Feature editor Grant Myatt and Front Page editor Christin Tang rode along with Naperville Police Officers Rob Carlson and John Reed, respectively, from approximately 11 p.m. until 2 a.m. on Friday March 11.
Grant Myatt, Feature Editor
10:50 I was picked up at the Police station by Officer Rob Carlson. He is a senior patrol officer and has been with the Naperville Police Department since 1991. We headed west on Aurora and the North on Ogden as he explained Naperville’s beat system to me. Carlson patrols beat 2 with partner Officer Reed which is located in the north-central part of town.
11:17 Carlson drove around monitoring traffic and also through the downtown area, passing by some of the bars. As we drove back north on Washington through beat six, another officer had pulled over two motorcycles that we had passed by earlier. Carlson talked to the officer and he asked Carlson to jump behind, so he pulled a u-turn and pulled up behind the other squad car with his lights on. The officer explained he pulled them over for improper display of a license plate. There was a third motorcycle in the group that didn’t get pulled over. Carlson spotted him in the Starbucks parking lot across the street and drove over there to talk to him.
11:20 Carlson let the driver know that his friends had been pulled over and said before leaving, “Be safe out there tonight.”
11:30 Carlson drove along Ogden/N. Aurora looking for any traffic violations or speeders. As we were driving along he would also run plates through the computer or surrounding cars.
11:58 Driving back down Ogden the opposite direction watching traffic, Carlson began following a pick-up truck that was swaying back and forth in the lane considering that they may be a drunk driver.
12:01 We turned left onto Naper near Deihl still following the truck, when Carlson spotted a red sedan without a back license plate. Carlson said over the radio that he was going to do a traffic stop and pulled the car over. He went to go talk to her and returned back to the squad car. In addition to the missing plate, it turns out she had an open title on the car, no insurance and incorrect information on her driver’s license. Carlson then spent several minutes writing up all the tickets.
12:25 Carlson finished writing the tickets and went back to talk to her. He advised her that she should not be driving the car, but gave her the option to keep driving. The lady chose to continue her drive back to Chicago even with Carlson’s warning.
12:30 Carlson pulled in a parking lot to enter in the tickets and fill out a VSI report for the traffic stop. The VSI report is filled out every time someone is stopped to prove that they weren’t picking on them for their race, color or anything, Carlson said.
12:37 We drove south on Naper while running the plates or surrounding cars. There wasn’t a lot of traffic on the street, as it was close to 1 p.m. Carlson ran a plate and found that a man had an expired driver’s license. We drove up by the car to see that a lady was driving it, therefore he decided not to pull her over.
12:39 Carlson turns right and drives west down Ogden past several local restaurants and bars. He said he looks for people turning out of those places because chances are they have been drinking. Carlson explained he also looks at the tailpipes and exhaust coming from cars because when there’s more exhaust that means they’ve just started their car and are coming from somewhere.
12:42 Approaching the intersection of Ogden and Washington, Carlson spotted a lady who made an improper turn, so we followed her south on Washington. The driver was speeding 11 mph over the speed limit. Carlson continued to follow her from some distance, and as the speed limit drops under the bridge, Carlson clocked her at 40 mph in a 25 mph zone. At an appropriate time, Carlson flipped on his lights and pulled over the driver at Washington and Van Buren.
12:45 Carlson spoke to the driver and issued her a warning for speeding because she was cooperative and explained she was driving home from work.
12:51 Carlson came around the block and parked on Main St. while entering in the information from the last traffic stop.
12:55 Coming up to the light at Benton and Washington, there was a call over the radio for any officer with a camera. Carlson, being the Evidence technician for his shift had a camera in his car. There was a battery incident downtown at Five Guys Burgers that we responded to so we could take pictures of the victim’s injuries to be entered into evidence.
12:56 We were just down the street, so we arrived quickly. There were six other officers that responded to the call originally that were still on-scene.
1:07 We began leaving the parking lot, but stopped to a few officers on our way out. Right away there was a call for a fight at Features Bar & Grill right down the street. Several officers jumped into their cars and we went down to the corner of Washington and Chicago. It turned out that the fight was broken up before most police arrived on scene.
1:12 We continue by driving through the downtown area, and then headed back up north.
1:30 Driving east on Ogden, Carlson turned down Washington following another car that was driving with improper lane usage and swaying side to side a little bit. As we follow the car from a distance, another car headed in the opposite direction drives past us 13mph over the speed limit and accelerating. Carlson decides to pull a u-turn and follow him. We continue following him as he turns right on Washington and Carlson pulls him over on Ogden at an appropriate spot.
1:32 The car pulled over in an inconvenient location of that road that did not make Carlson happy. Although after talking to the driver, Carlson said he was totally honest, so he gave him a warning for speeding. Officer Reed (and Christin) our beat partner came by during this stop to see if we needed any assistance. Carlson talked to them and they headed off.
