This Weekend’s On Patrol: Live Highlights, Commentary, and Social Media Activity

An On Patrol: Live recap, including NYC studio host Dan Abrams’ puns, analysis, and banter usually with co-anchor Curtis Wilson (a Richland County, S.C., deputy sheriff), and usually a third panelist, along with the often-snarky or playful social media reaction, follows.

 [Best viewed in Google Chrome.] 

Retired Tulsa, Okla., cop Sean “Sticks” Larkin, the original member of the studio panel, returns to the desk this weekend after a long hiatus. Larkin’s last OPL appearance was on April 19/20, and at this point, his occasional incomings may merely be for contractual reasons.

Captain Tom Rizzo (Howell Township, N.J., PD), Larkin’s de facto replacement on OPL, is also in the studio as the guest analyst.

After last Saturday night’s dramatic high-speed Hazen chase, this episode seems to be a bit of a letdown, although it does feature both a code brown and a code yellow.

During the On Patrol: First Shift pre-show, Chief Bradley Taylor (Hazen, Ark., PD) provides some background on last Saturday night’s electrifying pursuit.

Agency update: Frederick PD is leaving OPL after this weekend’s episodes

On Patrol: Live Summary for August 16, 2024 (#OPL Episode 03-11)

Please review this important DISCLAIMER.
  • Fontana, Calif. — Ofr. Victor Reyes and other units search for one or more suspects who fled with $1,000 worth of merchandise (making it a felony in that state) from a shoe store. He also interviews store employees about what happened. OPL host Dan Abrams banters with the panel about “big shoe game here.”

Listen:

  • Fontana, Calif. — Ofr. Toni Lozano assists on a traffic stop on a report that a driver was slumped over in the vehicle. Ofr. Lozano summary: “So we’re getting callers that there’s a man slumped over in a vehicle, and it was starting to cause a traffic hazard. When the first officer pulled up, he noticed that he was slumped over. He immediately got him out of the car to avoid him trying to leave in the car, possibly trying to harm anyone else by starting the vehicle. He appears to be a little bit under the influence. He’s already admitted that he drank a couple of beers. My partner’s still taking to him, trying to get the full story…”
  • Daytona, Fla. — Ofr. Robert Mowery conducts a traffic stop (“stupid is as stupid does”). The officer admonishes the driver for allegedly trying to pass him on a single-lane highway in a school zone during band practice (which is audible in the background). The motorist is subsequently released with a warning.

Ofr. Mowery to driver: “…where does that make it okay to risk safety of not only yourself, me, everybody else on this roadway, the people who go to school here, where does it make it okay? It doesn’t, does it?” Ofr. Mowery synopsis: “We’re originally being dispatched to a disturbance right up the road here. But apparently, although they’re moving fast enough for this guy, he decided to pass me on the right-hand shoulder, single-lane…and thought it would be a good idea. Not to mention it’s school zone; we got a band sitting here practicing. I don’t know where he thought this was gonna be a good idea. His excuse was trying to get to a bathroom. Cool. So, when you lose control, hit one of the students walking down the roadway trying to go to or from this band practice, I don’t see where it makes sense…”

