Roll call was the usual, get through the important stuff first. Go over what happened in the last 24 hours, who's Unit 9, who's IAD, weapon serial number check, drivers license check etc. Then after that we get to be are fun loving selves for a few minutes before we get our vehicles and get on the street. There is a lot of ball breaking in roll call and with a group as tight as ours were pretty good at breaking balls.
Today was shaping up to be a cold but really nice day out and as 1030 rolled around I was thinking to myself that this is going to be a pretty good shift, that is until somebody fucks it up.
Well somebody fucked it up.
Normally a 2 vehicle accident without injuries can be handled in about a half an hour to 45 minutes. That's with an exchange form and an FR-300. This one took close to an hour and a half because some nitwit decided he was going to sideswipe a parked vehicle and block traffic when his vehicle came to rest.
So I get there and the vehicle that caused the accident is perpendicular to the vehicle that he struck and he is blocking one lane of traffic and about a foot into the other lane on a 2 lane one way street. It's 1030 on a Sunday and there is some moderate traffic and of course when NDF's (no driving fucks) see a pretty Police car with it's blue flashing lights they tend to get fixated and not pay attention so now I get a small traffic jam. No problem I'm working until 1630 so they can wait if they want to screw up traffic.
Anyway I get out of my car and inquire as to any injuries and was told that no one was injured. The owner of the parked car comes out and I get his information as well as the information from the driver who caused the accident. I asked him what happened and he told me he hit a parked car.....no shit, I kinda figured that out all by myself. Both cars need to be towed so I ask the driver if he has a tow preference and he says no so I then go to the owner of the parked vehicle and he says he has to call Geico. Now being a Police Officer for a minute I know that once you get an insurance agent on the phone they want all sorts of information, information that the owner does not have because I haven't even started my paperwork yet. I tell him to wait about 10 minutes and I will give him all the information he needs. Ok all straight, now to call for the wreckers to get this mess cleaned up.
I block off the street because I didn't want some NDF (see above) to try and squeeze by the partial lane and cause another accident while I waited for the wreckers. Well you might have thought I closed down the entire city. I have learned that some people when faced with a dilemma like a closed street with lose their sense of direction, and mind, and cannot figure out how to go around the block. It's really simple, a right, two lefts and then a right and your back on the same street.
Anyways the wreckers finally show up after almost an hour and by that time I had completed my paperwork and had it printed at the precinct ready to be picked up off the printer and turned into the Sergeants office.
A call later in the day for an burglar alarm which turned out to be false and a call for a disorderly who was GOA ended my perfect little Sunday.
I don't know if I made a difference today but I sure hope I did.
10-7 EOT
Te crazy stuff always happens on the quiet days.
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