If The Christmas Tree Is In The Yard

“Sheriff One, Frank 32, code 6 (back-up), there’s a Christmas tree in the front yard!”

That was an evening!

Street Cop Knowledge

Back when I was a baby cop, I finished up my field training program on 12/15. A couple of nights later, I went to swing shift (the senior shift) on the senior end of the week. Why? Because the two most senior deputies on the shift had gotten hurt – one broken arm, one broken leg – and I was an available body. Both of those stories are funny in their own right.

Anyway, one of the deputies took me aside just before Christmas and gave me one of those warnings. “Hey kid, if you go to a disturbance call at a house and the Christmas tree is in the front yard. Don’t go in. Call for more of us and wait until we get there.” Uhm, ok, why? (Talk about being naïve.) “Think about how bad it’s gotten if the tree is out front?” OH, got it.

Over the years, even though I never encountered that specific issue myself, I shared the cautionary tale with other deputies. In briefing, once the sergeant asked, “Anyone have anything?” Over coffee at the start of the shift. Over beers after the shift.

ODMP and Bad Days

Back in 2016, the Officer Down Memorial Page shared the data on the deadliest dates of the year for officers.

Up to that year, there had been ninety-five (95) line-of-duty deaths on Christmas Eve. Another ninety-two (92) had happened on Christmas Day itself. In an inglorious third place, New Year’s Day (rather than New Year’s Eve) had seen another eighty-seven (87) deaths of on-duty officers.

Having worked enough holidays over the years, I know the temptation to be a good guy. To cancel your backup officer for any number of reasons. They are having dinner with their family. I don’t want to bother them. I can handle this one myself. I know them; they won’t be any trouble. One that damn near bit me hard with a trainee – Sean’s having dinner with his fiancée, Jason (my trainee) and I can take care of it ourselves (that one could’ve been bad). None of them, not even one, is a good reason to cancel your cover on any of the other 362 days. They are really bad on days when people are incredibly stressed by family or finances, when alcohol might well have been flowing for hours.

Do not do that! Not today, 12/24. Not tomorrow, 12/25. Not on the 1st either.

Back to the Tree

This happened in the lowest socio-economic area in my office’s jurisdiction. While titled as a court, it was neither short nor round. It was more of a block-and-a-half street that dead-ended. It was just curvy enough that you couldn’t see to the end.

A decade before, for a couple of years, I had lived four or five blocks north of it, on a dirt court that looked like someone’s driveway.

Chris, one of the genuinely nicest, most decent people I ever worked with, was first on scene. It’s my recollection of his radio traffic that starts this article.

After parking and walking towards the house, he saw a decorated tree in the front yard. Oddly enough, we had talked about the tale I was told as a new deputy. Fortunately, I had shared it, and Chris took it seriously.

That night, shortly before Christmas, there were ten of us working out of the Main Office. I’m pretty sure we all responded. I know that once on scene, every one of us was gainfully employed for quite a while. There had been arguing, there had been threats, there certainly was vandalism (tree, window glass, rental property), probably a battery (physical assault) or three, though the very specific details escape me as it was not my report. Whew.

There was at least an arrest, if not more. The important part was that we handled it without any of us being assaulted, or injured, or worse. Everyone ultimately went home in one piece, in pretty much the same condition they were in earlier that day.

I thought I had a picture of that tree, but I could not find it.

Closing Thoughts

Anyway, take time with your family and friends over the next week. Enjoy it, enjoy them. However, take care of your partners, take care of yourself. Don’t cancel your backup, especially not over the next week.

In the immortal words of Sgt Phil Esterhouse, the patrol sergeant on the 1980s TV show Hill Street Blues: “Hey, let’s be careful out there!”

Merry Christmas! My sincere thanks and heartfelt appreciation for each and every one of you who are working the streets these days, evenings, and nights.

RESOURCE

Officer Down Memorial Page