  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Ofr. Chance Palm and a colleague make contact with a female pedestrian on a busy bridge. “Trying to make it safer for everybody.” Ofr. Palm recap: “So we responded over here. Somebody called in and said there was a female walking in traffic on the bridge. This is a two-lane bridge with a lot of traffic coming over it, so that’s definitely concerning or a safety hazard. The officer located her while he was following down the bridge trying to get her to a safer area so that way we could get out with her and talk to her. He said she was…saying a bunch of different things had happened to her. We got here to talk to her. She was saying that somebody was trying to throw her off the bridge. Somebody was trying to run her over with a skateboard. She got raped at the baseball field. She’s all over the place. And then there’s some discrepancies with her name, but it looks like this officer here will locate her information. So he’s gonna finish up what he’s doing here, and then we’ll go from there.”
  • Toledo, Ohio — Sgt. Geoff McLendon and Ofr. Jordan Freimark respond to the scene where a male appears unconscious on the sidewalk. They wake him up. Fire Department paramedics arrive to check the subject’s vitals and possibly transport him to the hospital. Sgt. McClendon claims that he smells “a little bit of alcohol.”
  • Frederick, Md. (pre-recorded segment) — Ofr. Andrey Salahov searches on foot for an alleged robbery suspect that turns out to be a “code brown.” The subject is detained in a wooded area. “He’s pooping in the creek….doing a number two into the river.” Ofr. Slahov adds that ” Back in the studio, Abrams says “it’s not exactly the crime of the century gives his three colleagues an opportunity to be comedian of the night. Ofr. Salahov:..”he was squatted down, he was ‘code brown.’ Victim did a positive show up, identified him to be, 100% to be, the suspect, who also had an active failure-to-appear warrant through our agency. So it was a good catch.” Back in the studio, Abrams says “not exactly the crime of the century here, less like public enemy number one, and more like public enemy number two,” and then gives his three studio sidekicks an opportunity to be comedian of the night.

Listen:

“He was squatted down, he was ‘code brown.'”

  • Everett, Wash. — Ofr. Danny Rabelos, with Ofr. Charles Pallette as back up, detains an apologetic man, who he’s acquainted with, at a gas station after the subject tried to walk away from him. “What did you throw? Dude, I’ve been doing this job for 26 years; I ain’t stupid.”

Ofr. Rabelos recap: “… so when I went to contact him for the pedestrian violation of the drug loitering, because he’s loitering in this area, which is a high drug area, he tries to take off with me. He walks across a do-not-cross sign. I tell him to stop so we can talk to him. He runs around the sign and throws his drugs here. So it looks like we’ve got some methamphetamine right here. It’s a bigger chunk of methamphetamine. And then these will be fentanyl pills.”

Abrams: “He’s not denying it. But as we were talking about this, we’re saying that you guys sometimes, on a beat, particularly when you grew up in or near an area, will occasionally bump into someone who you knew, or you grew up with, and it’s got to be a little bit, at the least, awkward, if not a little unsettling.” OPL guest studio analyst Tom Rizzo: “Yeah, because you’re having to see two different paths, right?, and you see people that go down those roads that you might have been one decision away from going down that same road. So, unfortunately, getting on the wrong side of the law, falling into addiction, overdose death, or prison.”

  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Ofr. Mowery and other units, including a K9 search and subsequently detain an alleged carjacking suspect at an apartment complex. Ofr. Mowery recap: “We got a positive ID. We got the suspect involved in the case; he’s gonna go to jail. We got somebody who wasn’t involved, just happened to have a bad attitude, and that was to the directions of law enforcement while conducting an investigation. He’s gonna go as well. So, it’s hard to tell whether or not this guy is on something. He could be, whether it’s narcotic, or he’s been drinking too much. It’s not that he’s not coherent; he’s just not answering any questions, not talking to us, a little bit of slurred speech, but who knows whether or not any type of narcotics or alcohol had a role to play in it…”
  • Triple Play #1 — Pursuit in Shelby, Mich., where, according to Abrams, “an alleged case of drunk driving turned into a Demolition Derby.”
  • Toledo, Oho –– Ofr. Lindsey Erhart and colleagues respond to an alleged or purported weapons call at residential neighborhood that might involve road rage. Abrams: “He wants to make sure his parole officer knows what happened and, from his perspective, that he did absolutely nothing wrong, so it seems that that’s the final piece as far as he is concerned here.”

Ofr. Erhart summary: “So it sounds like this guy was speeding down the street, and he upset the neighbor, and they had some words exchanged with each other. There was no gun involved, so we’re gonna have a report on file for them…”

  • Everett, Wash. — Ofr. Rabelos makes contact with a male who was allegedly urinating in public. OPL caption: “Urine trouble.” Abrams: “Code yellow.” Rabelos tells the man that he should have used a public restroom at one of the neighboring businesses: “What if you had little kids seen your wanker and stuff?” The subject is released with a warning. “Keep your thingy in, alright?”

