of my
career I was in only a few actual police pursuits and they were usually more than a little scary. I came to conclusion after a few
of those that car chases was one of those things I could live without; the risk for crashing into somebody innocent was usually
too high for my comfort.

During my career, I figure at some point or another I legally exceeded the speed limit by at least double on virtually every single
street and road in Poulsbo while responding to serious emergency calls at all hours of the day and night. I also safely and
cautiously went through every single red light possible and blew past probably every single stop sign in town at high speeds;
some of them dozens of times. I also did U-turns all the time, everywhere – if I had a map showing every U-turn I ever made in
the middle of the roads and intersections over the years, it would pretty much cover every road and street in the entire city.
Again, for the record, it was all done safely and I never caused an accident or came close to hitting anything or anyone. Unlike
some of my coworkers. I also wish I had a magic map that showed the location of every car I had pulled over; it would be terribly
impressive.

In 2016 when I transferred out of the K9 Unit, the officer who took over for me needed the K9 vehicle of course, so he got my
Tahoe Orca and I got his (older) Crown Vic. Which at one point had been assigned to me years earlier. Reunited, we looked like
this:

My old Crown Vic and I were together less than a year, because when I had the opportunity to “upgrade” to an old Ford Explorer,
I jumped at the chance, even though it was older than the sedan. It was better because the seat was higher, giving a better view
of traffic and violators, and also easier to get in and out of. The Explorer was ten years old at that time, and had been passed
around to several other officers before me. After a couple years with me it was retired and sold at auction, probably for well
under a thousand dollars because it was pretty old and worn out by then.