Tag Archives: colorado

Views from Inside the Windshielf: Police Ride-Along Insights

Posted on by
Reply

I mark the arrival of fall with a tradition that’s become as much a part of my seasonal routine as watching the leaves turn between Nederland and Ward: my annual ride-along with a Boulder police officer.

A selfie of two men inside a police vehicle; one man is wearing a gray sweatshirt and smiling, while the police officer, wearing a uniform and glasses, smiles next to him.

As a member of the City of Boulder Police Oversight Panel (BPOP), I’m required to check out our fair city from the passenger seat of a Boulder police cruiser. The city manager appoints 11 panel members, including two college students.

Many of you don’t live in Boulder. I suggest you check out police oversight in your community. They’re all different.

Fortunately, I’ve never had to experience Boulder from the backseat of a police cruiser. My only recent encounter with law enforcement involved a photo radar van that caught me speeding on Glenwood Avenue between 28th and 30th streets. I’d much rather be caught by radar and mailed a ticket than be stopped for half an hour or more.

I suspect most Boulder residents, including myself, have had little, if any, direct contact with law enforcement. A ride-along offers a glimpse into a world most of us know only through news reports, TV dramas, or the occasional flashing lights in our rearview mirrors.

Notice of Violation issued by the City of Boulder, detailing a photo enforcement program for traffic laws, featuring an image of a driver.

This year, I signed up for Watch 1, the early-morning shift. At 6 a.m., I met Sgt. Faber in the police station lobby before roll call. I knew the drill. The shift begins with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by general information and updates. This morning’s training covered probable cause and searches, a subject I found interesting.

The legal boundaries governing police searches have evolved considerably since the days of Eliot Ness and his “Untouchables,” the handpicked Prohibition agents who stormed into warehouses with Tommy guns, chasing after Al Capone and his bootlegged whiskey.

Today, probable cause, constitutional protections, and search rules shape what officers can and cannot do in the field. For example, there’s a big difference between an open baggie and a sealed one. A traffic stop for a busted taillight does not mean an officer can look in the trunk unless the driver gives permission.

The training reminded me that police work involves much more than responding to calls. Officers must understand the law and make decisions within its boundaries, often under difficult circumstances.

A police training session in a classroom setting, with officers seated at tables and a speaker presenting concepts related to probable cause and searches on a screen.

On my first ride-along two years ago on Watch 2, with recall at 2:00 p.m., we responded to a noise complaint at dusk. Before getting out of the car, the officer looked up the hours the city code allows loud noise. It turned out the contractor was well within the limits. The officer told him a neighbor complained and that he should use his better judgment and finish by the designated hour.

Later that night, several officers on duty drove around looking for a citizen who had wandered away. It turned out we searched the wrong area. What if caregivers of people prone to getting lost wore an AirTag necklace or bracelet? That would help find lost loved ones.

A friendly cat’s been snooping around my neighborhood with an AirTag on its collar. The same idea would work with pets.

Close-up view of a cat's back and head, showing its ears and a collar with a round tag.

For this year’s ride, I joined Officer Russ Maynard, a 17-year department veteran on Watch 1. Compared to my previous two ride-alongs, not much happened during our shift, which, I suppose, is a good thing.

No dramatic confrontations.

We stopped to check out a report of someone sleeping in a stairwell. The person had already left. Later, we walked along Boulder Creek to investigate a report of four people causing a disturbance. They, too, had departed.

No arrests.

During my first ride-along two years ago, I observed a felony arrest earlier that day. Before we went in to pick up the suspect, the officer explained the level of force he would be using as a precaution. He cuffed the felon and a second responding officer took him to the county jail without incident. We went back to the PD and logged his belongings.

No high-speed chases.

Last year, during my second ride-along, also on Watch 1, after roll call, we got a call and zoomed out of the parking lot with lights flashing to check on a pickup truck that had knocked over a power line on Highway 93. That contact diverted traffic for several hours.

I appreciate the ride-alongs as a way to get to know patrol officers as people, rather than as the stereotypes we carry around, learned from TV shows and movies. Of course, police officers have their own stereotypes about oversight panels and Internal Affairs offices.

“Serpico,” about an Internal Affairs undercover whistleblower, comes to mind.

Movie poster for 'Serpico' featuring a split image of a police officer in a hat and a man with a beard. The text includes 'Al Pacino en "Serpico"' and credits for director Sidney Lumet.

A little time together in a cruiser helps both sides see beyond preconceived notions. The other is what citizens can do if they believe an officer crossed the line or deserves a commendation.

The city’s website provides a link to guide them through the complaint and commendation process. The flow chart looks more complicated than it is.

