As I was walking from my dorm room to the Athens Police station, I began wondering what my ride-along would be like. Would it be like the movie Training Day, or more along the lines of the TV show Reno 911?
Interestingly enough, it ended up being a little of both.
HAVING FUN ON THE JOB
I arrived at the station nervous about what I would be doing, how I would be involved, and of course, whether I would see any real action.
At 11:30 p.m., I hopped into the front seat of the cruiser with Lt. Adam Claar — an officer on the force for nearly seven years — and began one of the more interesting nights I’ve had in Athens.
For starters, I learned a bit about Lt. Claar (he told me to call him Adam). He told me he believes educating the students around here about how not to get in trouble again was far more important — and effective — than writing a bunch of citations.
He also said he wants the relations between police officers and students to improve, as he feels that many act out against the force just because other people do.
As we started to drive around in search of police work, Adam told me how necessary it is to have some fun while on the job. He even told me that he occasionally honks his horn when he sees signs on porches saying “you honk, we drink.” After hearing that, I knew I would be in for quite the experience.
Our first major call didn’t come in until 12:10 a.m., when we responded to one at the end of W. State St. Apparently, a man had fallen and was injured.
That was all the information we had, so naturally, Adam and I began debating the hundreds of possibilities that could have led to that.
Of course, the scene was crazier than anything we had played out in our minds.
'A SOUTHEAST OHIO CALL'
We met up with another unit and entered the home. Adam told me he had only responded to one call at the apartment complex during his entire time on the force.
An older man had hit his head on of the bottom of a table and was bleeding badly from the back of his head. He was losing consciousness.
One officer asked James whether he had smoked any dope during the night.
James replied, “A half ounce.”
While we waited for the ambulance to arrive, Adam began talking to Andrew, who had made the 911 call.
Andrew claimed that, while he had screwed his life up before, he was trying to get back on track. A self-proclaimed “pothead,” he said he just wanted to smoke marijuana. He then asked Adam how he felt about the drug’s potential legalization.
“I wouldn’t support it,” Adam said. “I’ve seen what it can do, how the effects can be even worse than alcohol.”
As we left the scene, Adam told me, “Now that is a Southeast Ohio call if I’ve ever seen one.”
'I'M WASTED!'
The next hour was quiet. We were bored, just waiting for Athens to happen.
At 1:25 a.m., we heard a report on the radio that a man was stopped on W. Union for cycling while he was presumed to be intoxicated. Adam instantly recognized the name on the radio.
“Well, there’s our buddy Andrew from earlier tonight.”
After another hour of cruising around, a situation developed right in front of us.
As we waited at a stoplight just after 2:00 a.m., a woman collapsed right in front of the car. Adam knew he had to check this one out. As he approached, she got off the ground and screamed, “I’m wasted!”
Don’t worry, we knew.
Adam let her off with a warning, and we went back to search for our next assignment.
Within 10 minutes, we were responding to a call about a fight at Courtside Pizza.
Three men had claimed that bar employees, namely the one at the door, attacked them for no reason. The three men had bloodied lips and a swollen eye, and the employee had bad bruises under his nose. Without having seen the fight, it was impossible to know what actually happened.
But the three men were having none of that. Feeling wronged, two of them began to get quite rowdy with Adam as he was explaining the situation, and were yelling so much he had to threaten to arrest them for disorderly conduct.
After a half hour of what I could only consider pulling teeth, the three men were on their way home, and we had just finished dealing with the messiest situation of the night.
JUST ANOTHER SATURDAY
Alas, it was time for me to be dropped off and call it a night. Of course, on the drive over, we got to be a part of one more fun situation.
A man was lying out on his Palmer St. front lawn, pretending to be passed out. He sprang right up once he saw the overhead light glaring at him.
Adam and I both thought it would be a good prank to pull up to the house I was being dropped off at with the car’s lights flashing, just to give my buddies a good scare and an entrance I may never be able to duplicate.
I had managed to see copious amounts of blood, some bruises, a couple absurd drunk folks and a whole lot of cop-fearing young adults.
Just another Saturday night at the Athens Police Department.
Or, as Adam said, “A really, really slow night.”
Allan Smith is a staff writer for The Post. Email him at as299810@ohiou.edu.
