S.W.A.T.

Special Weapons and Tactics. Technically J's team has another acronym they go by, but it's the same thing. They are specifically trained for the types of cases that aren't routine police work. Too often that means they train for any and all situations in preparation for all the unknown factors.

For example, they can't possibly be prepared for the layout of every building floorplan in existence. Or for the great unknown of people in those aforementioned buildings. Where could they be, are they armed, are they dangerous, are they innocent, etc.

My brother is on the SWAT team for his county too, so sometimes it's interesting for the two to compare the differences in their training approach.

A particular situation that comes to mind is when they serve a warrant on a meth lab. The sheer volatility of these labs is such that the team is forced to rethink their approach, and severely reduces or eliminates a number of the tools they typically rely on. No flash-bangs, no tasers, even their gas masks can be rendered obsolete.

Meth labs are scary shit in their own right... it makes me nervous when I hear about those warrants.

DUI arrest - Man blows .373

WOW. Here's the news story. .373 is four times the legal limit here in Ohio! The journalist found court records indicating a similar charge in 1990 for this man...I want to know how he went twenty years without getting caught again.

Only with this type of job...

It's funny when you talk to some one who said their engineer husband was too busy to talk while at work. The other day I called J, who picked up the phone and immediately said "I'll call you back," sirens blaring in the background. My response has become a quick "loveyoubye" in those cases.

An interesting night

So Monday night, J and some other deputies respond to a call about a bar fight. They arrive to find the instigator of the fight, bloodied and bruised. Apparently he lost. HA! The other fighter is not around, so technically there's no victim. They have the paramedics check this guy out, whereupon they tell him he will need several stitches. Guy refuses to go to the hospital, so they bandage him up and go on their way. At this point the deputies don't want to fully arrest him and take him to jail, so they issue a citation.

Now, a logical person would at this point realize he's just gotten off easy and go home. Not Senor Froggy though. He starts getting belligerent with the deputies, threatening to call his lawyer-cousin, telling J he remembers him from an arrest in Hamilton (a place J has never worked), on and on. The deputies continue trying to get rid of him. Froggy throws his citation on the ground and refuses to go to his rent-a-home (the motel).

Finally the deputies decide to go ahead and haul him off to jail. They not only will have to book him into the jail but because of the paramedic visit, they will need to take him to the hospital too. Once Froggy realizes he's about to be handcuffed, he bolts. Except in his fully drunken state he isn't getting very far. When J tackles him, his wounds re-open. Suddenly Froggy wants to be very cooperative, tells them he will go straight to his room, won't give them any trouble, etc.

As soon as he is in the back of a cruiser, J realizes his tie is covered in blood. He throws it away. Later, while writing up his report, he discovers his shirt is bloody too. (Ohio deputies wear black shirts so you can imagine that at night you wouldn't see it)
This shirt now goes in the trash, too. On the plus side, I don't need to figure out how to sanitize a black shirt without bleach!

Back to the story...the deputies head up to the jail, only to be told there's no room at the inn. Supervisor calls in, is told the same thing. No space in the jail. After all this trouble, they're going to be forced to set Froggy on his way with the citation. Except suddenly someone realizes this man doesn't even have a green card...

Morton's Salt joins the thin blue line

This weekend was fabulous. J and I and the boy all had 72 hours together, CONSECUTIVELY. He had a vacation day on his "Friday" due to a health insurance incentive (let us find out exactly how much of a burden you are on the insurance system and we'll give you a day off!), and I was off Friday thanks to the union at my work selecting Catholic holidays for a lot of our paid vacation days.

Unfortunately (depending on your outlook), due to it being a holiday weekend, we were busy the entire time.

Wednesday night, though, J had gotten a DUI arrest. Last night he discovered it would possibly go to pre-trial tomorrow. Tonight he has a regular shift, then an extra detail. It just seems to always work out this way. The detail he's working after shift tonight is a nice extra paycheck, but it always causes a backlog in our daily routine. Add court time to that and it just goes completely haywire.

It is what it is, we're not really complaining. Just seems like all the 'extras' pile up together.