Josie watched the agitated transient start toward her. She withdrew her Taser and pointed it at his chest. “Stop. Or I’ll tase you.”
The guy stopped his advance.
Bender yelled out to her, “Get him on his knees!”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her partner handcuffing his suspect and forcing him to sit on the ground.
Josie went through the commands resulting in the transient on his knees, his ankles crossed, his arms high in the air.
With a roar of the engine, another black and white skidded to a stop. Both officers sprung from the vehicle, with the male joining Josie and the female going to assist Bender.
As soon as the female officer, Shaffer, started getting information from the suspect, Bender joined Josie.
“Go ahead and cuff this tough guy and search him,” he said to her.
Bender looked at the male officer. “Ling, can you and Shaffer search the other suspect and run him for warrants?”
“Yep,” Ling said, and joined his partner.
Josie moved forward, and, as they’d taught her in the academy, handcuffed the suspect. Her training told her that if a male officer was available, she shouldn’t search a suspect of the opposite sex. But this was the real world, not the sterile environment where she’d been trained, so she did what her training officer directed.
Before she began, she moved to a position where she had eye contact with the suspect. She donned some nitrile gloves. “Do you have anything on you that could hurt me? Knives, needles, drugs…bombs?”
“Weed in my front pocket.”
Josie searched the suspect as she’d been trained and pulled a small plastic bag out of his front pocket. The baggie contained what appeared to be marijuana. In his other front pocket, she pulled out a medium-sized folding knife. She tossed both items to the ground out of reach of the suspect. After finishing her search, she directed the man in how she wanted him to stand, and said she’d help him get to his feet.
Bender stood next to her. “Did he have any ID on him?”
She shook her head.
Her partner grabbed the suspect’s arm and walked him into the shade and had him sit on an abandoned nightstand left in the alley.
“Get an FI on him and find out his story of what was going on when we rolled up.”
“Got it.”
Twenty minutes later, they’d run both suspects for warrants. Neither suspect was wanted.
After interviewing the two men, they determined no crime had been committed. Each suspect gave a similar version of the disagreement. They were arguing about where they were going to shoplift something to eat.
The officers counseled the men regarding the laws of theft and sent the pair on their way.
Ling and Shaffer handed Josie the FI they’d taken on the second suspect and left to handle another radio call.
Just as the other unit exited the parking lot, another black and white turned in and parked behind their black and white.
“Sergeant Fox,” Bender said. “She’s probably checking up to see how you’re doing.”
Josie had noticed the sergeant at roll call. Tall, blonde, and with all eyes on her, she’d laughed and joked with the officers as she passed out subpoenas before the lieutenant arrived.
Being it was her first day, Josie found it hard to believe she’d ever be so self-assured and confident as the sergeant. But it gave her a goal to work toward.