1:41 Carlson entered the information from the last stop into the computer.
1:45 Driving down Ogden Carlson spotted two cars that he thought could be possible DUI’s. We followed one of the cars which handled a turn well and wasn’t speeding so Carlson didn’t stop them.
1:49 We heard a call on the radio about a possible intoxicated teen, we were going to respond to assist the other officer, but it turned out it was not an intoxicated teen. We pulled up with our lights on behind the other officer and he explained that this lady had flagged him down because she was in the car with her daughter who was of age, but extremely drunk and being obnoxious.
1:53 As we headed back to the police station, another officer had pulled another car over. We did a u-turn and pulled up behind him for assistance. The driver was not under the influence but was texting while driving.
1:55 As we headed back to the police station, Carlson showed me on his computer that 9 beat cars were in the downtown area just to control all the people from the bars.
1:58 Officer Carlson dropped me back off at the station. Like Reed, Carlson’s shift would continue until 6:30 a.m.
Christin Tang, Front Page Editor
10:30 Officer Reed arrived and picked me up from the waiting area at the police station. He introduced himself and explained the beat system the police use. This system divides the city up into sections to make sure the entire city is watched, as opposed to everybody being in one or two areas. Reed said we would be covering beat two tonight, which is the northern and central part of Naperville. Also, because it was a Friday night which tends to be busy, Reed said we would help cover the downtown beat by doing occasional drive-bys and just running through the area every once in a while.
10:46 We began a drive-by at an apartment complex towards the north end of Naperville. Reed said that the goal of driving through is obviously to watch for any crime or issues but also to make the police presence known. Typically the police will run by the apartment complex a couple times per night, especially on weekends.
10:49 Reed began to follow a car which was driving in the parking lot of the apartment complex. Reed recognized the license plate because somebody told him about that car a few weeks ago. As the man parked, Reed pulled the police car behind him so there was no way for the car to back out, then Reed turned on the lights of the police car. Once the man fully parked Reed went up to the car to talk.
10:52 Reed asked the man a few questions. Reed knew the man had a suspended license, by looking at the information on his computer and from what he heard a few weeks ago.
10:57 A backup police car arrived to assist Reed because Reed planned to arrest the driver. With the backup now at the scene, Reed told the man his rights and then proceeded to handcuff the man at his car.
11:01 The now arrested driver entered the back of the police car, handcuffed. At the same time that Reed helped him get into the backseat, the other officer began to search the car.
11:04 Reed joined in the search of the car.
11:16 Reed reentered the car and explained that we would be going back to the police station on Aurora.
11:23 The arrested man and Reed talked about the arrested man’s job, and other, conversational, small talk.
11:25 We entered a garage-like place attached to the police station. Two other police cars entered the garage right as we were pulling in. This is where they take the people they are arresting. Also, this was the only time I saw teenagers the entire night- two teenagers were arrested because they were breaking into cars.
11:30 We started to walk through the inside of the jail area. Reed told me to go stand in a room that I thought was a “command central” where various officers worked on the cases at hand. At this point, Reed left to talk to the man and secure his belongings.
11:41 Reed logged all of the man’s belongings, on a sheet of paper, and had the man sign that all of his items were accounted for and that it was the correct amount of money written down.
11:49 Reed started to write up the tickets. Reed only wrote two tickets for the man and explained to the man what the tickets were for, and how to go to court and talk to them about the tickets.
12:07 We left the police station and sat in his police car, behind the garage area.
12:28 We drove through the downtown. Specifically, Reed looked at various bars and tried to make eye contact with any bouncers to see if they needed assistance.
12:30 Reed responded to the call of a suicide threat. A man told his wife he would be driving to Naperville and would go in front of a train to kill himself. Reed offered that we would go look at accessible train track areas. He said it can be an art form to deal with people who are suicidal and that one of the most rewarding moments of his job was when he once talked a man out of suicide.
We returned downtown after searching multiple tracks without finding the man or his car.
1:04 Reed stopped the police car, next to Jimmy’s, and quickly walked after a group of men who were walking down the street yelling.
Another police officer got into the car and did a U-turn and drove up Washington Street to the next road and pulled over, then turned the lights on. Three to five other police cars, with lights on, were also on the road. Reed later said they broke up a fight.
1:17 Outside of the bars on Chicago Avenue, Reed filed an incident report explaining what the previous situation was and that it was taken care of.
1:32 Reed saw a police car that pulled over a car. Reed pulled his car behind the police car and explained that it was his beat partner’s police car (which Grant was in) and that we would wait until we knew if he need assistance before we left.
1:41 We returned to the downtown area because it was last call for the bars. Reed explained that there were three important things to pay attention to. People running, any yelling or any glass breaking.
1:47 We sat outside of the bars on Jefferson ‘babysitting,’ as Reed called it, to make sure that nobody caused trouble.
2:01 Reed dropped me off at the police station. Reed had four and a half hours on duty left.
