Cinco de Drunko

Driving home from a quick dinner and saw two BHPD motor units on traffic stops and didn't know why the motor units were working after dark. Fired up the scanner a little while ago and heard a bunch of BH motor and T-units doing tons of traffic stops...chewed on it for a few minutes and then realized it's Cinco de Drunko. Other than Halloween, New Year's Eve and July 4, there are no better nights to pull traffic enforcement looking for deuces.

The Single Car Rollover...

....has alway sort of amused me. I mean it's not an easy thing to do--especially in a crowded city like L.A.--to just up and flip your car onto its roof. Especially during morning rush hour. But, that's what impeded my way this morning on Beverly Boulevard in West Hollywood, just north of Robertson Boulevard.

The LASD had eastbound Beverly blocked off and LACoFD Engine 7 and a private ambulance were on the scene. BHPD was there, too, since it's just over the border into WeHo. Other than a little two-door compact up on its roof, didn't see much other action and whatever injuries there were didn't seem too critical.

Odds, Ends

-- Will somebody please tell me why a single LASD motor unit is doing speed enforcement along the Wilshire Corridor in Westwood during the morning rush hour? Anyone? I've seen the green and tan man three times now; usually hiding in the driveway of one of the dozens of residential hi-rises that dot that section of Wilshire. He's smack in the middle of LAPD territory (unless the county has quietly annexed that portion of Wilshire, which they haven't). It's a gnawing mystery.

-- Didn't hear too much St. Paddy's day mayhem on the scanner last night (though my battery died off around 2300 hours). In fact, the only St. Patrick's call in my scannerland that came down was in the always hopping Irish neighborhood of Granada Hills! Apparently, things got a wee bit crowded at O'Grady's (alternative spelling via the Web: "OH Gradys") Lounge on Chatsworth Avenue. An LAFD inspector got the LAPD, Engine 87 (which probably hasn't gone to an OVERCROWD call this side of 1980) and Battalion 15 out of bed to quell the rowdy northwest San Fernando Valley drinkers.

-- Heard a BHPD Lieutenant initiate a traffic stop in his unmarked on Wilshire Boulevard westbound last night right in front of the Los Angeles Country Club. He requested a patrol unit to back him up and 20 minutes later, they had one DUI driver in custody.

Sometimes You See Em'...

...today you don't. It always amazes me when I spend the better part of the day driving around greater L.A. and don't see a single cop in all of my travels. During the day I drove from mid-Wilshire to Culver City back to mid-Wilshire to Burbank back to mid-Wilshire back to Culver City and finally, back to mid-Wilshire over a period of about 6 hours and didn't see one cop. Not one LAPD, Culver City PD, Burbank PD or even CHP (for the brief stretch on the 101 and 134 freeways) unit the entire time.

I know they're out there somewhere; just not today.

The Dodge Invasion

When it gets down to the nitty-gritty on things involving hardware (vehicles, radios, lightbars), I'm a little slower on the uptake than I am with software (tactics, planning, resources usage) changes.

To wit: I noticed the first marked LAPD Dodge Charger out on the road last night. Driving home from Hollywood and I saw three LAPD units at a minor TC at a strip mall at the intersection of Highland Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard. One of the three was a brand-new Charger assigned to West Traffic division, complete with the LED lightbar package.

Apparently, this development has been well documented and the CHP also took delivery of 88 Dodge Chargers early last year for use as unmarked vehicles.

Here's my take: I'm a Ford Crown Victoria kind of guy for LE vehicles. I used to like the Old Chevy Caprice's of the 1980s and 1990s, but have been partial to the Crown Vics for many years now. I liked Fords (ambulances, in my case) when I was on the EMS beat, they never did me wrong. In my youth, I was the proud operator of a number of Dodge Caravan mini-vans and I can say they were a model of the American auto industry's "planned-obsolescence" strategy, and in general, were total piece-of-shit automobiles. In fairness, however, I also remember a particularly lemon-y Ford Escort from the mid 1980s, as well.

