Thursday night I did a "ride along" with the Phoenix Police Department. I joined Officer Will Anderson during his patrol in the city’s central district on the second shift.

During the shift – a slow night by Officer Anderson’s standards – I witnessed the following:

1. The apprehension of a man who allegedly attacked others with a knife. He was spotted walking down the street with the knife and in possession of illegal drugs.
2. The transfer of an allegedly young (13-year old) child molester from a rescue center to the juvenile detention center. I observed how youthful offenders are booked into custody.
3. Resolving a stressful domestic dispute that resulted from a heated argument between a mother and her 20-year old daughter. The daughter (who was pregnant) and her two young children resided with her mother and perhaps ten others in the same house.
4. The investigation of a hit-and-run accident. When we arrived at the scene, the fire department was already there. The moment the alleged victim saw Officer Anderson’s police car, she ran off. The fireman told us that she did not seem to be injured at all. We saw her for a brief moment, then she literally vanished. Officer Anderson said that it was possible she took off because there was an outstanding warrant for her arrest.
5. The apprehension of a man who was stoned on drugs. He told us he was smoking crack cocaine. A quick check showed that he had an outstanding warrant for his arrest, so I got to see the county's central booking station and the slow and laborious process of booking an adult into custody.
6. Providing backup to the city’s probation department while they were trying to locate one of their 17 year old parolees — whose mother alleged he just purchased a hand gun. In Phoenix, probation officers are not allowed to be armed, so they routinely call for police assistance when they believe the situation is dangerous. The individual was not found at the address given.
7. Response to a domestic dispute between a man and a woman. When we arrived, the man was not present and the woman was sitting outside a neighbor’s apartment. The woman had a horrific swollen closed eye – it was obvious that it had just happened. The woman repeatedly told Officer Anderson that she did not make the call and that there was no problem. Officer Anderson told me that this sort of thing – someone calls the police and then denies making the call — was a frequent occurrence.

A monkey illegally entered a house and took the wine.
There was also a strange, but hilarious call that one of the other units responded to. A man called 911 and reported that a monkey gained entry through the back door of his house. While he and his wife were looking on in stunned amazement, the monkey picked up a bottle of his wine, pulled the cork and began drinking it.

Please send animal control.
The officer responding to the call was, of course, suspicious that the call was a hoax. But upon reaching the scene of the crime, the man pointed to his roof, and sure enough the officer looked up and saw a monkey holding a wine bottle. Seizing upon the levity of the moment, the officer radioed in, “the monkey is contained but negotiations have broken down – please send animal control.” Animal control responded and was able to capture the rhesus monkey and return it to its owner – a neighbor. The responding officer was advised by animal control that the monkey was indeed a repeat offender. I believe the Phoenix PD has not heard the last of this little fellow.

The value of respect.
As he worked his shift, I was impressed to see that Officer Anderson treated each individual we encountered – no matter how offensive they were — with respect and as a peer. This was the case with the fellow who was apprehended with the knife and drugs, the man stoned on drugs who had an outstanding warrant and the 13- year old who was accused of child molestation. Officer Anderson talked down to no one. Even though a number of the situations were of necessity confrontational, and bad news for those who were being apprehended, I was interested to see that everyone we encountered responded in kind. Each individual seemed to talk politely to Officer Anderson and amazingly became cooperative in return. I'm sure that this always isn't the case, but it was for everyone we came into contact with.

You definitely get more with honey.
The lesson I witnessed here was something I already knew, but it was nice to see confirmed. Everyone likes to be treated as a peer and needs to be respected. It makes sense never to communicate with others in any other fashion, if you want their cooperation. This once again confirms the old saying, “you get more with honey than vinegar.”

All the police officers I met seemed to enjoy their jobs.
Officer Anderson has a college degree in Accounting and is a Phoenix Policemen because that is what he likes to do. He and the other officers I met enjoy their jobs, and willingly accept the extreme personal risks that go along with being a police officer. They are there because they choose to be. They like the work environment. As a result, they work hard to do a good job because they are proud of what they do.

Dedication and enthusiasm are priceless.
I witnessed first hand how valuable dedication and loyalty are for the Phoenix PD. I’ve often been amazed how much effort one will put into rooting for a professional sports team, when the results of any game have no direct or material bearing on the fan’s life. If you can capture this type of enthusiasm and dedication in your organization, I don’t see how you can be anything other than successful.

Alcohol and drugs cause many problems.
Officer Anderson told me that the majority of the calls he responds to involve either alcohol or drug abuse. It’s seldom that he gets a call where the complaint involves violence or severe stupidity, and alcohol and/or drugs are not involved — even the monkey was drinking wine! It has since occurred to me, that one thing I’ve never said to myself (or ever heard anyone else say) is, “I’m glad I was drinking.” While I do enjoy a cocktail every now and then, it’s pretty much been my personal goal to drink as little alcohol as possible. I think I’ll keep it up.

The value of technology.
Finally, it has been my long belief that the smart use of technology will benefit — usually in no small way— any business or organization. I was glad to see that the Phoenix PD was no exception in this regard.

The police now use an internal network to stay on top of things.
The use of technology in each squad car is impressive. In addition to the usual radios which we have long associated with police squad cars, each car had a laptop computer which was wired into a local network. At a glimpse each car can see the outstanding calls, the particulars relating to each call (i.e., alleged offense or problem, which cars are in response, and other details). At the touch of a button, every officer can see exactly what his peers are doing and where they are at the moment. This greatly increases their efficiency and avoids redundant responses. It also helps them field the calls closest to where they happen to be at any particular time. It definitely is a vast improvement from how the old radio-only cars used to operate.

There’s still room for improvement.
The one thing the squad cars did not have was a GPS system. Officer Anderson told me that it is very important for police to know exactly where they are at any given moment. He told me that a typical “rookie mistake” is to find oneself in a difficult situation like a shootout, and upon calling for backup realizing that you don’t know your exact physical location. I mentioned that this would be fixed with a GPS system that would show the location of each car. Officer Anderson pointed out that GPS technology is already in use by other police departments. He then said, “Who knows. Maybe one day we'll have it.”