Ofr. Rabelos recap: “So we were patrolling the parking lot because we had some people that were potentially passed out on narcotics here, so we’re gonna make sure they’re safe. This gentleman decided that he was gonna pull his stuff out and use the bathroom right out in public. You’re on a low ground, so people could have seen him from up above. And then, so we want to make sure, one, that behavior is corrected. And there is a ton of public bathrooms in this area that he could have used.” Abrams: “This is the second example in this short show where I think to myself that the officer probably wished that he was wearing gloves. Not a big deal, not the end of the world, but just a small little thing. Well, don’t go there…”

“What if you had little kids seen your wanker and stuff?”

  • Richland County, S.C. — Sgt. Kenny Fitzsimmons conducts a traffic stop for speeding.
  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Ofr. Mowery and other units disperse a large group of young people from a park. OPL caption: “Crowd control.” Abrams mentions that Daytona PD has expertise in “clearing out crowds.” OPL studio analyst Sean Larkin: “It is a specialty there year-round. There’s something going on. But what they have to look at is, are they out this park with a permit? Is there a curfew for it? And when you start having large crowds, if there’s alcohol involved, the night goes on, you start getting fights and things like that. So you try to push them on, get everybody dispersed.” Abrams: “Yeah, and that is what they will try to do.”

Listen to Ofr. Mowery’s brief summary:

  • Triple Play #2 — A rescue of a five year old in a lake in Volusia County, Fla.
  • Toledo, Ohio — Sgt. McLendon and Ofr. Freimark look for an alleged disorderly person in a downtown area which they apparently are unable to locate. Unrelated to the call, they come across some folks hanging out with pet goats. Abrams quips that “so to be clear, the call here was about a guy yelling, not about someone having three goats on leashes in the middle of a fairly significant size city.” OPL caption: “Just kidding around.”

Listen to the panel further banter about goats:

  • Indian River County, Fla. (pre-recorded segment) — Dep. Tommy Rollando backs up another unit in a traffic stop in a Publix parking lot on a car with no windshield. Paramedics subsequently transport the female driver to a hospital.

Dep. Rollando to the passenger: Remember me? I save you life, man.” Rollando recap: “We have quite the history with the passenger. The last time I was dealing with the passenger, he actually was overdosing. Both subjects are very well-known drug users. It’s not legal to drive without a windshield for multiple, especially safety, reasons. While I was speaking with the passenger, I asked him about how the windshield was broken. He advised me that a tree had fallen on the vehicle. Deputy Quinn decided to issue a warning for driving without a windshield. No other citations were issued.” Abrams: “So get this: A few days after that traffic stop, the passenger was allegedly involved in an armed robbery. Deputies tracked him into a residence where he was refusing to leave. They established a perimeter. A SWAT team was called in. Neighbors were put on alert, and for good reason. After a three-hour standoff, the suspect…surrendered and was taken into custody.”

  • Fontana, Calif. — Ofr. Lozano and a colleague investigate an alleged prior disturbance, make contact with a friendly woman at a residence, and shortly thereafter detain her nephew when he comes out.

Ofr. Lozano summary: “So, this is his aunt’s house. I guess he was here washing clothes. Last week was when he was staring at a woman in her bedroom and her kids at a house down the street. His aunt went and got him for us. He came out. He’s been super calm so far. So, we’re just detaining him for now so that Officer Delgado could take him back to the station and finish his investigation with him. And then we’re just going to give his aunt an update about what’s going on.”

  • Frederick, Md. — Master Ofr. Frank Donato, Ofr. Ben Graumann, and other units respond to a strip mall parking lot where a woman accidentally locked her baby, age one, in the car. OPL caption: “Accidental lock-in.” Abrams: “The woman whose car it was said she took out the actual physical key that’s usually attached to the electronic key, so they’re going in old school here.” Trying several tools, cops eventually open the door. Abrams on watching the officers try to open the vehicle: “This is oddly mesmerizing and frustrating at the same time.” Using a variety of tools, cops eventually open the car door. The baby is fine.

