Crimes In Progress - Patrol Procedures

[Music] 860 860 shift commander has requested your unit respond to accident scene. Take command of rescue and clearing problem. QSL860 RERS crane and other emergency vehicles are in route. South District 1240 has intercepted one at 68 Chevy at Southwest 112th Street and 3rd Avenue. This city is not asleep. Not totally. Its little toe has an idea of its own and will not be scratched. [Music] Hey baby straight. You ready? Man, you late man. Come on baby. It's cool man. Don't worry about it. Little toes like night blooming jasmine await this silence in the expectation of sudden events. It goes with the way of things. This is a city of itches. Little bug marks on the ankles of its good intentions. Mustn't let the darkness fool your sense of direction. The deals are down. Never doubt. [Music] [Music] Hurry up, Bill. This is it, man. Let's go. [Music] What's up in this city has lain in the minds of people all day and then some. Too long. Like asparagus breaking ground. Like butterflies. Sh. Whining is out. The twitch of toes is part and parcel of the package. Sweet secrets roll upon the tongues of unordinary hustlers, and to them, this right now is the necessary time. City, beware. You have ghosts. As a law enforcement officer, this is, as you must recall, the code. My fundamental duty is to serve mankind, to safeguard lives and property. To protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence or disorder, and to respect the constitutional rights of all men to liberty, equality, and justice. I will keep my private life unsullied as an example to all. Maintain courageous calm in the face of danger, scorn, or ridicule. develop self-restraint and be constantly mindful of the welfare of others. Honest in thought and deed in both my personal and professional life, I will be exemplary in obeying the laws of the land and the regulations of my department. Whatever I see or hear of a confidential nature or that is confided to me in my official capacity will be kept ever secret unless revelation is necessary in the performance of my duty. How they originated this. I will never act officiously or permit personal feelings or prejudices, animosities or friendships to influence my decisions. With no compromise for crime, and with relentless prosecution of criminals, I will enforce the law courteously and appropriately, without fear or favor, malice or ill will, never employing unnecessary force or violence, and never accepting certuitities. I recognize the badge of my office as a symbol of public faith and accept it as a public trust to be held so long as I am true to the ethics of the police service. I will constantly strive to achieve these objectives and ideals, dedicating myself before God to my chosen profession, law enforcement. There were two of them, maybe more. They carry the case. Something like a a bag. Just a few minutes. Can you stay where you are until a unit arrives? And so it is. Yes, sir. A tin can tied to the tale of a bad idea by a woman in a telephone booth. And that turns a routine quiet night into the real meaning of a high-flung ghost. 815 possible 26 ma and Sherman building. That fundamental duty to serve mankind. has your number on it. And it's time to be what you said you were. A police officer. A burglary in progress in your district asks first that you be smarter than a couple of thieves by time in an office they know little about. It's your district. Everything you've been taught about geography, how to get there, and the things you know about emergency driving, how to arrive safely in the least time without tipping your hand. Everything you've learned in building inspections, where the doors and windows and safes and pitfalls of a place are, these routine bits and pieces are falling on your shoulders like beer bottles in a trash can. What you don't know about your job is about to arrive on the doorstep of a mortgage company to safeguard life and property. Those words were loan to you the day they gave you the badge. And now the note is coming due. And somewhere else in this dreamless night, two men with violent ideas are willing to kill this attendant over the contents of a cash drawer, unless something happens to prevent it. Some unpredictable interruption, they'll do it without so much as looking back. [Music] Somewhere else in this muddy midnight air, a man who probably can't explain himself has forgotten his dog to look across the unanswerable quirks of his senses at a disroing woman who intends to outwit him if she can. Operator, may I have the police? This is an emergency. Yes, ma'am. Mrs. Williamson has been bugging this department since August about some strange man outside her window. And they've been there before. They found the bushes. She's at it again. And there are men in this department who give you odds that Mrs. Williamson is frustrated. Mr. Sergeant, the dispatch sergeant is not one of them. You sure he's there? He's been around a long time. And he knows the night until a unit. He knows Mrs. Williamson, too. But more than that, he knows prowers and he knows enough not to bet. So, he'll send a unit. So, we'll be sure. And let the wise guys laugh. Lay down on the floor. Come on. Get down. Hurry up, man. Get on now, man. 9:34 silent alarm. Golf station 18 and California. Proceed silent response patrol. Whoever by force, violence, or assault, or putting in fear, feloniously robs, steals, and takes away from the person or custody of another money or other property which may be the subject of lararseny shall be punished by imprisonment. Generally, that's the law. Ethically, you've pledged yourself to maintain courageous calm in the face of danger, scorn, or ridicule. Develop self-restraint and be constantly mindful of the welfare of others. This is a felony in progress. An armed robbery emergency. This is the ball game. We have a 29 in progress. Service station 18th in California. Need three