Editor’s Note: In PoliceOne “First 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 essay comes from PoliceOne Member Michael Grassi, an officer with the Mahwah (New Jersey) Police Department, who was inspired to write as he sat in a recent Street Survival Seminar. Do you want to share your own perspective with other P1 Members? Send us an e-mail with your story.
By Officer Michael Grassi
Mahwah (New Jersey) PD
How many times have you been car-to-car or having coffee with a brother or sister officer and discussed the possibility of transferring to another department or division? Some will tell you, “The grass always looks greener...” or something to that effect.
For some officers, it is often too late to make a career move due to being at or near top pay. For others, it’s the fear of having to start over or to go through probation again, where you can be dismissed for no apparent reason. Either way, it is a big decision that shouldn’t be taken lightly. All the risks and possible rewards of making a move must be weighed.
Shortly after being discharged from the United States Coast Guard, I was hired in a small town near where I grew up. I was chomping at the bit to make traffic stops and arrests and after my field training program was over, I stopped everything that moved. The summonses were plentiful and so were a handful of misdemeanor charges that I only discovered with contraband in plain view or plain smell. In that period of time, I never conducted a consent search on a motor vehicle. This was due to my lack of knowledge and training as well as this particular department’s unwritten policy of “We don’t do consent searches.” As most officers know, this is an invaluable tool if done correctly.
I recall being told by other officers, “Firemen don’t go looking for fires,” after my third or fourth stop of the shift. One supervisor even questioned me for randomly running plates when, as we all know, it is perfectly legal. Another supervisor was known to call officers on their cell phones to tell them not to get involved when a nearby jurisdiction needed assistance.
For me, I think the straw that broke the camel’s back occurred one evening when I stopped a vehicle with occupants wanted for an aggravated assault out of a nearby jurisdiction. I observed a bloody shirt sticking out of the back seat trunk opening. With another senior officer, we searched the trunk to retrieve the bloody evidence as well as to check for weapons. A supervisor pulled up and literally yelled at us in front of the suspects for being in the trunk of the vehicle. (If that bloody shirt isn’t probable cause, I don’t know what is!) After four and a half years of working patrol in this small town — which I should also mention had an antiquated coal miners schedule (6-2, 6-3) — I made my move.
Ironically enough, the department I transferred to actually has a common border with the town I used to patrol. With four and half years now on the new department, making my time in both jurisdictions equal, I can honestly say it was the best decision I have ever made in my life regarding my career. I truly love going to work every day for many reasons:
First, we work a twelve hour “Pittman” schedule, which allows more time off. Second, I have a supervisor with a proactive attitude, who takes the time out to create squad level training and supports our endeavors, challenging us to make quality arrests and follow ups. Lastly, we have an administration that sends us to criminal interdiction training and promotes narcotic and money seizures among our other patrol duties.
Shortly after my transfer, I attended my first interdiction course. Watching videos of patrol officers conducting interdiction stops, I couldn’t believe the arrests that were made, even in small towns and on rural roadways. Most importantly, I learned some skills that made me look beyond the ticket, and to gain the trust of occupants to solidify a consent search. Approximately two weeks following this training, I used the skills I had learned and arrested a Canadian national who was trafficking 22 pounds of Marijuana.
In the years to follow, I was able to attend other similar type training given by Captain Mike Lewis of the Maryland State Police and Shawn Smart of the Ohio State Police. I became a member of Police1.com and Desertsnow.com. With this training, updates and application, I have been able to make other criminal arrests. Recently, I arrested a passenger in a motor vehicle who had been showing signs of deception and had provided me with false information. This individual was wanted for homicide. At the end of last year, I ran into an individual with burglary proceeds and tools who was casing our local businesses on a county road that runs through many small towns nearby.
These statistics are not meant to brag in any way. In fact, there are many other officers in my agency making much bigger and better arrests than I have. They consistently go above and beyond on traffic stops, arresting bank robbers in transit and felons with defaced firearms. They are great cops, but they also realize they work on a Police Department that has given them the proper tools and support they need to do this type of work. We even have a K-9 officer. I know for many departments in the country, especially those involved in interdiction, this is normal. In speaking with many officers around the state of New Jersey, however, this police work in an anomaly. Not because police officers don’t want to do it, it is that much too often, they don’t know how or simply work for bosses and with other officers who use the excuse, “This is New Jersey, we don’t search cars.” In reality, it is one of the toughest states to be a police officer regarding case law, but with proper training, one can still make quality arrests.
I recently attended the Street Survival Seminar and the idea of writing this article popped into my head, because of my reality check. I realized that for four and a half years, I rode around and made traffic stops with blinders on. Even though I now deal with more felons and serious criminals than I had before, my lack of training in a smaller town could have gotten me hurt or killed. You know that “sixth sense” or the “hairs that stand up on the back of your neck?” That’s your subconscious mind bringing your training to the forefront and telling you that things aren’t right. I believe that the same indicators rising to reasonable suspicion to ask for consent on a traffic stop are the same indicators that may be telling you that you are about to be attacked.
Criminal interdiction is not just for officers working on highways or looking for drugs, its for everyone. It’s our job as police officers to recognize certain driving behaviors, items in a vehicle, travel plans and physiological behaviors that when put together, alert us to the possibility of criminal behavior. If your goal every day is to end your shift in one piece, than criminal interdiction training is for you.
One never knows, your next stop may be a drug kingpin, a murderer, or terrorist.