“This is oddly mesmerizing and frustrating at the same time.”

Ofr. Graumann recap: “So we’re able to successfully get into the car and save little Asher. The A.C. was running the whole time, so it’s more of an issue of not breaking a window tonight, and we’re able to do that. So Asher is reunited with his mom, and everybody’s going home happy and safe.” Abrams quips that “Tom Rizzo, you were saying your life before becoming a cop, you got to know how to do this pretty well?” Rizzo: “I was very handy with getting into cars…” Abrams: “You worked for Triple A?…”

  • Hazen, Ark. — Chief Bradley Taylor, Sgt. Clayton Dillion, and Ofr. Colton Felts conduct a traffic stop for allegedly following a truck too close and to give a warning for same. Chief Taylor claims he smells alcohol. The driver says he had one beer with lunch and agrees to take a breathalyzer. He tests just .02 and is released.
  • Toledo, Ohio — Ofr. Erhart and other units mediate a neighbor dispute.

Ofr. Erhart recap: “So the neighbors are having a dispute of the kids walking through yards and playing and walking over property lines. The landlord to this rented property is going to be getting a fence put up to kind of eliminate that issue. We did advise them if they have any more issues just to call us. So it sounds like tonight everything is going to be fine.”

  • Richland County, S.C. — Cpl. Shannon Tolman backs up state troopers who are administering field sobriety testing to a driver. The motorist is arrested for alleged DUI. Car towed.
  • Frederick, Md. — Ofr. Graumann and other units respond to a stabbing at an apartment but which may be a misunderstanding or misinterpretation. Abrams: “Obviously, they’re trying to treat the victim there and figure out what happened, and we talk about this all the time, that officers are often the first responders. Larkin: “That’s exactly what I was gonna say. Police officers are the first ones there. EMS or Fire hasn’t made it. More and more departments are training their officers to be EMTs and even paramedics now because of how important it is….” Abrams: “…we saw him running with a kit with him, right?” OPL co-host Curtis Wilson: “And that kit, of course, has all kinds of different items in there in order to be able to serve this individual and stop that bleeding because that’s so important.”

Officer on scene: “This call came out as a stabbing; they found somebody bleeding, assuming that he got stabbed. The victim, however, is stating that he just cut his finger. So it sounds like his friend was concerned about him. There must have been some miscommunication when it got to our call taker. He’s saying he’s fine — just a little cut. There was some blood on the floor, but it must have just come from his finger. So it looks like we’re good here.” Abrams: “All right, so not as serious as initially feared, which is good.”

  • Fontana, Calif. — Ofr. Reyes assists in the pursuit of a minibike. The operator may have hopped off and run into a residence. Cops search the backyard and also the surrounding area. Search ongoing.
  • Everett, Wash. — Ofr. Rabelos investigates a situation where a homeowner allegedly claimed to be a cop in an interaction some people who he apparently believed to be loitering by parking their vehicle or vehicles overnight. A couple contacted by Ofr. Rabelos agree to move on from the street by 10 p.m. local time pursuant to posted signage. In a somewhat contentious discussion, Rabelos advises the homeowner to call the police if anyone is still parked there after 10 and not to claim he’s a police officer.
  • Toledo, Ohio — Sgt. McLendon and Ofr. Freimark respond to an alleged weapons call in a residential neighborhood and detain a man. Bleeping. Abrams: “This guy was explaining that he got into an altercation with his girlfriend over, I guess, her kid hitting him, and then they started fighting.” The sergeant also interacts with someone on scene, possibly a witness, and there seems to some confusion about whether a gun was involved. Abrams subsequently adds that “quick update in Toledo…the domestic incident where there was a concern the guy may have had a gun. He was released with no charges.”
  • Richland County, S.C. — Cpl. Tolman and other deputies respond to a shots-fired call outside an apartment complex.
  • Frederick, Md. — As the episode ends, Orr. Donato responds to shots-fired call.
CLICK HERE for the #OPL 03-12, August 17, 2024, recap.