The Sheriff on Patrol

Posted on 17 Oct 2023 @ 10:56 by Sheriff R. Thomas Durland Jr. & Deputy Sheriff II Harrison Conway

1,267 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: April Fools
Location: Nags Head, NC
Timeline: WED 05 APR 2023, 10:09

"Three-oh-one justice," the Sheriff's voice came across the radio. "I'll have a traffic stop on Route 158 near West Seachase Drive, the southern one," he clarified. There were two intersections of those particular roads. "Out of my vehicle."

"301 at 10:09," the dispatcher responded. It was the Sheriff, and so automatically, he looked for a backup patrol unit to go and assist. He selected the closest and attached them to the call, which would pop the call onto their MDT screen with an audible notification.

"Justice to 327," the dispatcher announced next over the radio.

Harry heard his radio crackle to life and the voice of the dispatcher calling his call sign. It took him a moment, his hand already going to the PTT button as he responded. "Go ahead, Justice."

"327 respond to back up 301 on a 145 at 158 and the Southern intersection of West Seachase Drive, Nags Head," the dispatcher ordered. The dispatcher hated that particular area of Nags Head. There was a West Seachase Drive that met up with 158 twice and a South Seachase Drive.

Harry couldn't help but perk a brow as he heard that the sheriff had been out on a traffic stop, or at the least out and on patrol. He had made a note to familiarise himself with the callsigns, almost repeating it upon a mantra as he drove around his beat. "Justice, 327. Show me responding." He knew the lay out, knew where he could go and cut through to get to the sheriff as quick as he possibly could. No doubt that the sheriff had it covered, but he wasn't about to let overconfidence in another's ability cover the possibility that things could still go wrong.

---

The Sheriff was unsure how he felt about the automatic dispatch of a backup unit whenever he decided to act like a sheriff, but he supposed it made sense. He was back in his patrol vehicle, now running a check on the license of the two occupants of the vehicle as well as the license plate. He didn't often do traffic stops but occasionally did them when he saw something egregious or was overly bored.

In this case, it was something egregious; the vehicle had run off the road as they were driving. It didn't appear that the driver was impaired other than by the cell phone they were talking on and the food all over the front of the car the two had been eating.

It was an old Chevy blazer that didn't sound like it would run much longer. The occupants were nineteen and likely high school graduates, as they otherwise should have been in school this morning. He wondered what they were doing in this section of town when they resided further north.

He heard the deputy in 327 state they were arriving over the radio and saw them pull in from the rearview mirror of his unmarked Ford Expedition. When the CAD chimed, which was a notification something on the screen had changed, his eyes instantly glanced up and saw the unit marker for 327 turns from the color indicating responding to the color telling on scene.

He had stopped what he was doing and, opened his door and slipped out of the vehicle. He moved to the front between his truck and the stopped blazer while he waited for the deputy inside to meet up with him.

"327, Justice." Harry chimed in. "Show me at 158 with 301."

He brought his cruiser to a halt, marked as he left his lights flashing - in case anyone driving along the road hadn't the faintest clue that police were conducting business. Harry had seen some strange things civilians had done whilst he had been conducting stops, even going as far as to ask whether they were police. Harry had stepped out of his vehicle and approached the sheriff, appraising the Blazer which had run off the road.

"Probably trying out pop's old car, took it for a spin." Harry commented as he visually checked it and its passengers for any injuries. "Mornin' sheriff. Plates been run?"

"Morning, yeah, it belongs to the driver, and they're nineteen. Anyone younger should be at school anyway," he pointed out. "They ran off and on the road a few times busy on their phone and eating their McDonalods. I'm going to write them for distracted driving and failure to maintain lane and leave it at that for a lesson."

Harry shook his head in disbelief. Teens. He couldn't quite remember if he was this much trouble for his parents, though if one was to ask the Conway family; they might have wholeheartedly agreed that he could have turned out like the two sat in the Blazer at the moment. "Think that will teach 'em." He stated drily. "Seems like you've got this under control, sheriff. Need a hand with anything else, sir?"

"No, but you'll make the dispatcher feel better if you sit here with me for another few minutes," he said, with a grin as he opened his door and slid back into the driver's seat. He began tapping away at the MDT to process the summons and then attempted to print it.

"Damnit," he announced as he began to mess around with the small printer attached to the side of his MDT mount. "This thing never works."

"Care to take a whack at this?" he asked, turning to look at Conway after jiggling wires and trying to restart it.

Harry had stood there by the car door, watching the teens carefully for a moment longer before he heard the sheriff speak to him again. He gave a wry smile as he mentioned that dispatch would be happier if he stuck around for the time being, or at least until the stop had been sorted.

The 'damnit' caught his attention as he slid into the passenger seat, looking at the printer. "Yeah, I can give it a whack..." He took a hard look at the little machine; they always were playing up in his cruiser too. "Seems to be a running issue at this point."

Whilst the temptation to whack it was strong, Harry needed to try and fix it; not cause further damage, especially to the sheriff's printer. He played around with the wiring, his brow furrowing as he made his arrangements. "Try now, sir."

"I guess replacing the printer for the guy who uses it once every few months is pretty low priority," the Sheriff joked as she moved back into the driver seat and hit the print button again. This time the summons printed without issue and he pulled it and then got back out of the vehicle.

"Nice work," he said, "give me a minute." With that, the Sheriff approached the vehicle again and handed the summons to the young driver. There were a few words and some nods and then a goodbye after the driver signed the second copy and the Sheriff returned to his vehicle and met with Conway as the car pulled out into traffic.

"How'd you like a coffee?" the Sheriff asked.

Harry glanced over, watching as the car pulled out into traffic and slowly disappeared with a bemused smirk on his lips. "Could do with one, if you're heading that way. Which shop were you thinking?" There was always time for coffee, Harry rarely went a day without coffee being in his hand.

"Morning View, it's on the corner of East Morning View, I'll see you there in a few," he said.

"301 Justice, both units will be 138 two issued," the sheriff announced on the radio after getting back into the driver seat.

 

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