Friday Night "Ride-along" with my nephew - Officer Brian Kelliher

Three of our favorite nephews are Tim, Brian and Kevin Kelliher. All three served with distinction in the Marines shortly after high school. Brian and Kevin decided to make a career of law enforcement and now serve on the Cicero Police Department. They invited me to participate in a "ride-along" where I would ride in the squad car with Brian during an evening patrol.  This is what happened from 7:30 to 11:00pm on Friday night, November 6, 1999.

Background
Cicero is a town just west of Chicago with a Hispanic and white,  working-class population and is known to have some tough  neighborhoods. In recent years the Cicero police force has undergone major change as a result of court-ordered reforms to clean-up alleged corruption. Brian and Kevin are a part of a new, young police force that was created with recruits hired in the last 18 months.  The Cicero police are under a mandate from the Mayor of Cicero to crack down on gang-related crime.  Brian and Kevin  finished at the top of their class at the Police Academy and joined the Cicero police force in October of 1998. 

Note: these are my recollections of the evening that I composed the next day.  I am not familiar with law enforcement terminology (other than TV shows) and use my own words to describe the events.

7:40p Start of the Ride
I met Brian at the Cicero Police Station and he gave me a standard bullet-proof vest that all the police wear on duty.  I sat in the front passenger side seat of the Cicero squad car.  Brian showed me his onboard laptop computer and radio.  We drove out to parts of north Cicero where Brian usually patrols. The north-end has some of the higher crime neighborhoods with gang activity, drugs and prostitution.

7:50p Car Accident with Injuries
Brian gets a radio alert that he is to check out a car accident on Central Avenue.  We start driving in that direction and a few seconds later he gets an updated report that there are injuries so he puts on the squad car's lights and siren and drives very fast and around traffic to get to the scene.  We are the first car to arrive at the scene, Brian says it looks like a pretty bad accident and it is OK for me to get out and walk up with him. We find a car smashed into a pickup truck and the front-end of the car is severely crushed. The driver of the car is still sitting in the car looking dazed with head injuries. Brian checks out the injured man in the car, radios in a  quick report. A fire truck and paramedics  arrive within minutes and care for driver.  A second police car arrives and they close off Central Avenue. Brian interviews the driver of the pick-up truck, a young woman who says she is not injured and the driver of the car just turned suddenly into her lane resulting in a head-on collision. The paramedics remove the injured guy and take him away in the ambulance. The firemen have to bend some metal on the car to get it ready to be towed.  Brian is talking to the firemen, paramedics and the tow-truck driver and interviewing the woman that was driving the pick-up truck. Brian writes up reports and tickets for the driver of the car who is now on the way to hospital.  Brian stays on scene until both vehicles are towed and the Fire Department has washed down  the street. We drive back to the Police Station where Brian completes writing up his report on the accident.

Note: Brian told me a couple days later that the hospital reported the driver of the car had a .237 alcohol level - way over the legal limit and the driver was charged with DUI.

8:45p Abandoned Child
We leave the Police Station and Brian shows me how he can quickly check license plate numbers using the laptop computer.  He checks the car driving in front of us and it immediately shows a suspended license. Brian says he could stop the guy and arrest him. We get a radio report to check out an abandoned child at a carry-out restaurant.  Brian and I walk in the restaurant and find a 5 year old boy (Caucasian) watching some guys playing pinball. The owner says this kid has been hanging around for a few hours. Brian asks him where his parents are and where he lives. The boy says his mom is home at a  nearby apartment building and he likes to hang around at this restaurant and watch the pinball. He says when he walks home alone he sometimes gets beat up. Brian asks the boy to show us where he lives and we walk to a nearby, run-down apartment building. The mother meets us at the entrance to the apartment building (must have seen us coming). Brian tells the mother that a 5 year old should not be out alone this late and he could arrest her and charge her with child neglect. The mother looks very thin and unhealthy. Brian asks her several questions and offers many warnings regarding the consequences of her bad parenting. Brian takes note of the mother's name and runs a check on her using the laptop when we get back to the car. Brian reports in on the radio and we move on.

8:55p Injured Woman
Brian gets radio dispatch to check out injured woman near apartment building. As we arrive on the scene a young woman is being taken away in an ambulance. Several relatives and neighbors are standing around and Brian interviews some of the family. They say the young woman injured herself by stepping into a small hole in the dirt next to the sidewalk. Brian talks to a few more people and we leave in the car. Brian says he was called to the scene to create a record that might be used in an insurance claim by the injured woman. 