As for the Charger, I just think it's too big, boxy and robo-cop for the LAPD. I think they work well for certain highway patrols and "statie" depts. (see here and here), but as the day-to-day workhorse, I'm not a fan.

For that matter, however, I'm not a fan of the LAPD's "new" Harley Davidson motor-units. They look like heavy beasts that the guys would rather be riding up to Sturgis than patrolling the streets of L.A. In fact, I'm partial to bikes like the Yamaha trailing the LAPD unit in the linked pic, or BMW's used by Beverly Hills PD and others.

Anyway, I know these posts wade into the passions of car and cycle fans, but I like what I like.

photo: from flickr, apologies for the cropping distortion.

California Roll

The other morning I decided to take a little stroll at the park a few blocks from my home. The northern boundary of this particular park is a busy two-way street that motorists enjoy using as a short-cut to avoid Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, from the eastern border of the city to as far west as Robertson Boulevard.

As I was strolling down the sidewalk heading back to my house, I noticed the line of cars at a particular intersection basically blowing through the three way stop sign (it's a T-intersection that dead-ends at the park). Because I was in no particular hurry to get to work that day, I stopped and leaned up against a light pole to watch how many cars actually came to a complete stop at the limit line before proceeding through the intersection.

So, if the BHPD is looking to fill its coffers with moving violation revenues, I strongly encourage them to hang out at this particular intersection; in the span of about 15 minutes my unofficial count was approximately 75 cars or so...and maybe five (maybe!) actually came to a complete stop. At least five rolled right through without hitting the brakes for even a second, while most everyone else pulled the typical "California Roll." Only about 10 folks were on their cellphones, which is far less than I would have suspected.

Clearly I need more to do in the mornings.

Wet N' Wild in Beverly Hills

So the latest rainstorm (first of three, says the NWS) has created a mess of things in Beverly Hills. I guess because it started pissing rain midday everyone got all confused. A bunch of signal lights up on both Santa Monica Boulevards shorted out around 2 p.m., snarling things. Then the accidents started.

Seems there was a major smash-up at Sunset and Alpine that requires all sorts of crime scene unit callouts and other shenanigans.* Apparently it's not going to be a major crime, per the Sgt. on scene, but clearly there was a head-on crash with fire and significant injuries; a crash on Olympic and Clark in the south end and some other bang-up at Rexford and Lexington. A second head-on wreck just went down on the nasty S-curve just west of Whittier on Sunset and traffic is backed up for miles.

Ugly start to a wet weekend. Slow down on the drive home, idiots. Slow down.

photo: Wilshire and Rodeo, courtesy of rivenrock.com

Whole Lotta Everything

Sometimes there seems to be a whole lotta shit going on in Scannerland, but none of it seems that interesting. That's a high-class problem that comes with listening to the constant patter of emergencies in a major U.S. city. Lots of scannermonkeys would give their left (and right) nut to catch a few shootings, structure fires, extrication and rollover traffic collisions, possible plane crashes and a major gas leak within a six hour period, if not an entire month.

Yes, between the LAFD, LAPD and Santa Monica FD, all of the above went down at some point this evening. But it all felt sorta blah. Like I said, a high-class problem. For the past year or so, I've listened exclusively to the LAFD, LAPD, BHPD/FD, SMFD (with short bursts of Santa Monica and El Segundo PD's mixed in for specific reasons). I've stayed far away from LA County Fire and the LA County Sheriff's. As rewarding as some of the LA County FD calls can be (the sheriff system is way too painful for prolonged listening), I just can't take the constant tones and simulcast dispatches. They interfere way too much with the controlled flow of the LAFD. Even LAPD Hotshots gets on my nerves, but I've decided that it's worth keeping on to catch the good LAPD capers, which go down like clockwork.

That is all.

