By Cuffsandcops
Summer is very quickly concluding, so I texted the Sergeant I know from the Sheriff’s office to see if it would be possible to ride along at night. I have ridden twice with this Sergeant when he was a Deputy. You may remember him from previous stories Side Job Deputy and Ride Along with the Deputy from 2022. Both times, very little happened. I was hoping to experience more action and thought a weekend night could provide that. He responded that he knows the perfect guy for me to ride with who works 5pm to 3am and will set it up.
I asked if the perfect guy was him, knowing he doesn’t spend much time on the road since the promotion, and was told no. I then asked what made the guy he has in mind perfect for me. The Sergeant responded that the Deputy gets busy at work and asked if Saturday from 6pm to 12am would work. I said it would, provided my vehicle details, was reminded of the address of the station to meet the Deputy at, and given his name.
Saturday afternoon I received a call from a random local number and when I answered it was the Deputy. He asked if going on a ride along sounded familiar and we spoke briefly about how it came to be. I confirmed the details I was provided with the Deputy and had about 90 minutes until we were scheduled to meet. I showered and got dressed in a blue polo, black uniform cargo pants, a GShock Mudmaster GSG-100-1a, a rubber bracelet of the Sheriff’s Department, and a pair of 511 boots I purchased off a local officer while he was on duty. I was really feeling the part. I filled a water bottle and left my house 25 minutes before 6pm. It didn’t take as long to get to the station, so I drove around for a few minutes so as not to appear too eager.
I had been directed to park in the side parking lot of the station. As I arrived, I noticed a marked SUV parked by the row of spots. I pulled into the first available spot, grabbed my water bottle and sunglasses, and exited my truck. The Deputy was standing there when I turned around. We shook hands, exchanged names, and got in the SUV. He said we already have a call and need to get going. The Deputy was my height, definitely leaner than myself with a nice bubble butt and shaved head. He just started his 4th year and was 25 years old. I was handed the consent form, which I signed and handed back to him, and off we went.
We pulled up to a swimming pool at an apartment complex. We were told the person who was called on had left the pool. The Deputy gave me a tour of his beat. His territory butted up against the city and included a few busy shopping plazas and some neighborhoods I had never seen before as a longtime local resident. The Deputy told me that he does not issue many traffic citations. He prefers to locate stolen vehicles and gave me the details of one he has been hunting for that had been picked up by several roadside cameras throughout the day.
On our third lap of his beat, a minibike was ahead of us, and the Deputy commented that they always run. We ended up behind the minibike as he attempted to make a left hand turn and both vehicles came to a stop. The Deputy sprung out of the SUV and got his hand on the handle bar of the minibike before the rider realized he was there. The rider was told to step off the bike and the Deputy swiftly grabbed a small knife from his waistband. The knife was set on the hood of the SUV and the Deputy collected the riders information.
Minibikes are not street legal and the rider was told he had to walk it to his destination. The Deputy said that he fully believed that the minibike would be ridden away the second we were out of the rider’s sight.
The next couple hours were pretty uneventful. We were flagged down to talk to a lady who clearly didn’t want to talk to us. The Deputy pulled behind a fire station. He showed me drone equipment he carried around in the back of the SUV and told me about the capabilities of the drones he flew. He also showed me his gear bag which would normally be taking up the passenger seat. He had a stainless pair of chain Peerless handcuffs clipped to the inside of the bag lid. The bag also contained several medical related items and extra commonly used supplies. We made our way to the Deputy’s favorite spot to catch speeders, which he was unhappy about, but he wants to try and make some action happen. While there I asked more questions about his gear. He told me he still wears the original uniform shirts he was provided. He replaces his boots every 4 months. The handcuffs in his gear bag were the ones he was issued and he carries around two pairs of black Peerless chain cuffs on his duty belt. The Deputy preferred Peerless chain cuffs because they were the ones he trained on in the academy.
At the halfway point in my third ride, we had more action than the previous two combined, but that wasn’t saying much. The Deputy was a bit bothered that we hadn’t been busier. During the down time while we lapped his territory, the Deputy told me stories of the first call he went on, physical altercations he had been in, and how he almost become the department’s helicopter pilot. The stolen car from earlier pinged another roadside camera so off we went to try and locate it. The Deputy was working in conjunction with another Deputy to find this car. It was really awesome to see the two of them working together towards one goal.
