Riding shotgun on the night shift

Several months ago, I bumped into OPP Cst. Al MacDonald at a social event in Chapple. He was off duty and during the course of our conversation, he invited me to ride along with him on a midnight shift so I could see what a day (or night) in the life of a police officer was like.
Because of conflicting timetables and commitments, it was nearly two months before we were able to find a time that worked for both of us.
What follows is part one of an account of what we encountered on the night of Oct. 3-4, and according to Cst. MacDonald, it was fairly typical.
Some of the details regarding the descriptions of people who were taken into custody are deliberately vague in order to protect their identities since some were juveniles and none were charged with criminal offences.
•Oct. 3—7 p.m.
I arrived at the Fort Frances OPP detachment, was ushered in by Cst. MacDonald, and taken to the briefing room. Here, the night shift was going over its assignments under the direction of Sgt. Larry Indian.
We would be seeing Sgt. Indian again later that night, but we didn’t know that at the time.
All shifts begin with such a briefing. The officers go over their assignments, any special details (such as a drug bust), and the areas they will be patrolling. Outstanding warrants or memos are discussed, as well as missing-person reports.
There is a fair amount of good-natured bantering, but the atmosphere is professional and relaxed. These people have a job to do and within a few minutes, they could be facing disturbing or potentially-dangerous circumstances.
At 7:45 p.m., we were underway in a marked vehicle that lacked the give-away roof lights. Our first assignment was to track down a teenager who was reported missing earlier in the evening.
Cst. MacDonald had a pretty good idea she might be found at a bush party taking place that night north of Emo, so we headed west along Highway 11/71 with our radar fired up to see if we could find any speeders.
We didn’t have long to wait.
Just west of Alberton, a pick-up truck approached and passed us at a speed of 115 km/h. Since the speed limit there was 90 km/h, so we turned around and within seconds, the truck’s taillights were rapidly growing in our windshield.
We hit the lights and the driver immediately pulled over. After checking the driver’s paperwork, Cst. MacDonald sent him on his way with a warning. I asked him how he makes such calls.
“I really decide within the first few seconds,” he explained. “In this case, the driver was polite and there didn’t seem to be anything else suspicious about him, so I gave him a break.”
It all comes down to attitude. “My attitude is determined by the attitude I get back. If you show me respect, I’ll show you respect. It’s just that simple.”
Cst. MacDonald said he relies as much on his instincts as he does on his speed radar. Sometimes, he will pull over a vehicle for no apparent reason other than something seemed “funny.”
“The majority of the time you find something,” he noted.
Cst. MacDonald was born and raised in North Bay, and is in his late 30s. He joined the OPP in 1996 and has been stationed here ever since.
He’s married with two children at Fort Frances High School. Consequently, he has a good understanding of young people and generally relates well to them.
“We encourage the kids to be polite to us, to be respectful,” he said. “Most times that’s exactly what happens. Of course, certain people never change. That’s just a fact of life.”
Cst. MacDonald said only about one percent of the kids cause any trouble. He asked me not to quote him on that directly, but circumstances later in the evening proved him to be exactly correct.
As we approached the scene of the bush party, more and more cars were heading that way, so we set up a sort of rolling RIDE check. Cst. MacDonald stopped more than 50 vehicles to check for open liquor or impaired drivers.
As expected, there were none. In many cases, parents were driving their kids to the party and intended to pick them up afterwards. In at least half of the cases, he knew the people by their first names and they him.
I was curious as to how he felt—both as a cop and a dad—about the party and the booze, knowing the kids would be drinking as soon as the coast was clear.
“Sure, I know they’re underage and they’re going to drink, but I can’t prove it and they know it,” Cst. MacDonald replied. “So as long as the liquor is sealed and inaccessible to the driver and passengers, all I can do is let them know I’ll be watching.”
The main concern tonight was impaired driving. Here, Cst. MacDonald has zero tolerance. He is also pro-active.
Part of the job of community policing is communication and education, and these are things he takes seriously. In addition to his regular work, Cst. MacDonald is a marine operator, a dangerous-goods inspector, and scene-of-crime officer.
He also participates in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program at local schools, which covers awareness and consequences from drug and alcohol abuse. And for the most part, the response is positive.
“These kids are intelligent, responsible,” he claimed. “Parents take it for granted kids don’t know anything. They know a lot. Things are different today. From the time they were babies, kids learn to wear a seatbelt, that drinking and driving is not cool.
“Kids don’t set out to be intentionally stupid. They just make poor choices,” he added. “Hopefully, the DARE program teaches them to be wise decision-makers.”
By the time we arrived at the bush party, things were in full swing. We were joined by another unit from the Fort Frances detachment and the search for the missing teenager began in earnest.
Sure enough, she showed up and after talking to her and observing her carefully, it was determined she had not been drinking or doing anything stupid.
Nonetheless, she was under 16 so Cst. MacDonald decided to take her into custody until her parents or guardians could be located. Although understandably anxious, she was polite and well-behaved on the way to the Emo detachment—a fact not lost on Cst. MacDonald, who complimented her on her conduct.
By the time we reached the detachment there, she was chatting us up and quite relaxed.
Here, I was introduced to another modern policing tool—the Records Management System (RMS), which connects virtually all police services in Ontario and gives each instant access to the data bases of the others.
The system has been in place for some time, but has only been operating with the OPP for about three years.
All police occurrences—vehicle or property offences, arrests, charges, or complaints—are on file and instantly available to any police officer. Cst. MacDonald entered the information on the events surrounding the night’s activities and then punched my name up on the computer.
It showed I had filed two noise-related complaints in the last six months. Along with my name were my address, the date of the complaints, the times, and the responses.
“If you call us, your name’s in there,” said Cst. MacDonald.
We also saw an example of what Cst. MacDonald described as “interdepartmental co-operation” when two Treaty 3 officers showed up to take our guest home, thus freeing us up to continue our patrol.
We returned to the party, where we found two individuals were causing trouble for the hosts, who were trying to make sure everybody was safe and didn’t try to drive away if they were impaired.
These two were causing a disturbance and had been asked to leave. When they refused to do so, the police were called.
What took place next was amusing to watch. In what looked for all the world like the aftermath of a hockey skirmish, Sgt. Indian (the referee) and Cst. MacDonald (the linesman) engaged this individual (the player) in a conversation that varied in volume and intensity.
Finally, Sgt. Indian made a gesture that closely resembled a referee’s signal for misconduct and out came the handcuffs and he was off to the “penalty box.”
With one guest secured in our cruiser and another in that of Cst. Kevin Hicks, we started back for Fort Frances, where our guest was scheduled to be lodged for the night at the detachment.
But once again, Cst. MacDonald’s experience in dealing with young people dealt me another surprise.
See next week’s Fort Frances Times for the conclusion of “Riding shotgun on the night shift.”