Generally, this is what happens after a citizen fills out the complaint form, or if you would like to commend an officer, contact Chief Redfearn. You can also call the Department at the non-emergency number, 303-441-3333

The Independent Police Monitor (IPM), who works out of the city manager’s office, reviews and classifies each submission. Once the police Professional Standards Unit (PSU) and the IPM have processed a case, BPOP may review it and recommend changes to the findings or disposition.

The Chief of Police retains final supervisory authority over the department’s employees.

This process provides accountability while recognizing the chief’s responsibility for managing the department.

The BPOP ride-alongs have been the most enlightening part of my tenure on the panel. Meetings and reports are no substitute for talking with officers, asking questions, and seeing a little of the world from their perspective.

The most useful lesson I’ve learned is the importance of showing up, listening, and understanding someone else’s job.

I enjoyed my time with Officer Maynard. We didn’t solve any crimes or make the evening news. That’s for Sgt. Hank Voight on “Chicago P.D.” and Capt. Olivia Benson on “Law & Order SVU.”

I already know how I’ll mark the arrival of another autumn, though. I’ll look forward to climbing into a police cruiser, buckling up, and seeing where the day takes me.

Maybe I’ll sign up for Watch 3 beginning at 2100 hours on a Saturday night during CU football season and after a big win over Northwestern, avenging the Buffalo’s 2026 loss in Evanston to the Wildcats.

The Invasion of the Tomato Snatchers

Posted on by
Reply

My $33 tomato venture has officially ended with the harvest of a third tomato, and the economics improved considerably, dropping the per-fruit cost to $11.

A green tomato plant in a pot with wooden stakes for support, placed beside a wooden trellis. In the background, a purple pot with a small plant and a green watering can are on a metal table.

I’m not calling it a successful business venture, but I learned to trust the division of labor and buy fresh produce from the food store.

I’ve heard that backyard gardening is a labor of love. I had optimistic thoughts of turning my brown thumb into a green one at the beginning of the summer.

Maybe I’m more of an arborist. The avocado tree has been doing much better. I’ve been nurturing a pine tree seedling that has survived for 18 months. It’s supposed to become a bonsai-worthy tree, assuming I can keep it alive long enough to find out. I’ll bring the pine tree inside soon.

A small potted plant with green shoots in a purple pot, placed on a table next to a bright green watering can.

Across the sidewalk, I’ve been tending a patch of milkweed. Monarch butterflies migrate through Boulder in the summer, and milkweed gives them a place to lay their eggs.

They’ve grown tall, and I’ve tied them up with strong twine to keep them from flopping over and avoiding the purge by over-eager gardeners who think it’s time for them to go.

Close-up of a green, spiky fruit growing on a plant, surrounded by large green leaves.

Now the seed pods are finally forming. This is where my gardening project takes a turn toward science fiction.

The pods resemble miniature versions of the seed pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. In the 1956 movie, the pods are the machinery of an alien invasion.

The body-snatching Pod People grow duplicates of sleeping humans, absorbing the person’s physical form, memories, and characteristics. When the metamorphosis finishes, the original human disappears, leaving behind an emotionless replacement.

My milkweed pods, I assume, have no such ambitions.

I think of them as little botanical spacecraft carrying the next generation of milkweed seeds. The Monarchs are doing their own version of biological time travel, arriving each summer to lay eggs on the plants that will feed their caterpillars, which metamorphose into the next generation of butterflies.

I wonder who is tending whom.

I learned that this summer in my little garden, I’m not much of a farmer. Three tomatoes isn’t much of a harvest. Gardening is about the few fruits of my effort and the satisfaction of having kept an organism alive through its lifecycle.

A colorful display of fresh vegetables at a farmers market, featuring green, red, yellow tomatoes, various types of eggplants, and a bell pepper arranged in cardboard boxes on a red table.

The pine tree is still growing. The avocado tree will have avocados in 20 years, and the milkweed is preparing its pods. The Monarchs have a nursery. I cut back the tomato plant, unaware that our business model had failed.

In the meantime, the farmers’ market runs through October.

My Pinto’s last ride during the Big Thompson Flood

Posted on by
Reply

In July 1976, I was working for the US National Park Service at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado for a second summer. I don’t know if this had any influence, but I had befriended Wayne Aspinall who was a guest scholar at the University of Wyoming political science department when I was in grad school there.

Wayne was the former chair of the US House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, a position he held for 14 years. I collected one of his campaign license plate toppers.

Back in those days I was a College Republican and we had some spirited discussions in class. Despite our ideological differences, he offered to write a few letters of recommendation for me to the USNPS in support of my job application.

