Robbery Suspect Caught

I read in the Houston Chronicle this morning where an officer was close enough to a robbery in progress to actually witness its conclusion; the part where the robbery suspect got shot. Not to make light of the situation; but when you point a gun at the police I have no tears for you ( linked via title bar )

When I was a young police officer I’d always wanted to be close enough to a major crime scene to jump into the middle of it. I was assigned to Central Patrol Evenings out of Central in the early 70’s. One particular Churches Chicken store was getting robbed on a regular basis and we decided to allocate a handful of units to stake out the place; when I say “we”, bear in mind that I was not in on the decision making process. I was; however, thrilled at the prospect of being in on the detail, it having a fair chance of offering results since the store was being robbed a couple of times a week.

My partner and I were set up about two blocks away and out of sight so that when the robbery went down we’d be in a position to catch them if they came our way. Other units were similarly positioned with one unit watching the store through binoculars. I heard the call go out, the familiar address and waited for the primary unit to alert us with details of the suspects.

“Suspects in custody”, was put out almost simultaneously. We collectively drove to the scene and were somewhat dumbstruck when we noticed that the primary unit didn’t have anyone in the back of their patrol unit. They were talking to the young man working behind the counter, taking notes as he explained how he’d just been robbed and wanted to know why we were all standing around instead of chasing the bad guy.

“We have the suspect.” The young man behind the counter had a puzzled look on his face; knowing that it was impossible since he’d just told us about the robbery. It turned out that nobody had been into the Churches Chicken for the past twenty minutes as had been observed by the unit with the binoculars. There had never been any robberies; at least not by anyone walking up to the counter wielding a pistol. The young man behind the counter, the employee had been pocketing the day’s receipts and calling in to report a robbery; so the fact remained, the suspect was in custody.

Several years went by and I was assigned to make a robbery report downtown. I listened as the young man explained that he was on his way to the bank to deposit the day’s receipts when he was robbed. The details were sketchy at best; almost as if he were making them up as he went along. A little red flag went off in my head as it occurred to me that in all likelihood I was talking with the suspect.

I had no proof, only my suspicions to guide me through as I took great care to record the details, or lack thereof, exactly as they were given. This may have been the shortest robbery report ever made; I might as well have put down that the suspect was a grey blob who vanished into thin air carrying all the money and left it at that.

The folks who check over the quality of reports turned in flagged my report as being a sorry excuse for police work and requested, perhaps too kind a term, that I do a better job as I was handed it back accompanied with something of a scowl as if I’d cheated the Department by doing shoddy work. The fact was I couldn’t accuse the one person who I believed to be the real suspect with no evidence to prove it.

I went back and made a very detailed report. I measured the sidewalk, listed the placement of the traffic signals, how high the curb was from the street surface and even listed cracks in the concrete at the location of the alleged event. I put so many useless details into that report that it had to have a second full page of single spaced details which had about as much to do with police work as this blog has. I turned it into the fellow who’d been critical of my work and explained that not all is as it appears; that perhaps he might have asked why the first report was lacking before going off with extreme criticism.

I’m sure there’s a lesson for us all in there somewhere; maybe the fellow behind the register should be watched a little more closely would be important to remember. How about we get all the information before jumping to conclusions; now that would really be asking too much, now wouldn’t it?