It was the fourth of July and I was called in for a cover shift at the PD. Since I was out on a camping trip with friends, I wasnt too thrilled about leaving early but I love being at the PD too so I agreed to do it.
I showed up at the PD at around 11:00 am. City hall was completely empty since they were closed and everyone had gone for the holiday. I wasnt surprised to find out that the Chief was already out and working the local highway thanks to the increased holiday traffic. We are really fortunate at our PD. We dont have a Chief that shows up in a suite and sits around in the office all day. Since the town is so small he works just like any other patrol officer. On top of that he has to show up at all of the political type stuff and complete all of the normal responsibilities as any normal Chief would. How many cops can say that they were out on a traffic stop when the Chief of police showed up as cover?
Anyway, I took my time getting into uniform. Today was the first day I ever carried a back up gun. For the longest time, I had just never carried one. Then I saw some videos where cops would have died had it not been for their back up gun. Its strange how you really start thinking a lot about your own mortality once you have your first child (My wife and I had our first baby girl about 8 months ago). After my daughter was born I purchased a Glock 27. I chose the 27 because I know that if something ever goes wrong with my duty weapon (Glock 22) the 27 will except the same magazines thus allowing me to stay n the fight.
I spent some time trying to figure our where the hell I wanted to carry it. Back up carry positions are always debatable, but I just really wanted to be comfortable so I decided on an Uncle Mikes body armor holster. My sergeant recommended that I carry it on my ankle rather than my body armor just in case I was rolling around on the ground with someone and I cant get to it. But the same could be said about an ankle holster plus I dont know if I could walk around all day with an ankle holster wrapped around my boot. So I managed to get it all attached and set up and then slipped into the good olmonkey suit. Our uniforms are pretty bad ass. All black with silver and black patches and an old school style Police Officer badge.
I drug my duty bag out my locker and placed it on the chair nearby. I hadnt gone through it in a while and thought, Geez, I should at least check to make sure that I still have all of the supplies that I need. Inside I found all kinds of stuff that I never would have thought would be in there. A candy bar rapper, an empty Rock Star can, a DVD of Super Troopers, about three and half flashlights, two boot knifes, a Galls Swiss Army knife that I got for free for ordering stuff from them, and a bunch of other crap that I just had no use for anymore.
Once I finished cleaning out my bag, I gathered up all of my stuff and headed out to my car. The weather was pretty damn nice out. Some guys would say, This is perfect ticket writing weather! It was about 80 degrees and the sun was blazing. For Oregon you cant beat that. Anything other than rain would make you smile. I walked over to my patrol car and unlocked the door. Great I muttered to myself. As I looked up toward the light bar, I notice two or three great big splotches of bird shit. As my eyes wondered around to the windshield I found a couple more. It looked like the birds had spent all night bending biscuits all over my car. And what the hell to these birds eat anyway? I spent like fifteen minutes trying to scrub it off the windshield with a brush before I had to bust out the ice scrapper to remove it. Im sure the heat baking it to the windshield didnt help too much either.
I hopped in and fired up the engine. I did my normal routine checks of my lidar and radar instruments and then switched on the MDT. 0092 10-8 I mumbled into the radio mic. Copy good morning sir at 12:03 the dispatcher replied. Damn, 12:03? It took me an hour to get ready? I thought. After turning the air conditioner on full blast I pulled out of the office parking lot.
I spent some time cruising around in town for a while kind of doing the political thing. There were a lot of families at home BBQing in their driveways and having people over. I must have gotten like six invites as I drove by. I could hear the Chief on radio calling in traffic stop after traffic stop out on the highway so I figured I should head out there for a little while to see whats doin. Once I pulled out onto the highway, I switched on the radar unit. The eerie howl of the high pitched tones filled the cab of the patrol car. The speed limit out here is 55 mph and it took me about 30 seconds to check a car at 82 mph in the on coming lanes. This particular highway is four lanes with a large grass median in between. As the car passed I could see the driver looking right at me. I switched the radar to the back antenna to see if he had slowed down. Nope in fact he had increased his speed to 84. I think that most people dont think that we can just drive right through the median to catch them. Thats probably why he just kept speeding.
So I whipped on through the median and quickly caught up to the speeding car. I pinched him for the 84 and sent him sent him on his way. It turned out to be so busy on the highway that the Chief and I just decided to continue working out there. We set up on the west end of town and hid behind an over pass pillar although I dont really even think that we needed to even do that. Most of the people we caught speeding told us that they werent even paying attention. It was about 16:00 hours when the radio jumped to life. A county deputy working the same highway about five miles to the east of us keyed up with a panicked voice. 5##0 to the city units just west of me! I picked up the mic, 0092 go ahead. I just checked two high rollers headed your way on sport bikesThey should be coming up on you anytime.They were at 110 when they passed me! You could hear the engine of the deputys car accelerating to catch up. I headed about a mile east down the highway to intercept them. I positioned my patrol car in the median right next to another overpass. Then I switched the radar unit into stationary mode. I looked east down the highway formulating a plan to get them stopped. Since sport bikes are hard to catch you cant ever be too careful. A moment later I could hear the sound of racing motorcycle engines. The high pitch wine was unmistakable and echoed down the highway as they approached. I switched on my overhead lights and nosed up to the shoulder of the highway. There, I could see a green sport bike and a black sport bike traveling in the fast lane. The radar picked them up at 92 mph. Even with my patrol car on the side of the road with the overhead lights illuminated both bikers drove right by. I pulled out from the median and started to follow. The motorcyclist on the green motorcycle slowed and then started pulling to the right. Just then I saw the motorcyclist on the black bike, look back at me, and then accelerate very rapidly weaving between cars as he sped west.
