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I was asked to thread another "war story" so please bear with me while I think of one. Ok, this one is about a cop killer and rapist who made the most wanted list here in Texas and an old beat cop. Back in the day, we were assigned beats. You went to work knowing that you &
your partner would work the same part of town called your beat. We had radio patrol cars (RPCs) & we shared a walkie talkie between the 2 of us. When we were on duty our beat/district was our responsibility for law & order. That's important to understand because we were the
law as far as the citizens were concerned. Over time, your beat residents got to know you real well & likewise, you learned folks schedules & even recognized when things weren't right, like lights on too late at a business or at house or a different car parked somewhere it
was never seen before, etc. You just picked up on these things if you were attentive & a good cop. So word came down from higher that a known rapist had killed a cop in a Houston and maybe en route to our fair city where he has relatives, specifically, to my beat. A special unit
had been formed to watch the area & they would be in unmarked & plainclothes. The Sgt. of that unit was a rude SOB and he made it clear to me & my partner to steer clear of the neighborhood where this guy may be headed because they wanted the collar & he didn't want any dumb
uniforms mucking up their arrest. Nevermind my boots had more time on the job than this wet behind the ears Sgt had in his career. So I swung into dispatch & asked & received the particulars of the suspect including his BOLO which had his photo & a car description. We picked up
what we thought was the car turning into the neighborhood & before we could get behind it, we heard the Sgt. squawk on the radio they had the suspect vehicle turning into an apt complex & they were gonna give him a few mins before contacting him. So we went ahead & pulled into
the complex & made contact. I heard the Sgt on the radio yelling who in the hell is the uniforms in the complex, identify and get the hell out of there. We didn't answer. I got out of the car at the same time the bad guy was exiting his vehicle. He never saw me. I could tell it
was him from his picture so I said his name as I walked up to him from behind and as he turned, reaching for what was his revolver in his belt, I hit him between the eyes with my leather slapstick. A slapstick is a 1/4" thick piece of leather, double stiched and about 10" long.
One end is weighted with lead shot and weighs about 12 ounces on that end. The other end has a nifty hand strap so you don't lose your grip. Anyways, I smacked him with the slapstick and he fell like a sack of potatoes onto the sidewalk. He had a partner that never made it
out of the car. My partner had corralled her still seated behind the driver's seat. I rolled the guy over, still stunned, and handcuffed him. Then I took his weapons away from him. He had two guns. Then I radioed that I had the wanted guy in custody without incident. Of course,
the Sgt. was livid. He wanted my head on a platter for interfering with his "special operation". Fortunately, the patrol captain didn't see it that way. In fact, the Chief of Detectives started questioning the cost of manpower that went into setting up this special op, when all
it took was a couple of street-savvy beat cops to bring in the bad guy (and gal). Now the moral of the story here isn't to disobey your Sgt. No. The moral of the story here is to pay attention to those people that have experience, even if you outrank them. What they have in
experience can save you time and money and in our case, can prevent crime and may save lives. /end
