View from the cop: Crime & punishment
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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2006 > July > 01
Saturday, July 1, 2006
Cops, bar patrons hit the ground running
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
(Lt. Rose, public information officer for the new Sandy Springs Police Department, writes about the department’s debut Saturday:)
I got home about 5 a.m. after the first night of Sandy Springs police activity. We had barely left the building after the inaugural ceremony when one of the units, already out, arrested someone for criminal trespass. Mr. Trivia question.
A lot of people showed up for the get-together prior to the changeover and I was surprised that so many people showed up. There were a few speeches and we marched in and then out and then in again — and of course out to the cars and then ZOOM!.
That was fun, but the real fun started after we started getting calls. I had forgotten that the morning watch was like going to Bizarroland and on this night Bizarroland had to close at 2 a.m. We spent a lot of time at the clubs, making sure they knew that closing time was at 2 and not 4 a.m.
Most had been informed of the ruling, earlier in the day, that did not favor later closing. A couple of them had not, but overall the process was smooth. We had the regular watch out and a number of extra cars, lots of extra cars in fact. So many cars in fact that when we all arrived on calls we had to assign parking places. (Not really, see wad a lot of cars and so I thought it would be humorous to say…uh…never mind. It was really late.)
The rule is this: The club closes and you have 30 minutes to leave the property. This means that you have 29 minutes to try and get that phone number or that lame story over on someone one last time. The last minute looks like the human version of the running of the bulls — only with cars.
I spent night riding with the chief and our city manager. We shadowed a lot of calls and checked to see that the clubs were compliant. We were at one of the clubs when someone put out a fight-call on the radio. We pulled around to the side of the building where a dozen or so people were either fighting or running.
The reason the guys that were fighting were not running was that they had not seen the 700 police cars pull up. (See: assigned parking above.) The drunks ran amok, in the woods next to the bar and throughout the parking lot. One drunk girl lost her shoe, said her foot was hurt, and was crying. The crying made her eye-stuff started drip down her face. She looked like a sad Alice Cooper.
The drunks were running all over but fortunately they were headed away from Roswell Road. We wished them well as they faded into the night.
Every Waffle House was standing-room only. Most of the traffic consisted of taxi cabs, police cars and wreckers. If things went good you got the cab. If not, you got the latter two.
…and house bands everywhere sang “Desperado” one last time.
Who will be first to throw up in one of our cars?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Birth of a police department, update:
Friday was a long day. The boss and other city officials were in court on the temporary injunction to keep the bars open until 4 a.m. Apparently they did not grant it so the bars, at least as of right now, they are going to have to close at 2 a.m.
FYI, clubs: We are going to check it really close so you guys need to get your stories straight a little earlier tonight. It will be mandatory for all DJ’s and house bands to play “Desperado” no later than 1:35 a.m. Good luck.
6:45 p.m. Friday
I did two interviews in the parking lot. The cameramen took video of cars, rode around the block in the cars and then videoed the cars again — sort of a before and after? I talked to the reporters and told them that we’re ready to go and looking forward to finally getting out there.
The start-up has been brutal. We have literally been getting the final sets of uniforms and re-fits in today. Most of the details have worked out. Some of the hats don’t fit. Small problem compared to what else could have gone wrong. We tested the car radios.
Everything is up and online now.
Like you, the burning question remains in my mind: Who will be the first drunk guy arrested? Will he run? If so, will he run in a big circle? Will he throw up in the back of the police car? Those cars are really nice.
