A Police Officer’s Best Day
“It’s all about smiles and cries …” Officer Jake Hoyt, Training Day
In response to a colleagues prodding, I am going to get a little more personal in this article. In my last post on “A day in the life of a narcotics officer” I discussed the rewarding experience of being an Under Cover (UC) officer on a human trafficking case where we helped rescue a 12 year old girl from a trafficker. Although it was very rewarding and the cap to a very decent UC career, it was not the best day ever I have had as a police officer, nor was it the worst. In this post I’ll focus on my best day, go to Homeland Insecurity to read my other post — A Police Officer’s Worst day.
The “best day ever” started like many others I had in narcotics. Two partners and I were on the way back in from grabbing food for the day and we saw a suspect we had been looking for who we had information was selling drugs. We followed her around for a while hoping she would land at a house or apartment so that we could get the rest of the team out and set up surveillance to get probable cause (PC) for a warrant.
Unfortunately she made our tail and abruptly stopped at the curb and ran from the car, which appeared to not have any other adults inside. About a half block down the street our runner threw a nice sack of rock cocaine and was subsequently arrested. As we returned her to the car she ran from we found two children, an infant and a child about 4 years old in the vehicle. The preschooler had unbuckled himself and was trying to put the running car into drive. Fortunately, we stopped him from moving down the street and hurting himself and others.
We realized our suspect had stopped the car in front of her residence so while waiting for a search warrant and Child Protective Services (CPS) to arrive we sat and talked to our suspect who asked that we let her kids go with family. This is not a big request as CPS in my county are really big at keeping kids with their families so that they do not have to find housing for them. We were able to a track down a cousin who could meet CPS’s criteria to come and take both children.
When the family member got out of the car she was all smiles and very friendly. She laughed and joked and seemed very happy to see us, which given the circumstance was unusual. Finally she tugged my sleeve and asked if I remembered her and I politely said I could not ever remember her. She said she probably looked a lot different the last time I saw her, and to no avail I could not remember her.
When she told me her name it clicked. She was a drug addict I had dealt with for about the first 3 years of my career on the streets. She had been in and out of trouble as well as in and out of prison. I had to admit, she looked like a different person: she was well dressed, clean, and the nicest I had ever seen her. She said she had been clean since the last time I sent her to prison, which was about a month after I had arrested and sent her husband back to prison. Since her release she had been working with other addicts who were on parole, and was about to open a halfway house with her husband.
Now this is where the day got good for me. She asked if I remembered the last time I saw and arrested her. I instantly remembered the day. It was hot, it was summer, my air conditioning was not working in the car, and I was having a bad day. I wanted out of the heat and a reason to be inside an air-conditioned building for a couple hours. I saw her walking down the street and knew she had a parole warrant for a prior case I had sent her to prison on. I rolled up to her and said to stop. She looked as tired as I did and just stood there. She turned and let me handcuff her and she went right into the car. She asked if this was about a ticket she didn’t go to court on and I told her it was the parole hold.
She began crying and asking if I could just give her one more day because it was her birthday. I very cold heartedly said, “Well, happy birthday because you are going back and maybe you will get clean this time.” She cried the entire time I processed her. At the jail the correctional officer told me that she was pregnant and all I could think was, “Lord, let that child be born ok and without issues.”
As I told her the story she just smiled. I asked her with some hesitance what ever happened to the baby as I prepared myself for the worst. She explained that she had the baby boy in prison, and her mother had taken guardianship of the child. She worked hard in prison to get and stay clean and earned an early release into a halfway house. She worked through that, getting her GED, and was going to school for substance abuse counseling. She had regained custody of not only her newest child, but also the others that had been given up to her mother. And then she shouted her husband’s name out at the car. I expected to see a 6’4”, 300 pound man exit, and saw a short smiling kindergartener in a polo shirt and khakis.
This young man walked up and looked at his mother who said, “Son, I want you to meet the man who saved your life.” The little fella’ put his hand out and said, “Glad to meet you. Thank you.” He whispered something to his mother and she said he could go back to the car.
I must have looked dumbstruck because she just started explaining that the last day I saw her she was going out to buy enough heroin and rock to overdose because she could not see bringing another child into this world. She had stayed away from drugs after she found out she was pregnant, but was frightened to death that she had already done irrepairable harm before she found out. When I stopped her, it was the worst day of her life. When her son shook my hand and thanked me, it was the best day of my career.
Arrests, awards, high fives, congratulations from partners and community members, even promotions pale in comparison to this day. It makes me feel good telling the story because I saved his life and didn’t even mean to.
Watch your six, and go home safe to kiss your family.
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