It was about 0300 hours and a call came out for a burglary just occurred near one of our crappy neighborhoods. It is one hour from my off duty time, so I am sitting at the station typing up a report from earlier. The station clears out as five cars race to the location. We are there quick as there is very little traffic at that time of night.
As I am turning left in to the apartment complex where the burlgary took place, I see a bicyclist in dark clothing cross the street. Now my first instinct is to stop that guy just in case he is the suspect. I have no suspect description and very little information at this point. Instead, I follow my area partner into the complex as I am trained to do. I don't want him to go in there alone. As I complete my left turn and drive into the complex, this goes over the radio, "Units responding to burglary, suspect described as male hispanic in black clothing riding a bike." SHIT! I hit the brakes and reverse like a bat out of hell. My other partner sees me and follows me. He has no idea what I am doing, but he trusts that I am not just testing the reverse gear. I hear another unit over the radio say he just saw the suspect go southbound into a housing tract. He saw the same thing I did, but he was blocked by a median. Stupid medians, they should all be banned!
So I patrol check the area and come across the bicycle in a front yard. The next door backyard gate is open. Approximately 5 minutes have passed. We set up a perimiter and call out the helicopter. The helicopter finds nothing and after searching two backyards we give it up.
I am still stewing today. SO CLOSE. Now, would it have been a good thing to leave my partner to go in there alone? I am pretty sure there were units coming in from the other side of the complex, so he probably would not have been alone, but ehhhhhh...maybe. It is kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't thing. Do I wish I would have stopped or attemped to stop him when I had the chance? HELL YES!
I am still a new Officer. I have been doing this for two years, but I am still new. I had to make a split second decision and I went the safe route. Not a bad choice, just an inexperienced one. If I could have stopped time, to think it out, I would have realized...hey, it is 3 o'clock in the morning, he is cutting across the street dressed in all black clothing, and he is riding towards a shit neighborhood. Hey dumbass, he is your guy! I friggin' knew it too. It is not unheard of in my town for people to be riding bikes at that time of night, but there were red flags there. It is time to start trusting my instincts.
