Most of the time when someone wants to do a civilian ride-along with me, it ends up being on a weekend. I think people just assume all the crazy shit happens then, when in reality, most of the wild stuff goes down in the middle of the week. Most of the time I have a ride-along, absolutely nothing happens and right when they leave my car, the entire city remembers to be back on its bullshit.
In law enforcement, there’s something we call the Rider’s Curse. Basically, anytime I have someone riding with me, I want them to see as much as possible: traffic stops, arrests, crazy calls, all of it. But nine times out of ten, it’s like the universe knows I’ve got a guest, and everything goes dead quiet.
One time, I had a rider with me and the only action we got all night were a few traffic stops. Keep in mind, I work at a department that handles around 150 calls a day. That’s the Rider’s Curse. Anyway, the night was dragging, so they asked me to take them back early. Not even five minutes after dropping them off, I get dispatched to an armed carjacking with the suspect vehicle still in the city. Rider’s. Fucking. Curse.
Another time, I had a guy with me and the night was pretty uneventful: a few small calls, nothing major. I was literally driving him back to the PD so he could go home when a 911 call came out with gunshots and people screaming in the background. Instead of bailing, he decided to stay… and ended up being there for a double homicide investigation. That’s the Rider’s Curse for you.
People sign up for civilian ride-alongs hoping to see all the crazy stuff we deal with… but honestly, the Rider’s Curse might be the craziest thing of all.
Last week was the final week our police squad was together as a unit. Some people were leaving, some were staying, so of course, it turned into one of the craziest weeks I’ve ever worked. I wrote more reports in that one week than I did the entire month before.
When people ask us, “Seen anything crazy this week?” they don’t realize that their version of crazy is my version of normal. Fighting a tweaker in the glass section of a craft store? Normal. (I’ll let you picture how that ended.) A group of 14-year-olds running around the city with rifles, bailing on foot when they see police? Normal. A drunk guy kicking in the door of what he thinks is his house but it’s actually his neighbor’s three doors down? Normal. Talking to someone on the brink of suicide? Sadly, that’s normal too.
But this past week, something wasn’t normal.
It was around one in the morning and every officer in the city was tied up on high-priority calls. I was responding to an active burglary with a few other officers, holding a suspect at gunpoint who refused to comply. In the middle of that, one of our most even-keeled guys suddenly yells over the radio that he’s being hit. Then, silence.
We didn’t know what the hell was happening. Picture it: we’re standing there with a potentially dangerous suspect refusing commands, and one of our partners just screamed for help. Was he being shot at? Attacked? Where was he?
Turns out, he was in a completely different city, heading to pick someone up from another department, and a vehicle was intentionally ramming him at over 100 mph. That feeling of helplessness: hearing a brother in trouble and knowing you can’t do a damn thing to help… that’s something I’ll never forget. When it was finally over, he said he genuinely thought he was going to die.
I don’t really know where I’m going with this, but I do know this: people judge cops a lot without understanding what we deal with. That officer didn’t ask for someone to try and kill him. Most of us didn’t sign up hoping to die on duty. Most of us got into this job because we actually give a shit… because we want to help.
You don’t hear about the good calls, the lives saved, or the trauma officers quietly carry home. You don’t see the toll it takes. The long nights, the mental grind, the stuff that sticks with you whether you want it to or not. Most cops aren’t out here trying to be heroes or villains… just humans doing a hard job in a messy world.
I started typing this just to rant about the Rider’s Curse and how wild my week was, but I guess it turned into something else.
I don’t really have a big mic-drop moment or anything funny to end this on… so I’ll just say this: I’m starting to think “normal” might actually be the craziest part of this job.
For a Thought 
Leave a comment