Odds, Ends

-- A few nights ago, LAPD caught the rare West LA division shooting. Call went out around 11 p.m. for a shots fired with a possible victim screaming for help in the far western and southern fringes of Brentwood. A bunch of units bought the call as two other "vicinity calls" went out in short order. Pretty soon, it was upgraded to an Ambulance Shooting with Engine and Rescue 37 (Westwood) attached. Since the LAPD has a bad habit of not trying to sort out vicinity calls until after units arrive, they had three separate primary units going Code 3 to a 2-block area and a bunch of other backup units bought in, as well. That included the basic car from way out in the Palisades, which was responding code from deep Sunset Boulevard.

So the first unit went Code 6 at San Vicente and Wilshire and unsurprisingly didn't find anything, while another primary car went out at an address on Barry Avenue right around the corner and found some dude shot in the stomach. The two white guys who were the alleged shooters had fled in a beat up Buick to parts unknown. Sounds like a shady drug deal gone bad.

--Meantime, across town in Beverly Hills, a "suspicious circs" call went down on an otherwise silent night. The dispatch was at a building on Wilshire that basically straddles the L.A./Beverly Hills city line on the southeastern end of the city at a joint called Sparkle Networks. Spark Networks--a quick Interwebs search reveals--is the parent company of such online dating sites as JDate, militaryconnections.com and interracialsingles.net. Well, it seems that some chick called the 877 customer service line around 11 p.m. and whoever answered the phone--likely in some town in central India or the Philippine archipelago--told the caller she was being stabbed and then hung up.

So Susie Good Samaritan must have been online or subsequently went online and found a biz address for Spark Networks that put the headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard in BH. So the 911 call was that someone in the office was being stabbed. Fair enough (leaps of logic aside, at least the dispatcher didn't hang up on her).

Basically every on-duty patrol unit in BH bought into the call and one of the field sergeants rousted himself from HQ to respond on down to Wilshire and San Vicente. The dispatcher (one of BH's most competent) tried a number of times to call back the 877 number and kept getting hung up on after it picked up--though she said there were voices in the background. At this point, I'm giving it a 20% chance of being legit and a heavily 80% chance of being total bullshit. But BHPD went through the whole fire drill: Units posted on all sides of the big office building; four coppers and the Sgt. rallied up in the lobby; Engine 3 and Rescue 1 staging a block out; K9 unit in the rear parking lot obtained master keys from the cleaning crew; confirmed no one was supposed to be up there at 2300 hours; perimeter set.

So entry team then requests the shield from the trunk of one of the patrol units in case of a crazy stabber awaiting them on the 8th floor. So...once entry was made via janitor keys the office was swept and no sign of a victim and definitely no suspect. It was Code 4 and everyone went home. Another solid exercise for the BHPD.

--A small barelysortascratched traffic accident outside my office building last week brought a visit from an LAPD West Traffic unit and shortly thereafter, Rescue 102 rolled up for some bullshitneckbackneckandback pain. Nice to see South Van Nuys' finest playing way over in Carthay Circle.

Sunday Scanning

The joy of scanning SoCal is that on a random Sunday evening in January, the following things are all going on at once:

-- BHPD is running security and trying to keep the mischief down at the Beverly Hilton hotel as the Golden Globes awards are underway. They've been out there all day with set-up and celebrity arrivals, etc. etc. Right now, BHFD is responding to some manner of medical emergency on the second floor of the hotel, even as the place is locked-down tight because the awards broadcast is underway. Lots of traffic on the BHPD Tac (453.650) regarding random road closures and vehicles trying to get past checkpoints.

--On the far southwestern end of LAFD's jurisdiction they're using FIRE 4 to hoist some lady from the bottom of the cliff down in FS 48's district on the Palos Verdes Penninsula. FIRE 6 is standing watch as the observer helo.