0092, its a pursuit! West bound highway ## at G### Rd! I said into the radio. Copy pursuit west bound ## at G### Rd. Signal 2 this channel for 0092. The dispatcher said. Up ahead I could see that Chief was on a traffic stop. I radioed ahead, 0092 to 0000 he coming up on your six. Copy, I got him. Chief said calmly. It was right then I saw Chiefs cars tail lights light up and then pull right out into the path of the speeding motorcycle. Oh shit! Hes done! I said to myself. The bike swerved left to avoid Chiefs patrol car. Chief answered that by pulling into his path once again. This continued until the motorcycle was forced off the road and into the median. Later Chief would tell me that he thought the bike went into the median at around 50 or 55 mph. Both Chief and I thought it was going to crash for sure. Instead the motorcycle managed to pass Chief, pull back onto the highway, and continue west on the highway.
Let me stop right here for a minute and give you a quick little profile on my Chief. A normal hard working cop, Chief has worked for several different agencies throughout Oregon. He has been a cop since the late 80s and has a lot of experience on the road. Hes in his very early 40s and has been a single guy up until recently when he got married. From experience I can tell you that he drives like he has nothing to live for. I once went on a code run with him the sacred me so bad I refuse to ride with him ever again. Its not that he is reckless or crazy, its just that he has been doing it for so long that he really knows the limits of his patrol car and is very good at driving at high speeds. So, it probably goes without saying that this guy chose the wrong cop to run from.
We pursued the motorcycle about two more miles west on the highway before he decided to turn off on one of our local rule roads. Oooh, big mistake I thought to myself. 0092, 0000 has the lead on this and we are now turning north bound on D#####m Rd. I said into the mic. I could feel myself starting to get a little amped up. Once the motorcycle turned it accelerated very rapidly pulling away from us as we rounded the corner. Chief, of course, drove his crown vic to its absolute limit. Since my car is the dog in the fleet I couldnt accelerate as fast. Chiefs car looked as though I was watching it from a dash cam in fast forward.
I grasped the steering wheel with both hands and literally stood with all of my weight on the accelerator. Come on!!!! I yelled out loud. It was then that I realized that I still hadnt put my seat belt on. I reached over and put it on real quick (Sorry Courtney, my wife will kill me when she reads that). Once my belt was secured I continued wailing on the accelerator. My patrol car was just barely keeping up with Chief who was now about six car links ahead of me and appeared to be right on the motorcycles butt. I reached over and switched off the air conditioner. I dont know if that actually helped but at this point I would have taken any little bit of horse power that I could get.
The motorcycle turned again on to another even more rule road thats about ten miles long and then turns to gravel. Once the road turns to gravel it dead ends about 500 feet up. The pursuit was over the guy on the bike just didnt know it yet. Up ahead we hit a straight away, my car hit about 110 mph. Chief later told me that he was at about 130 or so. Somehow I managed to stay with them in the corners. I think that my driving skills in cornering were probably what helped me the most in this chase. We chased the motorcycle until the road turned to gravel. Just as the road turned to the gravel, the motorcyclist threw his hands up in the air and let the motorcycle coast to a stop.
Chief stopped just behind the motorcycle and I parked just behind Chief. The motorcyclist was just casually putting down his kick stand, and began to slowly take off his helmet. His attitude seemed to be like Well, I guess you got me. I had a feeling that he thought we were just going to go up there and get his information and then write him a ticket. If that was what he was thinking, he was sorely mistaken.
Chief covered him with the taser while I approached on the right. I said, I gotem, I gotem! Just to avoid getting tasered while I was taking this guy into custody. With my left hand I reached out and grabbed him on the back of his collar. I jerked with all 270 pounds of my weight. Obviously I caught him off guard because he tumbled backwards and then fell to the ground, face down, with my knee on his back. The motorcycle fell over causing the mirrors and some of the plastic covers to break off. Dont move mother fucker!!! I yelled. Youre under arrest stupid!
The guy later admitted that he was running because he was revoked. In Oregon if you are revoked and caught driving it is an A misdemeanor. Chief told him that had he not ran, he would have just been cited and released. Now he is looking at some serious felony charges. The man was transported to jail and I waited around for the tow. He ended up getting charged with Speeding, Reckless Driving, Felony Elude, and a bunch of other stuff.
The man on the green motorcycle ended up getting stopped by the county deputy who originated the call. Since the deputys agency has a weak pursuit policy he just hung back to deal with the first guy. They guy on the green bike had a valid license but no motorcycle endorsement which ended in his bike getting towed and him getting slapped with No Operators License and 110 in a 55 which is now a $1103.00 fine.
So, for a holiday in my little town it was pretty eventful.
Stay safe out there and remember If there is a doubt, there is no doubt.
