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Dover, Del. —
About a dozen police officers report for roll call at 7 p.m. Monday at the Dover Police Department for the overnight shift that will last until 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Shortly after 8:30 p.m., Dover Police dispatch sends out a call for a distraught woman, possibly on drugs, at St. Jones Center For Behavioral Health off Horsepond Road. The manager on duty fears she may become physical. Master Cpl. Matt Knight gives a 10-4 on the radio and races to the scene from downtown Dover with the lights of his black, unmarked Ford Crown Victoria flashing. He revs up the engine as he cruises over U.S. Route 13.
Knight arrives at St. Jones and finds a woman insisting that she be admitted.
He informs her that she must go to Bayhealth-Kent General Hospital first to be evaluated. She and her husband follow one of the police cruisers that arrives after Knight.
“It’s easy when they want help,” Knight said.
It’s not so easy when he is chasing drug dealers or encountering someone drunk or on drugs and resisting arrest, he said.
At around 9:20 p.m., dispatch then sends out the call for a man with wounds to the head in the Village of Westover.
When he gets to Westover, he and his backup, Cpl. Carlton Turner, find Edwin Santiago, who’s just lost two teeth in a fight.
As a precaution, Knight cuffs Santiago until he can find out some details.
Knight presses Santiago for some information – including his name, an account of the altercation and who assaulted him. Knight takes the cuffs off Santiago after a few moments.
Santiago hands Knight an ID of the man, who apparently dropped it at the scene.
Santiago apologizes as he spits blood on the sidewalk while talking to the officers. Knight advises him to go to the hospital. Santiago has found one of the two teeth he lost but he is upset that he can’t find the other.
Knight tries to help Santiago find the tooth with his flashlight. After a few minutes, Knight gives him a ride to Kent General.
Then, Knight uses the ID Santiago gave him to try to track down the man who allegedly assaulted Santiago. He knocks on the man’s Stoney Creek door and there is no answer. As he walks away, a woman opens up her second floor window and informs Knight that the man he is looking for is her estranged husband, whom she has not spoken to in a while.
About a dozen police officers report for roll call at 7 p.m. Monday at the Dover Police Department for the overnight shift that will last until 7 a.m. Tuesday.
Shortly after 8:30 p.m., Dover Police dispatch sends out a call for a distraught woman, possibly on drugs, at St. Jones Center For Behavioral Health off Horsepond Road. The manager on duty fears she may become physical. Master Cpl. Matt Knight gives a 10-4 on the radio and races to the scene from downtown Dover with the lights of his black, unmarked Ford Crown Victoria flashing. He revs up the engine as he cruises over U.S. Route 13.
Knight arrives at St. Jones and finds a woman insisting that she be admitted.
He informs her that she must go to Bayhealth-Kent General Hospital first to be evaluated. She and her husband follow one of the police cruisers that arrives after Knight.
“It’s easy when they want help,” Knight said.
It’s not so easy when he is chasing drug dealers or encountering someone drunk or on drugs and resisting arrest, he said.
At around 9:20 p.m., dispatch then sends out the call for a man with wounds to the head in the Village of Westover.
When he gets to Westover, he and his backup, Cpl. Carlton Turner, find Edwin Santiago, who’s just lost two teeth in a fight.
As a precaution, Knight cuffs Santiago until he can find out some details.
Knight presses Santiago for some information – including his name, an account of the altercation and who assaulted him. Knight takes the cuffs off Santiago after a few moments.
Santiago hands Knight an ID of the man, who apparently dropped it at the scene.
Santiago apologizes as he spits blood on the sidewalk while talking to the officers. Knight advises him to go to the hospital. Santiago has found one of the two teeth he lost but he is upset that he can’t find the other.
Knight tries to help Santiago find the tooth with his flashlight. After a few minutes, Knight gives him a ride to Kent General.
Then, Knight uses the ID Santiago gave him to try to track down the man who allegedly assaulted Santiago. He knocks on the man’s Stoney Creek door and there is no answer. As he walks away, a woman opens up her second floor window and informs Knight that the man he is looking for is her estranged husband, whom she has not spoken to in a while.
Unlike the magic performed by scriptwriters for cop shows on television, investigations can take days and weeks, he said.
By 10:40 p.m. Monday all but one of the police cruisers is handling a call. They include a drunken man they picked up after finding him in the middle of the street at Westview Terrace and Woods Edge Road, reports of 15 subjects gathering on Governors Avenue to possibly assault someone, a missing juvenile described as a 5-foot-11, 145-pound black male, a woman who called 911 because she got lost on South Governors Avenue and a man defecating in public in another part of the city.
The interesting thing about the job of a policeman is the various situations and people one encounters on the job, Knight said.
“You get to meet a lot of people in the community – good and bad,” Knight said. “You do something different everyday.”
