Most patrols are quiet. Maybe I’m not aggressive enough. I tend to want to protect the good people and the good areas. Maybe that’s selfish. I want to patrol public entertainment areas ... Mill Avenue, Tempe … the worse I ever really get is Grand. The highways is where I get to actually help people who are pulled over, broken down, alone in the dark. Its satisfying.
Tonight, I had an interesting change up. Ever so often, a driver will be hell bent on killing someone and/or himself by driving recklessly. Tonight was one of those nights and it was clear this was a drunk. I wasn’t on patrol, per se, I was with my wife and we were headed to dinner. None the less, I followed the drunk at a judicious distance and called it in. This was the amazing part. Less than a minute later, a patrolman pulled next to me. I flashed my brights, flipped on the overhead so he could see me and motioned to the drunk driver. The cop raced around me and picked him up. Wow! Like a minute later. Cool.
Now, I know this doesn’t sound like a big deal. I guess for me it was. It was a … change in the world … it made a difference. I feel badly the guy got a DUI but imagine how I would have felt had he killed himself, or worse, someone else. It felt great. What would it be like, if everyone took that small initiative? What a great place it would be. At least for driving. What else can we change, if we all take it as our responsibility to protect someone … anyone?