I was told park ranger jobs were hard to come by and was happy to be hired to my first choice, since I applied all over the country.

Anyway, I drove my pea green Ford Pinto to Cheyenne Frontier Days the last weekend in July. I met up with my friends Rick Thamer, John Accardo et al. for a weekend of jocularity. The Mayflower was still open and Downtown Cheyenne was still a happening place during CFD.

I don’t know what got into me, but I’ve never been one to miss out on the last weekend of “The Daddy of ’em all”.

It was Saturday night and rather than crash in Thamer’s basement, I chose to drive back to Colorado, over the very logical arguments posed by my friends. I had to work at the Glacier Basin Campground at 11:00am.

I would have made it in plenty of time.

When I turned onto Highway 34 into Loveland, the horizon was crimson red and solid black. “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight” – should be no problem.

After driving through town and entering The Narrows, a caravan of cars, trucks and RVs headed east on US 34. Why was I the only one heading west, toward the park?

I met a Colorado highway patrolman. He told mee there was some “bad water” ahead and to turn around at Drake.

I didn’t quite make it that far.

There was water streaming across the highway. All of a sudden, something that I couldn’t make out, was in the middle of the road in about six inches of run off. Then, uprooted trees, unrecognizable junk and debris floated by. I expected to see the Wicked Witch of the West hover by.

The car careened into the rising wall of water and suddenly the deluge came up to the hood of the car that stalled. There was a car filled with a family heading the opposite direction that had the interior lights on. That sedan floated to the edge of the road and then was swept away into the canyon’s darkness.

A porta-potty floated over and caught my bumper and ruddered the Pinto towards the canyon wall and not into the torrent. I wasn’t able to open the car door, but climbed out of the driver’s side window and waded to higher ground.

A few minutes later a State Highway Department truck pulled up with a bunch of other people. I climbed up and we were all dropped off at Rainbow Bend where we were allowed to crash in the guest bungalows there.

I can sleep through anything.

The next morning, when the waters subsided, the road was totally washed out, trophy-sized fish lay on what was left of the highway. The canyon wall was plastered with pine trees, crumpled trailers and cars. The little store at Rainbow Bend had food, I ate some cold hot dogs.

I don’t know how the rumors started, but we spent the day on high ground since word came from someplace that the Estes Park reservoir dam was ready to crest.

A Chinook helicopter eventually dropped in and flew us out to a Red Cross station in Loveland. The only thing I took from the provisions was a dry pair of socks.

When the big floods hit Colorado’s Front Range in September 2013, I had no desire to get out and inspect any of the high water or its aftermath. As it was, the radio news didn’t indicate any problems. I decided to leave Cheyenne and was stuck in Longmont and being anecdotally guided through town by facebook cronies.

All the routes on the Diagonal and SH 66 were all flooded out, except SH 66 to I-25 to Thornton – SH 402 exit closed; Johnstown exit closed, Berthoud exit closed.

I eventually snaked my way from 120th to US 36 and luckily the westbound lane was open. Overnight, the St Vrain River crested and filled the low spot between US 34 and SH 402. I would have been stranded for several days somewhere north of Longmont.

Okay, back to the story.

There was no reason to stick around Loveland. I bummed a ride to Cheyenne and was dropped off at the Leeper’s house on Oak Court. My family in Laramie was trying to make contact, but there was no phone service. I called home from Cheyenne and was picked up and carted over to Laramie.

There was no access to Rocky Mountain Park for several days. I was eventually able to drive the “family truckster” – an olive green Mercury station wagon with the fake wood paneling – back to work. My boss, Perry Thompson, was gracious enough not to dock my pay for the days I was gone.

The big regret at the time?

All my ranger pals were getting double time and a half for working the rescue, while I was one being rescued. I never did find out if my car turned up anywhere. It probably became rip-rap in Nebraska.

When it was all said and done, I was immediately issued a check by my insurance company and I purchased a sky blue Pinto wagon. I might add, it was involved in a rear end collision with an oil field truck while I was living in Gillette, Wyoming.

My housemate at the time, Tom Padget, worked over the insurance company for a settlement. The differential bolt was dented up against the gas tank, which, had it burst, the tank would have caused at least a fire.

The Pinto goes full circle.

I ended up selling the car to Rick Thamer who drove it to law school in Lubbock, Texas, where he and his wife Janie live today.

After the Big Thompson Flood event, I thought I was living on borrowed time and lived life a bit recklessly while in wild and crazy Gillette. I altered my perspective that I was given another chance, for some reason.

Hmmm, next up will be the attitude adjusting UFO incidents.