backup units. One west of station at 18. Two south of station at 17. Subjects are two black males armed with pistol and shotgun. RQTth is east of California on 1834. Patrol unit 934 has reported a felony in progress given the address and has requested assistance. He's now giving additional information on the scene, the automobile and the armed men. Additionally, there's a burglary in progress and a prowler wanted for months is within reach. What's happening is the air is being cleared of all but emergency transmissions other than these three in progress crimes and a dual procedure is underway where this information is being broadcast to all units on all channels automatically coming down at once. If all these subjects are apprehended within the next half hour, it won't be luck. It will be pure procedure. There are only about 3,000 ways we can blow it. 3,000 ways, which is like having it fourth and eight on the 8 yd line with 10 seconds to go and you're six points down. One way we can blow it is right here in the proper assignment of backup units in each of the situations. Dispatch must send the proper units on the basis of their proximity to the events occurring. That's one thing. Secondly, they must be dispatched to the proper locations. Back up. Intersection cut offs are backups to each event. Every officer in the entire patrol system is involved in all three of these in progress calls. Each of them can blow it by doing the wrong thing. What we don't need now are 16 wailing sirens off in a helter skelter dash to get to the action. The man who is not assigned is as important as the man who is. This unit has been dispatched to cover one of the southside obvious escape routes of the vehicle reported in front of the filling station. His job is to reach that destination safely and quietly. He'll do it by traveling parallel streets until the last possible moment. in traveling a parallel route, driving safely but expeditiously and by extinguishing his lights and killing his engine, stopping quietly with the use of the handbrake, giving no notice of his appearance to the subjects and reporting his arrival promptly. This patrol driver has shortened the odds. Now we have only 1,000 ways to blow it, and that's good. 926. The essential duty of every patrol officer involved in a felony in progress call is cooperation, coordination. This first unit has done everything correctly so far. In remaining out of sight, out of direct confrontation, and in requesting assistance, waiting for its arrival, these officers have changed the subject of greatest concern from response to a felony in progress to arrest techniques. With no compromise for crime and with the relentless prosecution of criminals, I will enforce the law courteously and appropriately without fear or favor, malice or ill will, never employing unnecessary force or violence. Now we've got 500 ways to blow it. If dispatch makes a mistake, it had better be in sending too many cars, not too few. One of the basic rules of arrest techniques is superiority in manpower and firepower. When you've established that little piece, the puzzle begins to make sense. Hey man, we got a copy. Hey, mother. Why you good? And I tell you what, you just stay away for five more minutes and we going to come back and get your ass. But there's a hitch here. My fundamental duty is to serve mankind to safeguard lives and property. No one promised a fair ball game. No one suggested that only the good guys have instincts. No one said these two men were stupid. What's the difference between burglary and robbery? What the hell are they waiting for? Whoever by force, violence, or assault, or putting in fear, you wrong? I don't know, man. It smells. Ain't no traffic out there. That's what's wrong. You hunky bastard. You dipped a man. Goodbye, mother. Ready? [Music] Don't move unless you want your naked buddy. Now walk over that car slow on that fender up here, man. Get him down there. Robbery has death in it. This one's dead. Spread them out, man. And changes on the winds of human impulse like the itches of little toes. Going on over, Ted. There they are. No, it's them. I hope the hell they got arrived to worry about. The dispatch function in a burglary call of this nature is to keep the observing civilian on the telephone to report any changes in the situation until the first officers arrive at the scene. Once that it has been determined that a burglary is in fact occurring and that the be presumed to be in the building, backup units will be dispatched on the basis of their proximity to the crime scene. At 1823 Jackson, Mrs. Gilchrist, advice on entry. Notify the shift sergeant. Dispatch, backup units. Most burglaries occur in the night. Most burglars gain entry from the rear, and very seldom are they apprehended in the act. It's your night. Procedure is the best friend a man can have out here. Drive safely. Don't announce your presence. Remove the keys from the vehicle. Approach as a team. We know that we have a burglary in progress and other units are now being dispatched to back up the first officers on the scene. Again, too much help is better than not enough. 