--And way up in the Northwest Valley in Chatsworth, LAFD hit the "uh-oh" button when a Metrolink (though possibly Amtrak) train hit and killed some chick who was walking in a tunnel. She was pronounced dead on scene, but now they've got a train full of 400 folks stuck in the tunnel as they investigate and a bottleneck of delayed trains on the tracks behind them. No injuries on the train but LAFD and LAPD have formed a joint-command to try to figure out how the fuck to get the body out of the tunnel and move the trains again. It looks like the involved train is going to be stuck for at least two hours as the coroner investigates.

USAR Task Force 88 was on scene for a bit and was prepping for lighting and other USAR-type activities, but the IC just cut them loose since they didn't want all those guys tied up for so long, while everyone's standing around waiting.

Must Be...

...the end of the month. BHPD was out in force today on traffic citation detail. They were even checking maximum operating weights on random commercial vehicles they spotted throughout the city. Heard lots of cites being dished out and one dude got popped this morning for misdemeanor dope possession. Fill those coffer$ boys.

Talk About The Dog Days....

Something about the record heat and humidity we had here a week or so ago has kept me from the blog...just couldn't muster the energy. Did a bit of scanning over the last two weeks. Nothing too exciting except for some amusement two nights ago in Beverly Hills.

Nearly all of the on-duty patrol units get sent to a house way up near the BH city limit, off Coldwater Canyon Drive. Responding to their equivalent of a "hot prowl," where the caller reported a white male trying to break into her house. As units were hauling ass to get up there, more information came in--now, the suspect hadn't tried to break in per se, more like the woman saw him outside. She got scared. She screamed. He got scared. He ran away.

Units got on scene and it only took about eight minutes to realize the man had been making the first delivery of the family's "nutri-fit" food service. The lady of the house wasn't expecting the drop-off at 11 p.m. Classic.

# # #

Gave Sept. 11 a few minutes of thought yesterday. Hard to believe it's been six years. Back then, I was in public safety full-time and watched the Towers fall on TV before heading into work for about 48 very tense hours. Seems like a lifetime ago.

Catching Up...

Apologies for my absence. Just a few tidbits, most recent at the top:

--Caught the tail end of the LAX Customs computer meltdown last Saturday night. Got home in time to hear the LAFD medical strike teams in effect at Tom Bradley Intl. terminal. Sounds like they'd been at it for a few hours, and some of the medics were getting quite edgy with the EMS captains who were dispatching them to EMS calls through the throngs of thousands gathered at the airport. LAFD command broke the incident down around 2 a.m., but still managed to hear an LAFD unit (RA 51 or E51, I think) crash into an airport shuttle bus on their way off the airfield.

--Finally laid mine eyes upon the new BHFD Rescues, as one of my faithful readers alerted me to their presence a few weeks ago. Here's why I probably never noticed them before: Because they are the SAME UGLY TRIANGULAR MODS that BHFD seems to be in love with (the link shows the old BHFD rescue units, but it's the same design on the new ones).

This, my friends, is what a brand new Freightliner ambulance should look like. That's a beautiful brand new rig proudly serving the residents and tourists of Las Vegas's Clark County, Nev. Notice the nice rectangular box sitting behind the cab! Not some ridiculous polygonal shape that just looks like it belongs at some crappy vollie rescue squad somewhere. The LED light package is nice and all, but seriously BH; Nut up and get a REAL big, badass, rescue next time. I know you're not hurting for the funds.

--Saw a nice grey Acura TL shear off a hydrant on Beverly Drive in the middle of mansion-ville in BH a few weekends back. Eerie, in that a geyser of water was shooting straight up and the driver was stil behind the wheel, shaken from the deployed air bag. Took a few minutes, but since it was a quiet Sunday night, the cavalry arrived in the form of four BHPD units rolling Code 3, followed by Engine 2 and Rescue 1. Didn't stick around after that.

-- Had a nice little earthquake at 1 a.m. a few weeks ago. Was scanning at the time. LACoFD went into "Earthquake Mode" and started a station recall over the LA. In the City, Battalion 14 came up on the air asking OCD if "we're going into earthquake mode?" OCD clearly didn't know anything about no quake (in their defense, they're a few stories underground encased in a re-inforced concrete bunker) and told Batt. 14 there would be no earthquake activation. That caught the BC by surprise since the quake was centered NNW of Chatsworth, which is most certainly LAFD territory.

-- Heard the LAPD "Help Call" go down in Hollenbeck a few weeks ago. Turns out, suspect got shot and killed after he started choking the female part of the patrol duo. Was a domestic violence suspect who returned to the scene of the crime. I heard the help call broadcast, then a Code 4 a few minutes later. Then heard the LAFD get the shooting call. No other radio traffic in the clear.

Calls O' The Weekend

One of the great things about scanning the BHPD (still not trunked!) is hearing them leap into action. Sure, if you scan the LAPD "Hotshot" frequency all day, you'll hear some of the gnarliest calls go down. In fact, an hour of LAPD hotshot calls is likely the equivalent of many smaller police department's violent calls for the entire year.

Such was the case on Saturday night when Beverly Hills' finest were dispatched to a report of juveniles shooting at cars and buildings with BB guns from a parking lot on Olympic Boulevard. The location is about two blocks from my house, and despite the temptation to go running out to watch the action, I didn't particularly want to get shot with a BB or, more likely, with a 9mm from the boys in blue.

Needless to say, things in South Beverly Hills were a bit quiet that night, so virtually the entire on duty patrol force responded to the scene. Two units shut down traffic in both directions, while at least four more staged a little ways from the lot. The citizen calling 911 had stayed on the line and was directing the cops in. In short order, the kids with the gun must have realized the absence of traffic on Olympic was a bit suspicious and as they jumped in their cars to make a quick escape, they were surrounded.

The BHPD made quick work of the ruffians and once more opened the busy street to late night traffic. But it's one of those that definitely got the BHPD's blood pumping.

And just when I thought that'd be the best call of the night, the good folks over at LAPD West LA Division requested backup and an air unit in one of the ritziest parts of town--Brentwood.

Turns out, an unruly man had fought with some patrol officers in a backyard and tried to pull the female officer into the pool with him. He was unsuccessful in this attempt, but he ended up in the pool anyway. A few Code 3 units and an Airship later, the suspect was still in the pool, surrounded by officers and a nitesun. They eventually called the LAFD in to fish him out of the pool and they then tased him for good measure.

Tidbits

Finally dialed up the old Bearcat in the last few days and heard some good bits:

--BHPD ran code 3 to a report of a woman standing in the middle of Beverwil Drive screaming for help at 1:30 a.m. About four patrol cars went screaming over to Beverwil X Olympic Boulevard to find no woman screaming, just some lady standing by a Jeep in the parking lot of a nearby gas station. No idea what happened to her or any other lady screaming in the middle of the Beverly Hills night.

--Next morning, heard BHFD go out on the infrequent traffic accident with entrapment up on North Rexford Drive. They actually had a trapped pt. and used Truck 4 for the extrication.

--LAFD had a good wee-hours physical rescue at Glendale Boulevard and Fletcher. Solo car wrapped itself around a telephone pole. Not a bad place to get into a gnarly crash since it's right in Heavy Rescue 56's first in.

Otherwise, there seem to be the usual smatterings of structure fires, T/A's and the usual LAPD riffraff capers.

Stay tuned.

Hat tip to Code2High.com for the photo.

The Pain In My...

...ass seems nigh. As commenter Karl helpfully pointed out below, Beverly Hills' application for a trunked system seems to have been recently approved. It's only a matter of time, I suppose, before I'll have to dig out the manual on my BC296D to figure out how the hell to program talk groups and all that shit. It used to be BHPD was one of the more annoying scanning channels in SoCal (not counting the head banging inducing game of trying to monitor the L.A. County Sheriffs).

BHPD used to be all about "459 Audibles"--ringing burglar alarms, and traffic stops. The traffic stops are still there--and more interesting these days since those cops basically racially profile every T-stop, and in doing so, actually pull over a goodly number of people driving suspended/revoked and/or with warrants. The volume of ringing alarm bell calls seems to have diminished in the past few years so it's more fun to listen to BHPD than LAPD these days. Especially since so much of the latter's radio traffic is now conducted quietly through the MDTs.

Anyway, I figure I'm on borrowed time in my own city.

Visitor In a Trunked Land

Did a quick 36 hours up in lovely San Francisco this weekend. Stayed at a nice high-rise hotel right downtown and heard the music of sirens all day and all night long. Used to live up there a few years back and had some pretty decent scanning on the fire channels. The dispatchers were all salty and old school and pretty lousy on the air, but they caught good fires (just like the old East Coast city it wishes it was) and threw a shitload of resources at pretty much every alarm.

While I was there, the whole thing went trunked, which was annoying as shit. Of course, I've got the fancy digital Bearcat and Trunktracker etc., etc. But when you're a tourist, it's no fun to drag even the little Bearcat up there and set up all the Talk Groups. So I listened to the music and saw the badass Rescue 1 tearing ass down Mission Blvd. on Saturday afternoon. Couldn't find a pic of it online, so I had to settle for a Truck Company working something downtown.

I guess my misery index will increase down here in SoCal when BHPD and BHFD finally trunk it.

Flying Eggs!

Beverly Hills PD never ceases to have that small town feel. Officers are on the lookout for flying eggs, near the intersection of Brighton and Camden. "Eggs were seen flying through the air five ago," the dispatcher says. Laughter heard in the background.

Running At Half-Speed

That seems to be the case over at the LAFD blog where Brian Humphrey & Co. have resumed sporadic posting, with incidents generally a few weeks behind. Here's hoping that they catch up soon and are back at full-speed ahead.

* * * *

Also, my fish-out-of-water sighting today came as I strolled down South Beverly Drive in the B.H. and I saw Light Force 102 moseying south gawking at the hotties on the sidewalk and the Ferraris parked at the meters. Based in the Valley's non-descript South Van Nuys area, 102's rarely makes an over-the-hill appearance. No idea what they were doing down here unless they were moving up C-A-V (Conditionally Available) to cover a nearby Task Force house like 58's or 92's while those companies were out on a drill or something.


* * * *

Saw BHFD Engine 2 and one of the Freightliner Rescues working hard today on North Beverly Drive. Parked in the red zone, per usual, while the boys sipped on their $4 Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf drinks. That's a tradition almost as old as I am. What was unusual were the two muscle-T-shirt clad dudes in jungle fatigue pants and black shirts with a stealth BHPD patch on the sleeves. Bright gold badges and 9 mm sidearms on the hips. A little over-the-top per usual for the Beverly Hills public safety. Probably SWAT guys. Enjoying their coffee on the public dime.

Where's My Money?

You only have to be a teensy bit savvy to know that when you call a hooker who you found in the back of the LA Weekly, the front of LAXpress or somewhere in the bowels of Craigslist, that 99% of the time she's gonna bring her "driver".

At the very least, the driver will be big and burly. At the very most, he'll pack some heat. Meantime, at the very least, he'll wait in the car while his associate does her business and returns unharmed and fully compensated. At the very most, he and his female compatriot will try to rob the you--the John.

This extreme can happen a number of ways: The John--who's thinking with his Johnson--will let the chick into his home and she'll try to "renegotiate" on the spot--with no intention of even shedding her shoes, let alone getting naked. If this fails, she'll just return to the car, or call the "driver" from her cell and he'll be at the door in seconds. Other times, it's more blatant. The hook and the driver just show up to the door, began knocking and cause a scene.

Which brings us to last night's BHPD caper on Tower Road. Two patrol units sent to investigate a woman and her "bodyguard" banging on the door of a poor bastard's apartment screaming about money.

Unsurprisingly, by the time units went on scene, the lady and gentleman of the night had disappeared and the RP explained it all away as "somebody must have been playing a pratical joke on me," and just like that, the coppers went available and the crime was solved.