Working in a small department, one quickly learns how to handle many situations without the additional layer of safety a back up officer can provide. Working a call by yourself isn’t the safest thing to do, but neither is the job of law enforcement I suppose.
The department I worked for was a relatively small agency of less than 50 officers on the edges of a major metropolitan area in the southeastern United States. Although we enjoyed a low crime rate, the spill-over from the big city definitely kept us busy.
When I hit the road on this one Saturday afternoon, there were only three officers out on patrol: me, my partner and our lieutenant. My partner and the LT immediately left for a multi-car accident with injuries blocking a highway, and I was sent to a “shoplifter in custody” at a grocery store.
