JUST A SHORT, FUNNY STORY

[Alk8944]

Within the first year when I was first hired by my Department the "Paddy Wagon" was usually driven by Reserve Officers. One night on afternoon shift the reserve driving the "Wagon" that night contacted dispatch on the radio and advised that he was following a stolen car and gave the dispatcher a full description of the car.

She asked him "How do you know that it's stolen?" His response was direct, "BECAUSE IT'S MY CAR! The car was a Corvette.

Since this occurred right downtown, about two blocks from the main station it was literally seconds before several Patrol units were on the car!

He could have made the stop himself but wanted other units in case the car ran. The last thing you wanted to do is try to keep up in a chase when driving what we referred to as "The bread truck".

This happened over 50 years ago, some things you never forget.

 

[LoboGunLeather]

Back in the early 1970s the paddy wagon was the assigned vehicle for our bar patrol detail, couple of rather large powerful guys with plenty of experience dealing with such things in a city with several military bases and plenty of nightclubs.

Not unusual for the wagon to take a little trip several miles out on the prairie late at night, release the passengers for a long walk under starry skies to reflect upon their behavior, all for their future benefit and enlightenment.

 

[lkabug]

Paddy Wagon wasn't a bad assignment. In fact I kinda liked it. You got to know which officers did a through search of their arrest. One would be surprised how often I would find a weapon after a search was already made by the arresting officer. And always someone that says "I'm not going in there", ya gotta love Friday and Saturday night in the "Paddy Wagon"
The bad part of Wagon duty was day shifts, especially Sundays and Mondays.all those food drive, clothing drives. On those days it was mostly community service. But you got to meet some good people.

 

[Alk8944]

Not unusual for the wagon to take a little trip several miles out on the prairie late at night, release the passengers for a long walk under starry skies to reflect upon their behavior, all for their future benefit and enlightenment.

The stories I heard about the same sort of situation when I was new was that they used to take them to the railroad yard and stick them in a freight car or gondola and they would be in Bakersfield or Denver before they woke up. That was never "officially authorized" though and the practice had been stopped.

 

[mckenney99]

As a brand new wet behind the ears Trooper I was assigned to a fairly rural post with several major US & State Routes's running between a couple mid sized cities. On midnight shift our main focus was on DUI drivers.
One of my early DUI arrests was a guy coming out of the closest mid-sized city and once the arrest was made I had to transport the suspect to the post for breath testing and processing. The trip involved taking some really dark back country roads and I noticed the arrestee started getting very nervous and fidgety and I asked him what was wrong and he asked me if I was going to "alley court" him and dump him out in the country side. I had not heard that term before and he told me that it was not unusual for the big city officers to take the arrestees into an alley, tune them up and then dump them in the alley, instead of messing with processing them. I had my doubts that this was actually happening but I assured the guy I had no such intentions and I dropped the issue.
Over the next 6 months or so, the term "alley court" came up pretty frequently with guys that had previously been arrested in the city and it became pretty obvious that it was actually how some of the city's officers dealt with misdemeanor arrests that ate up a lot of time and the city courts were not serious about prosecuting anyway.
When I discreetly asked a couple of younger cops I had gotten to know from the PD about the practice, I was informed that it had been going on for a LONG time and it was not much of a secret within the agency.

 

[Doug M.]

The bad part of Wagon duty was day shifts, especially Sundays and Mondays.all those food drive, clothing drives. On those days it was mostly community service. But you got to meet some good people.

*
What is this "dayshift" of which you speak? I really hated being out in the sun as a cop.

 

[yaktamer]

The stories I heard about the same sort of situation when I was new was that they used to take them to the railroad yard and stick them in a freight car or gondola and they would be in Bakersfield or Denver before they woke up. That was never "officially authorized" though and the practice had been stopped.

I used to live in a rural county that was transected a major interstate that ran parallel to a major rail line. It was relatively common for transients to wind up taking up residence near the off ramp for a small town consisting of a gas station and a couple of bars. Often they would engage in minor crimes, for which they would be released on their own recognizance, only to wind up in custody again the next day or shortly thereafter. Eventually the local sheriff's deputies, frustrated with having to repeatedly deal with these frequent fliers with no end in sight, would take up a collection for a bus ticket to the next "big town" across the state line and send the miscreants on their way, with vivid descriptions as to what could happen if they returned. They referred to it as "Greyhound Therapy." It was very effective.

 

[lkabug]

*
What is this "dayshift" of which you speak? I really hated being out in the sun as a cop.

At the time, we had shifts. 8 to 4, 4 to 12, 12 to 8. Rotated every two weeks.
I didn't care for that 8 am to 4 pm shift either.

 

[Doug M.]

Shift rotation is really unsafe. It takes a year or longer to properly acclimate your body and regain full mental and physical function.

 

[gaf]

A longggg time ago I picked up a guy on an exit of I 75 and began transporting him north into the next jurisdiction to become someone else's problem.
After about 5 minutes the voice behind me stated "Officer, I appreciate the ride, but I have been trying to go south for the last two days and you guys only take me North."

 

[Tex1001]

At the time, we had shifts. 8 to 4, 4 to 12, 12 to 8. Rotated every two weeks.
I didn't care for that 8 am to 4 pm shift either.

Dallas PD rotated every 3 months. Rotation was FOREWARD
so every 3 months you had to pull a double.
Days off were decreed by seniority, so all the rookies always
were on duty Friday (Nights) and Saturday (Nights).
Good times.

 

[mdf9183]

When I first started in patrol we rotated shifts every 28 days and your days off were determined by the unit you were assigned to. I had Sun. and Mon. off for my first 2 years.