Policing Our Own

One Saturday, I was working the 3-11pm shift as a Police Officer. When I first came on shift that morning, my supervisor told us during our briefing to look out for a stolen, Gold in color Cadillac that was stolen from a local dealership. When you are on patrol after a supervisor makes a statement like that, every other car it seems is a Gold Cadillac. Anyway, I happened upon a Gold in color Cadillac turning right onto Raeford Rd. near Seventy First High School. I ran the tag, and it came back as stolen. The car saw me and quickly did a U-Turn and started heading the other direction. I did a U-Turn also, and the vehicle was going really fast, and out running me as I was more focused on calling it in than catching up to the car at that moment. As I drove further, I saw the Cadillac had crashed, and had the door open, and all the people were pointing toward a church about 300 meters away from the Cadillac. I really felt lost as I did not see the car crash, and now I was behind trying to get the suspect, which appeared to be about a 17 year old black male. I drove my car to behind the church and observed the suspect jumping over a fence that has the rolled concertina on the top. When I got to the fence, there was a man and his son inside of the fence, who had a blanket in their car, and before I got to the fence they threw the blanket over the fence, and I was able to get across. I kept thinking "what a blessing those two were." For some reason, I kept running although I could not see the suspect. I embarrassingly could not remember the street I was near and could not tell my dispatcher where I was. I was embarrassed, and praying "God help me." I kept running and came into a neighborhood. In the neighborhood this man came driving up in an old, Purple Ford Pinto. I asked him, "did you see a kid running up through here?" He replied, "he was back up the road, get in." I jumped in the Ford Pinto with the man and he drove me right up to where the suspect was. I remember being amazed at this man's generosity, and wanted to thank him immensely for driving me to the suspect, but the suspect was running again. The suspect jumped the fence into a neighbor's back yard. I barely scaled across the fence, like an old man with 15 pounds of gear on would. The suspect jumped over another fence. I was thinking in my mind, "I am not sure I can do another fence," when this woman came out of nowhere and opened the fence for me. The suspect jumped over another fence. I ran and climbed over the fence, fell on my side, and got up and started chasing the suspect again. I lost my radio. I was running and was now in another person's backyard. I was praying something like "Lord help me." The suspect jumped over another fence. I was running toward the fence and wondering if I could climb over the fence. Suddenly, to my right side, came a person running like a super hero. He slid face first under the fence in front of me with his arm out, and grabbed the suspect's shoe. The owner of the fence came over and opened the gate for me. I walked around and handcuffed the suspect and took him into custody. Citizens brought me both my lost radio and baton. The Officer that grabbed the foot of the suspect was a 23 year old rookie. The suspect was charged with Felony Possession of a Stolen Motor Vehicle and other crimes, and he led us to a ring that had stolen other cars. When I think of how we need to Police each other, I think of this miraculous chase, not because of anything that I did, but because of how God lined everything up. I think of how I, as a Police Officer, could have never had a chance to catch this suspect if it was not for God having these people who had similarly aligned moral values as me help me to accomplish God's will. God said "thou shalt not steal." These people helped put a crook behind bars.