Category: Fragments Observed: Lessons Learned on Patrol
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Fragments Observed: Riding with the Mobile Police Department, Part 12
Author’s Note: In honor of National Police Week, I am posting this article early. Thank you, Mobile Police Department, for protecting and serving those living and visiting within the jurisdiction. Your work is appreciated! My twelfth ride for this blog series began like many shifts. On a Monday morning in March, I meet my assigned…
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Fragments Observed: Riding with the Mobile Police Department, Part 10
An unseasonably humid pre-dawn Saturday in January found me at morning roll call in 4th Precinct for my fifth ride in the area, and my third for this series. See Part One and Part Six of “Fragments Observed: Riding with the Mobile Police Department” for my previous articles in this precinct. Besides the squad being…
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Fragments Observed: Riding with the Mobile Police Department, Part 9
Summer of 2025 was my previous visit to 1st Precinct. In August, arriving for the night shift allowed for a couple hours of daylight once patrol started. Not so on the December evening I returned to the same squad. The cold drizzle had the precinct cat hiding in the dark. As officers entered the Roll…
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Fragments Observed: Riding with the Mobile Police Department, Part 7
The temperatures might have cooled, but criminal activity was ripe in southwest Mobile when I returned to 2nd Precinct in October. A sergeant from the squad I rode with over the summer held the station door open while teasing me about abandoning his group for their counterpart. While I do enjoy return rides to familiar…
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FRAGMENTS OBSERVED: Riding with the Mobile Police Department, Part 6
September marked my tenth ride along in just under a year and a half, and my sixth for this calendar year. As there are five precincts, I went back to the one I began this blog series with. This time I approached 4th Precinct in northwest Mobile for a day shift during the week rather…