A call came in and sent us back to the same apartment complex we began the shift at. There we backed up the state troopers. The Deputy was familiar with those involved and was able to actively assist. One of the troopers asked if I was the manager of the apartment complex because of how I was dressed. I told him I was riding along with the Deputy and he said I looked professional. Soon after leaving that scene, we combined on a call with that same state trooper at a local truck stop.
While at the truckstop, we were dispatched to another call in the Deputy’s territory, so we hopped in the SUV and raced to the scene. A large party was going on and several attendees had too much to drink. There wasn’t much we could do so we left. We were then radioed that the Sergeant on duty was chasing a vehicle so we hauled off to join in. We ended up downtown and the driver was ticketed for excessive speed. About 5 minutes later we were called back to the street of the party. This time one of the drunks took things too far, but had left the party. We collected the necessary information to file a report and set off again. There was about an hour left in my ride along.
Moments later, the Deputy was alerted to another stolen vehicle that was being tracked not far from where we were. The vehicle was headed towards an apartment complex near my house in the city limits. Since the car was stolen in the suburbs, the Sheriffs were handling the case and the city PD did not respond. I had slight knowledge of the complex and informed the Deputy of the many parking lots contained within it. We checked three lots for the vehicle with no luck. We pulled into the fourth lot and I pointed out the vehicle that matched the license plate we were seeking. The Deputy shined his spotlight on the car. A person exited the passenger seat. The Deputy told the person to stop, ran around the SUV, and had cuffs locked on in the blink of an eye. The suspect was seated in the caged back seat behind me. Six other Deputies and another state trooper quickly arrived on the scene. The suspect asked me if they were going to jail, to which I responded that it appeared that way. I then exited the SUV, took a look in the stolen vehicle, and joined the circle of officers. The Deputy asked another one to transport the suspect to the justice center since he had me with him.
A tow truck was called to collect the stolen vehicle. The Deputy wrote the report for the previous call we had responded to while we waited. It was a half hour past the time my ride was scheduled to end, which didn’t bother me at all. The other Deputies said they would wait for the tow, so we left the scene and headed back to the station where my truck was parked. On the way, I asked if the Deputy would be willing to put me through a field sobriety test since I had thought I might witness one, and he said he would. We pulled into the station and the Deputy parked in front of my truck. I collected my water bottle, sunglasses, and keys and set them in my truck.
The Deputy told me to stand on a painted parking lot line. He pulled out a card and read the standardized directions for me to walk the line. I had to take 9 heel to toe steps, turn around, and take 9 heel to toe steps back. I was sober and performing this task while in the brightness of the Deputy’s flashlight was very nerve wracking. I can’t imagine how challenging this would be if I were impaired. Next I was directed to hold a foot 6 inches off the ground and count seconds until told to stop. At 21 seconds, my foot touched the ground. The Deputy said the test is supposed to last 30 seconds, but I did a good job. He said I wouldn’t be able to see what he sees when checking someone’s eye movement, which makes sense since I can’t see my eyes.
I then asked if I could get cuffed and sat in the backseat due to my poor performance on the tests. He opened the backdoor and hesitated to grab his cuffs. I faced the SUV and placed my hands behind my back palms facing out. The click on the cuffs was the next thing I heard. The Deputy asked if I wanted pictures and pulled my phone out of my pocket.
I took a seat in the caged backseat and posed for a few pictures. I exited the SUV and asked if the cuffs were on as tightly as they should be. The Deputy said they were for a compliant person, though I noted he had not double locked them. I turned away from the Deputy and he removed the handcuffs just as smoothly as they went on.
I thanked the Deputy for the ride along. I paid him a few compliments for his quick actions, the way he partnered with the other officers, and his active approach to police work. The second half of this ride along was very exciting and busy as we criss crossed his territory responding to call after call. We shook hands and parted ways. I noticed a few marks on my wrist on the drive home and had the ghost feeling of the cuffs being on for a bit. I went past the scene of the stolen car to see that it had been towed and the other officers had dispersed. Once I arrived home, I did some reflecting on the most action packed ride along I’ve been on. I also am pretty confident that sometime in the past, I saw the Deputy I rode with doing a speed check, and pulled over to ask him to try on his cuffs. He declined then. I wonder if he has a memory of that event. I shot a nice load before heading to bed, knowing that I had once again been handcuffed and sat in the back on a unit, by an on-duty officer.
