Editor’s Note: In PoliceOne “Frst Person” essays, our Members and Columnists candidly share their own unique view of the world. This is a platform from which individual officers can share their own personal insights on issues confronting cops today, as well as opinions, observations, and advice on living life behind the thin blue line. This week’s feature is from PoliceOne Member Trooper Richard “Spanky” Chapman, Florida Highway Patrol (Ret.). Here, Spanky writes about the intersection of our Nation’s war on drugs and his own fight for life. Do you want to share your own perspective with other P1 Members? Send us an e-mail with your story.
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By Trooper Richard K. Chapman (Ret.)
Florida Highway Patrol
On Thanksgiving Day 1983 I found out that I had been assigned as one of the first of four canine units that the Florida Highway Patrol would use on the roads in my state. I picked up my K-9 Abbey, a female German shepherd, and after completing Canine and Narcotics interdiction school in Hillsborough County, we began patrolling Florida’s Turnpike in March of 1984.
As a K-9 team we were immediately successful, and soon I started to notice a pattern in my drug arrests.
My first major felony arrest was a man from Louisiana with a kilo of cocaine in his trunk. By interviewing the driver I found that he had no luggage and had driven from Louisiana to south Florida and was returning without stopping. Through subsequent arrests, I compiled a list of indicators that was used to profile drug traffickers. I made traffic stops for infractions or equipment and then used the profile to determine whether or to use K-9 Abbey.
I found many variations. One was the suspect who was speeding northbound with a northern state license plate on his vehicle. He was wearing a heavy sweatshirt when the Orlando weather was in the high 80s. He quickly darted into a service plaza. He stopped at the gas station and said he was trying to go to the rest room. A kilo of cocaine was in plain view in the rear seat.
One unique instance was when I noticed a 1970s Chevrolet in a Turnpike gas station. When I spoke to the driver he quickly turned his head as if not seeing me. I noted his car needed body work but had a new paint job and new tires.
When stopped for a speeding violation Abbey gave strong alerts to the rear seat area however no narcotics were found. The vehicle was towed to our Orlando Station were it was discovered that the rear fender wells had been altered. Each rear fender well had been cut away and more than twenty kilos of cocaine inserted. Sheet metal was used to cover the holes and then a thick layer of undercoating was applied.
When the case went to court it is believed that the Hispanic driver was threatened because he simply pled guilty as charged: trafficking in cocaine.
Many arrests were made when the companions did not know the person they were riding with or their address.
The hidden compartments became harder and harder to detect and this is where the K-9 was very useful. There were times that a wrecker was used to pull a quarter of inch steel off a compartment. The new high-tech K-9 team uses equipment which includes electronic olfactory air sniffers and fiber optics cameras.
On November 18, 1988 we were dispatched to a traffic stop near Orlando. A driver had aroused the suspicion of the Trooper. Abbey alerted to the trunk and two kilos of cocaine were found.
When I was exposed to the two kilos of cocaine, it was sent to the FDLE crime lab that by law can only test it for illegal drugs. From that time until 1996 it was stored in a very hot evidence room above the FHP station on the Turnpike.
During the following months I became increasingly ill.
Abbey and I were to put on a Canine demonstration at Sea World of Orlando. This was in conjunction with other area law enforcement department for Law Enforcement Appreciation day.
Abbey and I arrived at the Sea World entrance and were greeted by fellow Troopers. I got out of my patrol unit and opened the rear door for Abbey. As I got her out of the car I started to feel as if I was going to lose consciousness. I regained consciousness to find the fire rescue unit stationed at Sea World at the scene with the paramedics checking my vital signs. I really became concerned when advanced life support arrived.
Soon I was en route to the Orlando Regional Medical Center. I was told that my blood pressure was quite low as they administered an IV to try to stabilize me. Meanwhile, my wife had been driven to the hospital by Trooper Roy D. Swatts.
She saw a nurse trying to force a tube down my throat and stepped in advising the nurse to wait while she got Vascular Samuel Martin on the phone. He authorized the nurse to use medicine to help eliminate my gag reflex. This worked and soon Dr. Martin was at my bedside ordering further tests. He advised that I needed an operation so they could see where I was losing blood from.
Judging by my current condition at that time, Dr. Martin gave me a 75 percent chance of not coming off the table. But that was only the beginning of an eight year battle which culminated with a liver and kidney transplant.
In late 1996 — after my transplant — the two kilos of cocaine being stored in the FDLE crime lab was tested in a agriculture lab. It was believed that that the intense storage heat had decomposed and only trace amounts of certain chemicals were present.
After moving to Savannah in 2005, I received information that a Wisconsin Trooper had been exposed to a chemical with identical qualities and effects that I had received (that Trooper died in 2006). The chemical that was identified in the Wisconsin case was Dichlorobenzene, which is listed as very hazardous.
It is in the interest of all law enforcement officers to stay informed as to the different methods of transporting narcotics as well as the dangers involved.
I am doing very well nowadays, considering the restrictions put on any transplant patient — the required drugs affect every part of your life, but it sure beats the alternative!
