Nights are getting colder in our neck of the woods, but the sunshine this morning shur made up for it. 

The elm tree is still shedding its leaves, about a third left on the tree.  Was out for a while this morning raking up leaves and putting them on Carla’s roses, over 40 wheel barrow loads so far and still more to rake up.

Robert Lepinski is helping her out in the garden by bringing up trailer loads of leaves, from the cleanups he does for his clients, for her to put on the garden and help her build up the soil.

I have to admire Robert, and others, that can back a trailer.  I can’t.

We have a l-o-n-g driveway with a couple of curls that he has to negotiate.  The trailer is too large to pull up the driveway forward, can’t turn it around up here, so he backs the thing up, and that is a BIG trailer.

Just glad he figures it is worth the effort.

----------------------------------

Chapter 13

Third of Three Chases

Yep, another quiet night.  Started the Graveyard shift at 2330 hours Tuesday night. 

There would just be the three of us tonight; Danny, Rookie and me. 

We headed out on patrol.  There was nobody moving.  I always hit the bar areas to see how many cars are there, gives me an indication of the possibilities of problems later, there were very few cars parked in parking lots or on the street near the bars.

I assigned Danny to the hill area and Rookie and I took the town.  I wanted to have Rookie to see the allies more as well as discuss some of the things to look for when in those allies.

We basically had three patrol area, depending on how many patrols we had on duty.

If just two cars out, we had the hill and the town patrols.  The town stayed below 9th street and between Taylor and Webber Sts.

The hill patrol had the area west of Weber, East of Taylor and the area above 9^th St. 

If we had three, the supervisor was the ‘wild’ and cover car.  It was his responsibility to hit in and out of the two areas and then if a traffic stop or a call came in he would cover which ever car was stopping the vehicle or going to the call.

If we had four cars, we divided the hill area at Union, one taking west and one taking east of that street.

On the unusual occasions that we had five cars two cars would be wild, and the non-supervisor of the two may be given special assignments.

It worked well for our department.

That shift was very quiet, bar closing was uneventful and I was able to cover the town area with no interruptions. We pulled out the Training Manual and went over what he would be expecting in his career.

After bar closing the town patrol took the west end of town that the hill car had been covering earlier.  That allows the hill car to spend more time in the residential areas.

Around 0400, Danny comes on the air.  He was up by the Jr. High School and had a car that refused to stop.

The chase was on, again.  Only this time it was a small Corvair with two people inside.  There were four flat tires and the chase never got above 15 mph.

While we were in route to cover Danny dispatch ran the car.  It was registered to a local person.  She called the owners to see if they knew who was driving, they didn’t, it was stolen.

It took a few minutes for us to get there since we were on the far end of time, but when we came up behind Danny, who was still trying to get the car pulled over, the driver realized the jig was up; and pulled over.

We got them out at gun point.

These were escapees from the MacLaren School for boys, a reform school, located in Woodburn, Oregon; a good three hour car drive from The Dalles.

The driver was the son of the registered owner.  He knew the car was in the backyard and told his buddy they could get it and then get completely out of the area.

He wasn’t banking on the flat tires, but took it anyway, not sure where he thought he could go with that handicap.

The boys were taken to and lodged in the Juvenile area of the County Jail.

That was the last chase we had together, even though we worked together for a few more years after that.

Three chases in one week.  Five arrests of Juveniles and one of a ‘juvenile’ pony.  Lots of adrenaline expended in that week.

Our Rookie got lots of experience in the first month he came on the department.

In the time before I-84 being completed, stopping stolen cars and making arrests happened quite a bit.  Matter of fact one Sgt. had a newspaper article written about him and his ability to spot stolen cars and make arrests.

Back then they had to go through The Dalles, now they just stay on the freeway – unless they need gas – and keep going.  We just didn’t see that many when I was on the department.

The Rookie was involved in two chases of stolen cars; and one as it was coming onto the street from the service station.

He learned interrogation, how to handle suspects, how to communicate with the dispatcher, arresting and lodging suspects and even got a bit of information on the back allies of the city, where very few people go.

Copyright November 18, 2017 Art Labrousse

----------------------------------

John 17:17  KJV  “ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

As most Christians are well aware, it is easy to twist the truth of the Word by misquoting or taking verses out of context.

However, when we read, study, meditate and then pray for guidance as we read the Word our life is enriched many fold.

We grow closer to God.  We are more in tune with His Holy Spirit, and when we follow His lead, we become much more effective servants and sons/daughters.

In His Word are many examples for us to follow; both in living our lives for God and what happens when we do not.

But we cannot take full advantage of His love and guidance if we do not read His Word.  If we do not spend time, each day, in it and in conversation with Him we find ourselves losing ground and more frustrated wondering why He is not doing more in our life.

We don’t have to be great Theologians with lots of degrees and a super high IQ, to read and understand His Word.

We just have to be open to listening to Him, He reveals Himself in every verse.  Just like our relationship with our loved ones grow when we strive to make that happen, so our relationship grows with God as we get closer to Him.

Later, Art (-: