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

A recap of the August 3, 2024, On Patrol: Live episode (#OPL 03-08), anchored in the NYC studio by host and attorney Dan Abrams, co-host Deputy Sheriff Curtis Wilson, along with this weekend’s guest, and likely permanent, analyst, Captain Tom Rizzo, appears below.

Judging by social media, the highlight of the episode was the “booty call” for Fontana K9 Leo (scroll down for details).

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Note: Click here for the #OPL 03-07, August 2, 2024, recap.

On Patrol: Live Summary for August 3, 2024 (#OPL Episode 03-08)

Please review this important DISCLAIMER.
  • Fontana, Calif. — Ofr. Jon Gearhart with K9 Leo and other units respond to a neighbor dispute involving an alleged gun threat. They make contact with a man at a residence who shuts the garage and goes inside (“It’s ridiculous”). Gearhart: “If he’s gonna fight us, he’s gonna fight the dog, too.” The subject subsequently comes out of the home peacefully and is detained. He insists that nothing happened today. “I did nothing wrong.” He is arrested for alleged criminal threats.

Ofr. Gearhart overview (before the arrest): “Neighbor disputes are tricky because unfortunately we can’t just really leave the problem, or we can’t really put a band-aid on the problem, a lot of the time. These people live next to each other within almost arm’s reach of each other’s houses so these things usually continue to build until they boil up into something like this.”

Ofr. Gearhart recap: “While my partner was speaking with the neighbor, the original reporting party on this call, it was determined that a crime did occur. Penal Code 422 in the state of California is criminal threats, so threatening to cause serious bodily injury to somebody. So once we determined that he was a suspect of a crime, and he desired prosecution of him, he was placed under arrest. The dog was used as a kind of show of force, and that’s how we commonly use the dogs to show that we can use the force, but we hope that it ends in this situation like it did with [the subject] here, him just giving up because of the show of force there. So all in all it was good; nobody got hurt, taking him into custody, and then the neighbors can have their party peacefully tonight.”

OPL studio host Dan Abrams: “And…there’s a difference between show of force and use of force by the K9, right?” OPL guest analyst Cpt. Rizzo: “Constructive authority, right? Just the appearance. So by the show of force with the dog barking its head off like that might have people think twice. In this case, it did.” Abrams: “And that’s different from whether it would have been a legitimate use of force — it did not happen here.”

  • Toledo, Ohio (pre-recorded segment) — Ofrs. Jordan Freimark and Joe Bomia respond to a call about a man being pistol whipped by some teens as he was walking home from work and make contact with the victim. A foot pursuit of some suspects follows. Ofr. Freimark recap: “On the corner where we hoped out, we saw two males matching the description of what was given. We tried to stop and talk to them, and as we were trying to get them to comply with us, one took off running. I took chase, and then my partner came to assist me, which gave the other guy the chance to run away too.” As of this broadcast, the suspects are still at large.
  • Toledo, Ohio — Ofr. Freimark and other cops makes contact with several people on the porch of group home about threatening phone calls they have received.

Ofr. Freimark recap: “It seems like the two female individuals here are having issues with a known female and another gentleman who they used to be friends with, but I guess they’re trying to cut ties, but he keeps messing with them. I guess an incident happened last night where she called police where she said she was assaulted, but she canceled police, and now she wants to do a report, so we’re gonna see where we go from there. It sounds like the female half is contacting both of them over the phone and threatening to come over and fight them. At the very least, we have menacing, but we’ve got to see what we’re gonna do with the whole assault claims that she’s saying happened last night with the male half that they’re having issues with.”

Everett, Wash. — Ofrs. Adam Baumgardner and Josh Gottas conduct a traffic stop. “Your tags are crazy expired.” Suspended license and no insurance. The driver in a newly purchased car apparently is in the process of paying her fees and reinstating her license. Ofr. Baumgardner releases the motorist with a warning that she can’t drive

  • Indian River County, Fla. — Sgt. Chris Lester and Dep. Tony Le walk through a neighborhood looking for someone who allegedly fled from a previous disturbance. Sgt. Lester makes contact with a pedestrian who has “a comedic spirit to herself” but has no information for the investigation.
  • Brookford, N.C. — Chief Will Armstrong conducts a traffic stop for alleged continuous use of a turn signal. No license. Possible expired tag. The vehicle’s open rear is filled with trash bags. Abrams: “At least it’s an interesting way to add storage space to the back. If you don’t have enough trunk space, you got to figure it out.” The motorist apparently starts the car with a screwdriver. Caption: “Drug paraphernalia found.” Armstrong determines that the car is not stolen but it is towed (the driver apparently has no one to call to pick up the vehicle although he is given that option). Tickets issued. Cops inventory the car in preparation for towing. Abrams: “I don’t know if they’re gonna have to inventory the trash.”
  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Sgt. Christopher Maher conducts a traffic stop for alleged erratic driving. The driver is released with a warning, but Maher informs the motorist that the encounter will be documented and, as such, next time, if there is one, cops will likely issue a ticket. “If you’re gonna sit here and act like you didn’t do anything wrong, then I can’t guarantee you’re not gonna do that behavior again, right?” Abrams: “We didn’t see this guy driving, but this is the kind of person when you’re driving, you wish the police were around to pull over. The guy who is weaving through traffic and speeding past people…’where are the cops?’…it seems like maybe this is one of those cases…right place at right time.”
  • Triple Play #2 — Bratenahl, Ohio, pursuit.
  • Fontana, Calif. — Ofr. Brian Zozaya makes a traffic stop on a suspicious vehicle in a parking lot. Meth baggies allegedly found during a car search.

Ofr. Zozaya explanation: “We stopped this gentleman right here. Basically, as we’re approaching him, he’s kind of making some movements under the steering wheel. So we’re gonna just kind of see what he’s got going on here…so, he’s kind of reaching under his seat, but it looks like he’s got these little 8-balls. Basically, these are little baggies of, basically, crystal meth…he’s got a whole bag of these right here on him. A lot of baggies of this stuff. So, we’ll kind of wait for our partners to get here and talk to him a little bit more, but this is a pretty good-sized amount of narcotics that he has in here. Basically, all this stuff is packaged for sales, so he has it basically ready to be sold. That’s why he has this big old baggie of it…basically when I asked him what he had in the car, he basically told me that he had meth under the seat. So that’s kind of why we kind of went directly to that area, so basically we’re just confirming that he has nothing else in here. But he has that large package, so basically he was setting up to sell it…we’re just kind of standing by for our partners; looks like he has a little bit more baggies that he has. We’re gonna go ahead and just keep looking, making sure he doesn’t have anything else, but that’s a pretty good quantity of meth. Looks like he’s selling these little balls here, so probably getting about 20 a piece for these. We’ll kind of talk to him and question him a little bit more, but just now, we’re gonna wait for our partners to get here.” Abrams: “Helps when you’ve got an officer who’s bilingual.”

Abrams: “And…when they’re deciding whether to charge with intent to distribute, it’s not the total weight, right, necessarily? Rizzo: “Not necessarily, because people can buy in quantity for personal use, but this is this individual packages that are already prepped for distribution. And it goes to show, it looks like this guy wasn’t too busy yet, because the money’s not there, but the product is. So poor timing on his part; he’s gonna owe somebody a lot of money.”

  • Indian River County, Fla. (pre-recorded segment) — In a traffic stop, Dep. Brandon McKenzie pulls a driver out from the front seat of a suspicious vehicle outside a closed business and detains him in an encounter that he describes as “super sketchy.” A machete was in the vehicle.” Dep. McKenzie to subject: “Is it cheaper to buy crack than to buy food or a soda at 7-Eleven?…every time I come into contact with you, you have a crack pipe. Now you have a crack with that crack pipe.”

“Is it cheaper to buy crack than to buy food or a soda at 7-Eleven?

Dep. McKenzie recap: “So the suspect is gonna be transported to the Indian County Jail. He’s gonna be charged with possession of a controlled substance type 2. He had fentanyl and crack cocaine, both field tested positive. He’s currently out on bond for being in possession of a crack pipe. Arrested him a month ago for this exact same scenario that was going on right now.” Abrams: “And as we were watching the initial incident occur, you were talking about the strategy used by the officer there.” Rizzo: “It’s got to be hard and fast. We don’t want to have those violent encounters, but as you can see that quickly, how that can unfold with a machete. So control into the hands — hands kill. That’s why I want the pat frisk, when you talk about a suspicion that you think somebody’s armed and dangerous, it’s got to look that way. So I know the guy looks like he’s contorted into a pretzel, per se, saying ‘ow, ow, ow.’ But until we have control of that suspect, it has to be that way.” OPL co-host Dep. Curtis Wilson: “You got to keep this guy off balance, because he’s familiar with this guy. He may have arrested him a couple of times and nothing happens. But on that next time, something can happen, especially with this guy with this machete as well. So you got to be careful.”

  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Lt. Richie Maher responds to a possible house alarm.
  • Frederick, Md. — Ofr. Andrew Coady responds to a residence where a woman is allegedly fighting with paramedics. Caption: “Medical assist.” Ofr. Coady summary: “She’s getting checked out by EMS. She doesn’t want to go to the hospital. Her family wants her to go to the hospital. So, it’s some type of underlying medical issue. And we’re trying, everyone wants her to go to the hospital, except her. It sounds like nobody from EMS was assaulted. I guess she was just given them a hard time and being confrontational and difficult to deal with.” Abrams: “That’s not the kind of day you want to have when you’re an EMT. When you’re a cop, it’s part of the game. When you’re an EMT, it’s not supposed to be.”
  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Sgt. Maher and other units interact with a male outside a residence as well as several females on scene who don’t know the guy. The male, who may be a relative of the owner, agrees to leave the location.

Listen to Sgt. Maher’s synopsis:

  • Indian River County, Fla. (pre-recorded segment) — Based on a call that someone was pulling in and out of parking spaces, deputies make a traffic stop at a strip mall where a driver initially says she consumed “two glasses” of wine earlier. “You’re very unsteady; we want you to be very safe.” The motorist is subsequently arrested. Car towed. She tells cops that she’s never been arrested before, which prompts one of the deputies to playfully quip that she can cross that off her bucket list.

Summary from a deputy on scene: “I immediately realized that her speech was slurred. Strong odor alcohol, clearly inebriated. She was unable to participate in any field sobriety exercises because she was too intoxicated. She couldn’t even stand up. She’s gonna be going to jail for DUI. Her car is gonna get towed.” Abrams: “…we were talking about this. The fact that people are gonna watch that, they’re gonna say, ‘why are you even giving her a field sobriety test’? She’s falling down.” Wilson: “And they have a fair point to that, but from the law enforcement look at this thing. they’re just trying to gather as much information as they can for court purposes. So, ‘hey, we gave a shot at giving her this test.'” Abrams: “The more tests you can cite, the better the case you may have, although this doesn’t seem like it probably would be a particular close case.”

  • Toledo, Oho — Ofr. Freimark responds to a weapons call involving a threat to shoot somebody and searches the area for a suspect on foot who had already left the scene.
  • Daytona Beach, Fla. (pre-recorded segment) — Ofr. Brandon Ramirez investigates a strange situation in which a man dropped off a box of jewelry at one home, allegedly tried to break-in to another home (on the supposed premise that it was an Airbnb) which was filmed on a doorbell camera, and then was located while naked inside at a third home. Ofr. Ramirez; “This entire situation was kind of absurd from the beginning. Lady came outside, male at her door, claiming to be with a company, left all of his belongings. Not too sure why he left his items at that house after he was discovered. This seems drug related to me. The actual owners of the house showed up on scene, verified that they do not know him. They don’t want to press charges for burglary. Thankfully, we caught it just in time, in the act. It’s very rare you actually catch a burglary while it’s happening. Today, he’s gonna be going for loitering and prowling.”

“This entire situation was kind of absurd from the beginning.”

Abrams: “From moment one, this was an odd one, because the person’s calling in and saying, ‘oh, guy’s leaving stuff here,’ right? He’s not stealing stuff. He’s leaving stuff.” Wilson: “Which makes it so weird, and this is gonna start the police investigation. You get people who get involved, call law enforcement. They come. They see this. And now, of course, you move on to the next incident.” Rizzo: “Right, so this could also be, not in this particular case, not often that burglars leave their high school rings behind, but it’s a common tactic for legit burglary attempts, though. A knock at the door, and then if a homeowner is home, ‘oh, hey, sorry, I must have the wrong address, I was here for the car for sale,’ or that type of thing.” Abrams: “Right, and I love the fact that the guy says he lives there, and then they look at the pictures, and it’s like, didn’t match, ‘I don’t think that’s you…'”

  • Daytona Beach, Fla. — Lt. Maher wakes up a man who was sleeping outside a store in a shopping plaza. It’s unclear if the man is going to the hospital on his own to get checked out or if paramedics will come to the scene.
  • Triple Play #2 – Winnebago County, Wisc., pursuit.
  • Hazen, Ark. — Sgt. Clayton Dillion and Ofr. Dillon Cook conduct a traffic stop on the highway. According to Abrams, the driver allegedly has a warrant for a previous DUI. Portable breath test administered which apparently reads zero.
  • Neil Sullivan — Dan Abrams pays a heartfelt tribute to longtime OPL field producer Neil Sullivan.
  • Fontana, Calif. — Ofr. Gearhart and K9 Leo assist the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Office in a shooting investigation at a local store in a strip mall. During the search, the officer puts foot protectors on Leo. Caption: “Booty call.” With the assistance of a helicopter, sheriff’s deputies find and apprehend the suspect. After the search, Gearhart and his partner are unable to find a discarded gun.

“You look like a show pony, buddy”

Abrams to Rizzo: “You were pointing out another department would be calling in, potentially, a K9 as the expert.” Rizzo: “A hundred percent, and you’ll see canines tend to be one of the most commonly shared resources. Even if another department has one, if they’re not close enough to a scene, or within a reasonable amount of time to respond, you could use a neighboring jurisdiction. So they’ll give a starting point as to where they would recommend you start your track from.” Abrams: “And that’s where we heard there as they’re taking out K9 Leo.”

Listen to a discussion of the booties (Gearhart later jokes to the K9 and the OPL audience that “you look like a show pony, buddy” as the high-stepping dog temporarily gets accustomed to the wearing the booties):

Listen to Ofr. Gearhart’s recap of the incident:

  • Brookford, N.C. — Chief Will Armstrong and Ofr. Vilma Rivas conduct a traffic stop. Expired tag; no license. The chief and the motorist have a contentious back and forth (“I don’t care who your brother in law is. I’m the chief of police”) during which Armstrong informs the man he could take him to jail Instead of just issuing tickets. “You are this close to me locking you up.” Armstrong speaks with a woman on the phone who agrees to come to the scene to pick up the car. That apparently doesn’t work out because the car winds up getting towed. The driver does get arrested. Abrams: “He must have crossed the line again…he really did not help his own case here.” Wilson: “Get you in trouble; get you out of trouble.”

Toledo, Ohio (pre-recorded segment) — Ofrs. Ainsley Erhart and Brooke Janowiecki, among others, respond to a disturbance at a bar involving a naked man allegedly jumping from car to car. Abrams introduces the segment by asserting that “often we see calls ending up with a suspect in cuffs on this show, right?, but recently…that was apparently taken care of shortly before the officers arrived.”

“Probably the wealthiest man they’ve ever arrested, that’s for sure.”

Ofr. Janowiecki summary: “He was denied entry into the bar, so he took it upon himself to get undressed, thinking that would get him into the bar. He then decided to start jumping on vehicles. And then he got into an altercation with some females at the bar. The bouncers here ended up putting him into cuffs for us until we could arrive..so he’s gonna be going to jail tonight for [disorderly conduct] intox.” Rizzo (in reference to subject supposedly claiming that he sold an item worth $220 billion]: “…I was trying to get his investment advice. He’s the third wealthiest man in the world.” Abrams: “Probably the wealthiest man they’ve ever arrested, that’s for sure.”

  • Indian River County, Fla. — Along with other units, Sgt. Lester and Cpl. James Ooley search for a hit-and-run suspect vehicle. Sgt. Lester locates the vehicle with has damage, and which is a rental, at an apartment complex and makes contact with an older female in a unit who apparently initially wasn’t wearing pants and has a cut on her arm and blood on her shirt. Paramedics summoned.

Sgt. Lester summary: “Right know, as you can see, the apartment that this vehicle is registered to, once I knocked on the right door, she opened the door, and you can immediately see the laceration to her arm. She’s got some other small cuts on her. She can barely stand. She’s been highly, highly intoxicated. Show her her own vehicle, and she didn’t know that she was in an accident. So based on the evidence that we have, both with this vehicle, the description, her injuries, we can put her behind the wheel. So we are going to have EMS go ahead and check out her injuries, make sure there’s nothing significant. And once they give her the all-clear, bandage her up, the deputy is on scene of the original crash, and this deputy here, will probably most likely conduct a DUI investigation, and she’ll face probable charges of driving under the influence and crash leaving on the scene.”

  • Frederick, Md. — Ofr. Garrett Hall and colleagues respond to a call about someone allegedly peeing off of a motel balcony and make contact with witnesses. The “pee bandits” had already left the area, however. Cops subsequently make contact with two individuals who are unrelated to the previous call but who management apparently wants trespassed. Cops shortly thereafter detain one of the trespassed individuals at a nearby convenience store on an alleged warrant.
  • Richland County, S.C. — Dep. Matt Smith goes to a call dealership to search for a suspect vehicle in connection with a kidnapping investigation.
  • Richland County, S.C. — As the episode concludes, Master. Dep. Avery Arrington investigates a noise complaint at an apartment complex.