these ideas came to mind as I signed the waiver that makes it possible to ride along with the Cannon Falls Police.
Being pretty wimpy, I chose what I thought would be the dullest, most boring day to ride… a Wednesday afternoon. The weather was in the upper 70’s and sunny. I met Officer Scott Mattingly at city hall.
First of all he explained that I couldn’t take any pictures and couldn’t reveal any names. Later, as he stepped out of the squad car and left me alone with all the electronic equipment, he warned me not to touch any buttons! (That was the hard part!)
I had just missed a lot of excitement in a domestic abuse case. We had learned about this problem at the CF Police Department’s Citizen’s Academy. An awful lot of policemen are injured or killed in these situations.
I was grateful I missed it. I just wanted a quiet afternoon in a small town in rural America.
But for a while it didn’t look like I would even get a boring ride because Mattingly had to write up the report on the “domestic”. So instead of waiting I decided to run over to the feed mill to pick up some grain for the horses. When I got back, he was ready to go.
Mattingly pointed to his squad car and after some gear was moved I was situated in the front passenger seat. This is preferable to the back seat which is simply a poured plastic form that doesn’t have any cushioning. It has a drain in the floor so if someone gets sick you can just hose it down.
This might have been a better place for me because I immediately got “car sick”! Had nothing to do with Mattingly’s driving. It’s just me. But I figured I could tough it through. And later I got to feeling better.
As he's driving Mattingly said: “This is the best job!” You get to drive all around and listen to whatever radio station you want! He likes rock, rap and just about anything.
You don’t take the same route everyday – because then the bad guys would know it.
We drove by a day care center and the kids were outside waving.
The speed detector was pretty amazing. It recorded the speed of the cars coming and going. This is already registered by the time the driver sees the squad car so you don't have time to slow down.
But folks were taking it easy that afternoon. I breathed a sigh of relief as I can understand going a bit over once in a while myself. But Mattingly concentrates on those going a good bit over.
In this cause we headed over to cover a street near the high school when school was letting out. Mattingly explained, “We’ll help the kids slow down a bit.” One kid was slowed down quite a bit as he got a ticket for going 15 miles over the speed limit.
Afterwards, a neighbor came out to the car and thanked the officer because they had so many problems with excessive speed on that side street.
Next we headed up to the water tower… then around the swimming pool… and checking various residential areas.
Suddenly Mattingly quietly commented, “We may make an arrest in a minute.” He kept driving and I looked around. I hadn’t seen anything out of order.
He got on the radio and verified the warrant on a man he had dealt with in the past. He had given him extra time to take care of his problem but apparently he hadn’t done it.
We headed back and Mattingly went up to the man and told him to put his hands on top of his head… he checked his body for weapons… and had him put his hands behind his back for cuffing.
When getting into the back seat the man complained of discomfort and since Mattingly had dealt with him before he said, “You’ve been good before.” So he allowed the man to have his hands cuffed in front of him. Actually the two of them had a nice conversation as we traveled to meet an officer from another county coming for him.
A touching moment came when a 75 year old lady from out of town had gotten separated from her group biking on the Cannon Valley Trail. The police were called because she had asked for help.
She appeared a little confused and although she knew her phone number, she didn’t remember her address. Later she mentioned that she had “a little Alzheimers”. Mattingly put her bike in the trunk, she got in the car and we headed to the police station.
Her husband, also a biker, was waiting for her there. He gently kissed her on the forehead and explained that the doctors had suggested that exercise would be good for her.
She was so apologetic but I think she did the right thing… she asked for help. Aside to Mattingly I kidded that many men wouldn’t know enough to do that!
Other similar situations occurred that afternoon and I got to thinking that this part of being a cop doesn’t make headlines. It doesn’t grab the highlights on TV.
What I saw on a “boring” afternoon is a big part of what being a cop is all about. And that makes the idea of "boring", awfully nice!
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