Ride Along

Randi Mitchell
5/1/13
Ride Along Paper I went on my ride along on Tuesday, April 30 with the NM State Police. I rode along with senior patrolman Israel Rodriguez. I had a lot of fun and think I learned a lot about how law enforcement actually works. The officer showed that he is always thinking about the law and how he has to be very careful in what he does so that he doesn’t get god evidence suppressed in court because he makes a small mistake. He said that it’s hard enough to get evidence admitted sometimes even when you collect it lawfully. We started out by cruising I-25 until we noticed a southbound vehicle with the driver not wearing his seatbelt. We pulled him over and gave him a citation and went on. We then received a call about a hit and run coming into town from Deming so we parked out and looked for the vehicle to come by that fit the description that the dispatcher gave us. We were waiting when we received another call about suspected child abuse on a 6 month old girl. As we were driving back to the station we kept getting more interesting information about the case. It turns out that the alleged abuser is a deputy with the Sheriff’s office and LCPD had already responded to the domestic violence call and didn’t take any action against the officer. The child had been returned to the mother with red marks on her neck, legs, and back and the mother had taken pictures. Officer Rodriguez spoke with the mother and heard about the officer’s previous use of intimidation and force when they fought, but that she didn’t want to proceed with charges, just that she wanted the incident documented. Officer Rodriguez wrote up a report and we jumped back on the highway when almost immediately we were lights and sirens toward a vehicle vs. truck collision on 185. We raced over there and jumped on the scene in which the motorcyclist was very injured and they ended up calling the helicopter to airlift him to the El Paso trauma unit. After a while Officer Rodriguez brought the driver right back to the front of his patrol vehicle and proceeded to perform field sobriety tests on the driver of the truck. He didn’t even really try and admitted he was drunk so he was arrested and thrown in the back of the patrol car. The crash wasn’t his fault though, the driver of the motorcycle had been drinking as well and sideswiped the truck and was thrown in the ditch. I was surprised at the amount of work it actually takes to process a crime scene. There were pictures being taken, traffic directed, field sobriety tests conducted, and paramedics to take care of the injured. We took the Driver of the truck back to the station to process his report and then take him to jail. He performed a breathalyzer and blew a .14. It turns out this was his second DWI. The report for the incident was long because of all the DWI paperwork and the revocation of his license. We took him down to the Dona Ana detention center where they accepted him and then we were on our way again. We rode around Burn Lake where Officer Rodriguez says he always sees a lot of male prostitution, but we quickly received another call to the border patrol checkpoint near radium springs. Apparently they had a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. We went there to pick him up and we learned that this particular individual had open counts of murder on his name, and that the gun he was in possession of was stolen. He jumped into the back of the patrol car and started up conversation with me. I was a little freaked out cause you know he’s killed people but we chatted for a while and it turns out that he will probably go back to prison for at least 15 years for being a habitual offender with firearms violations, not taking into consideration his murder charges. When we went back to the station with the detainee, we put him in a holding cell and put the gun into evidence. It was like 1:30 am, so then I went home.