8:15. This is definitely a 26 in progress at the Mala and Ferman building. Two white males inside now. Visor units in route. Set up a perimeter. TSL on 26 in progress. Every inrogress situation is extremely dangerous. Communications and teamwork is essential. Caution is the cardinal rule. This is not a time for heroism. This is procedure which like clockwork grinds away the obstacles and accomplishes the goal of aggressive patrol. A crime in progress contains for these officers all the problems of scene preservation. Retention of witnesses, collection of evidence, and the establishment of a chain of evidence normal to any crime scene investigation. The fact that it is in progress necessitates that they protect this witness from possible harm. and that they retain her for later interview. Unnecessary force or violence is not the MMO of these thieves. They want out of the building with the fruits of the crime. Their wants are the officer's best protection. Ordinarily, there's no need to go in after them. Wait, and they'll bring you the fruit. Go in and you're liable to be hurt or to hurt, to kill or to be killed. For people who play in the night, surprise is the edge. This is the way it should be. Superior manpower and firepower with simple alternatives. The weight of violence left to the thieves who thought of it. But what if it isn't? Jeez, only the place is crawling with cops. Oh, Christ. What do we do now? Here's what we're going to do now. Man, you're crazy. Crime in progress calls are always loaded with the possibility of violence. Most often that violence comes from the entrapped, the criminal, who, for whatever his reasons, cannot grasp the impossibility of the situation and responds from his fantasy of power and escape. You're just going to get us killed with that thing, Bill. Let's just pay our dues. It's not that tough a bust. No way. I'm not going back to the joint. I'd rather make it to the morg. Yes. Part and parcel of the package. Five additional units. What was a patrol problem escalates and it is a shoot don't shoot situation governed by different rules and as the law enforcement code of ethics states there will be these moments to safeguard the peaceful against violence and disorder with no compromise with relentless prosecution of criminals to enforce the law. But again there are procedures and in following them police officers stay alive. Sanity is that part of a man which emerges ahead of his own ego. It has to do with experience and procedure. There's two subjects in there now. Don't know if they're armed. This is the only way out and the rear door. My partner's covering that with another unit. I did notice that there's two windows open on the side. This shift sergeant has seen his burglaries and he's not about to send men into that loan office unnecessarily. He'll go and so will they, but only after they've done their best not to. Procedure says that the men in that building will come out. They will be invited. They will see the logic of the situation. Dogs might be sent in or they'll be forced out by gas, but they will come out one way or another. These officers will go into that building when it's reasonably safe. These around to the side where he'll jeopardize life when he has no other choice. Communication containment will save that possibility. Unit two, be advised the gas is being brought around to your side of the building. Give them the opportunity to come out for some. He's lucky with his procedure. The prowler is a misdemean. And he's one of the trickiest, strangest, most dangerous, unknown quantities in the night. A prowler is a neighbor walking his dog as a device to look in someone's window. He's a burglar casing a house. He's a sexual psychopath. He's a teenager talking to his girlfriend through a screen window. 655 arrival. He's a drunk who can't find his way home. He's an addict desperate for a radio to hawk. He's nobody but the wind rattling the eaves. But he's out there in someone's mind. And maybe he's out there with a gun and can present problems you couldn't begin to guess. But this prowler is real. The apprehension of a prowler is a difficult police problem. Most people won't go beyond the call of personal duty, as this woman has done. Inadvertently, most people startle the prowler and aid his escape, because they alert him to the fact that he's been detected. Others send husbands or friends into the neighborhood to help, sometimes armed. And these people present a danger to themselves and to investigating officers. Most prowers aren't as dangerous as the civilians who hunt them. In their searching, they often obliterate evidence, fingerprints, footprints, objects dropped by the prowler. If this man is apprehended by the unit involved, it will be partly communications because the woman remained in contact, held the voyer's attention, and because the responding unit followed procedure. And suddenly something all pat and complete turns into a running misdemeanor, embarrassed, afraid, maybe dangerous, who thinks he knows his neighborhood better than his pursuers. If he's right, he may escape. 3,000 ways to blow it, 3 million ways it can turn. Well, that's the point. The single most important aspect of patrol procedure in the handling of crimes in progress is containment of the persons and the scope of the event. Don't hurt me. You're under arrest. Get out of your feet slowly. Get up. Don't hurt me. With rare exception, every crime in progress you ever face will turn into something else. The responsibility of the officers involved is to work in conjunction with an entire network of assisting functions toward the limiting of violence and the harnessing of dangerous potentials. If the patrol units accomplish containment, the effect on the crime will be like the sandbagging of a bomb. Don't hurt me. Rarely will it turn out with chessboard perfection. Usually, it will blow itself to pieces in the trap of procedure. What was an armed robbery became a shooting situation which was contained to this street and these people. It's not good, but it's less than it might have been because of communication, containment, and disciplined procedure. Now on your rights as they've been related to you. Are you now answer questions without having [Music] to patience, procedure, and respectful life contained this violent idea to a whimpered surrender, some cans of tear gas, and an hour. The patrol kept its head. The result was a cooperative effort that is effective patrol. Not bad, a lot less than it might have been. And a search across this yard led to the methodical discovery of a purant imagination. The accomplishment, cooperation, communication, containment. It seldom comes out like you think it will. Only asparagus and butterflies do.