9:10p Reckless Driver
Brian hears a report on the radio about a guy in a pick-up truck driving recklessly and circling the same block in a residential neighborhood. Brian drives in that direction and is first on the scene and immediately identifies the truck parked in the middle of a one-way street.  Brian drives the wrong way up the one way street and stops in front of truck with our car headlights pointed in the face of driver. A second team of Cicero police arrive and they approach the truck, ask the driver what he is up to and they use flashlights to inspect interior and bed of truck from outside the truck as they talk to the driver. The driver says he has been circling looking for a parking space. They run his plate on their laptop computers and he has a clean registration.  Brian says the guy's eyes look like he has been drinking, but they don't have much cause to check for DUI. They tell him something (move along?) and we leave the scene.

9:20p Drug Bust #1
Brian hears radio report that police are going into an apartment building based on a report of a recent drug purchase in the building. We head that way to provide back-up.  We arrive to find unmarked police cars and tactical team (police in blue jeans, bullet proof vests, guns and black caps with brim turned to back of head) inspecting exterior and interior of the building. When we arrive one officer immediately motions to Brian to turn-off our headlights. Brian gets out and walks around the building and talks to the other officers. I stay in the car. Brian returns and says one of the cops on the scene says he saw a woman shooting heroin in the back room of the apartment. There are now about 8 police walking around with flashlights, inspecting the ground below the windows and walking into and out of one of the apartments.  Brian gets back in the car and we move on.

9:30p Gang Activity
Brian hears a radio report from off-duty cop requesting back-up for gang activity in nearby neighborhood. Brian hits lights and siren and we ride quickly to scene to find off-duty cop with one gang member pinned to the ground and tells Brian second guy ran into alley of nearby residential area. The officer tells Brian that the gang-banger he is holding flashed gang signs at him when he drove by and the other gang member had something in his hands, may have been a piece (hand gun). Brian handcuffs the gang member on the ground and puts him in the back seat of our car. The tactical team arrives in their Van and talk to Brian and the off-duty cop. They decide to search for the second suspected gang member by foot patrol of nearby neighborhood. We cruise into a  alley with our lights off. Nobody finds the second guy. Brian asks gang guy in our car his name, where he lives and phone number of his parents. He is 16 years old and says he is member of Berwyn (neighboring town) hispanic gang. He says the other guy they are looking for is member of rival gang and this guy chased him all the way from Berwyn into Cicero. Brian tells me later this is not true and the other guy was probably a fellow gang member. A member of the tactical team opens the back door to talk to the gang member handcuffed in the back seat of our car.  He asks some questions and makes it very clear that hanging around a Cicero residential neighborhood flashing gang signs to off-duty cops is something he does not want to do. Brian calls his parents on the cell phone and tells them he is returning their son who has been involved in gang activity in Cicero. We drive the kid home and he asks Brian if he can take the handcuffs off before he takes him up to his door. Brian says no and meets his mom on the front porch with handcuffed son. Brian explains to the mom that she can be fined for gang activities of her son. The mom says she has tried to get her son to stay away from gangs but he does not listen to her. Brian issues some warnings to the son and tells him to hang with his family and not gangs. Brian takes the handcuffs off and we drive back into Cicero.

10:15p Drug Bust #2
It is now after 10p and Brian's shift is about over. His brother, Kevin is on the midnight shift that has just started. Brian gets on the radio and asks for Kevin's location. We drive to that location and arrive at the same apartment building where the young woman fell into the hole earlier that evening.  Kevin and his partner are dressed in plain clothes. There are several other uniformed cops around.  Brian says that Kevin and his partners have three known gang members and one was found with cocaine on his person. I get out of the car and Kevin walks over and shows me a small bag of a cocaine found on the gang member.  Brian talks to the cops on the scene. One of the gang members is well known to the cops having killed a rival gang member in Chicago, but got off on a "acted in self-defense" argument. Kevin shows me the unmarked car that he and his partner drive during the midnight shift. Brian and I head back to the police station, it is now about 10:50p.

10:55p End of the Ride-Along
Back at the Police Station parking lot, I take off my vest and tell Brian thanks for the ride-along. Brian tells me being a good cop is 50 percent experience and 50 percent common sense. I would also say it takes great people skills, leadership, alertness and guts.  I tell Brian he is a great policeman and the family is very proud of Brian and Kevin.  I head back to my low-crime suburban town and on the way call Rosemary to let her know I am still alive. I was very nervous the first hour of the ride-along,  but after a couple hours I calmed down and really enjoyed the entire experience.  

Mark Gallagher
November, 1999

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