[Chat] Police ride along last Friday

[Stephen J Gewirtz]

We had been told to arrive at Northern District station between 4 and 
4:20 last Saturday.  As one of the first there, I got first choice of 
where to go, and of course I picked Charles Village.

The officer I was with, whose first name is Mike, was told to patrol an 
area of Barclay Street, basically 25th to 28th, and just being there can 
be boring.  Then, a call came about a robbery, and we raced to the 
scene.  It turned out that a man had taken his girlfriend to one of the 
methadone clinics on Maryland Avenue and had then robbed her purse.  So 
even though the robber was not in the vicinity of the scene, they knew 
his address and tag number.

There was a call about problems at the McDonalds, but it was under 
control.  Apparently, the establishment hires an off duty deputy sheriff 
to handle problems.

I think there was one other call, but I do not remember what it was.

A little before 6, at the McDonalds, I transferred to another car for 
the ride back to the station.  There, they had wraps and pizza, and we 
heard a little more about Northern.

Many years ago, I read somewhere that the tv show that most accurately 
portrayed what police do was /Adam 12/.  The show takes place in LA, and 
Adam 12 is the designation of the car with its 2 officers.  You could 
see that they spent a lot of time driving around, and every so often 
they spotted something or got a call.  My impression is that that has 
not changed.  But a lot of police success is just being in the right 
place at the right time, as I can definitely see in some of the court 
watch cases I have followed.  By patrolling, police can be in the right 
place at the right time.

For example, after Stephen Pitcairn was murdered on 7/25/2010, Kevin 
Cosby was sent out to get some money from Stephen Pitcairn's credit 
card.  After Cosby got the zip code he needed to use the credit card, he 
was able to offer to 2 motorists to use the credit card to pay for their 
gas in return for cash.  He returned to the apartment with cash and 
drugs and did not share them with his girlfriend Tyrine Williams.  
Meanwhile, the driver of the paddy wagon had been told to drive around 
the area of the murder.  On 25th Street, Tyrine Williams flagged him 
down, pointed out her boyfriend, and said: "There's the person who 
robbed the gas station."  While it took a while longer to capture Cosby 
(he ran where a vehicle could not follow), that is what led homicide 
detectives to the apartment on Maryland Avenue and to solving the murder 
in much less than 24 hours.

And shortly after a house on my block was broken into fairly early one 
morning and four bottles of wine were taken, police patrolling 
Greenmount saw someone drinking wine.  That burglary was solved really 
quickly, and the burglar confessed.

Steve

On 7/19/12 11:39 AM, judy wrote:
> I envy the folks who can deal with the Hazy,Hot and Humid weather. I 
> can't function if it is above 90. I have air conditioning but am 
> getting cabin fever. Steve-- more power to u that u went out in over 
> 95 degree weather for a ride along. Please tell us about it.
>
> Judy (sweating with ac on)
>
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