Workin' on my Fitness

Everybody should try to stay fit and improve their health but today I learned an even greater motivation: Not being the cop who was left in the dust by a fleeing prisoner. Did I mention the prisoner was handcuffed behind the back?

I had just walked out of the precinct when I heard the winded plea for assistance come over the radio. Any hint of distress in an officer's voice over the radio causes and instinctual state of hyper-vigilance to kick in. "He's running north....out of the parking lot.....across the street.....behind the bank.......into the apartments....." I raced to the scene with several other officers to set up a perimeter. A shoplifter was being escorted out of the store to the officer's patrol car when he just sprinted away. He was later caught hiding in an apartment complex trash dumpster (hands still cuffed behind his back). Now, the officer will endure endless ridicule from his peers about 'the one that got away.'

The department just rolled out a new incentive plan to earn points towards a higher pay scale based on physical fitness. I will be testing for this new level next week with my new found motivation.

Later, I was sent to the home of a mother reporting her missing daughter. The girl had run away a dozen times before and was now pregnant by the mom's ex-boyfriend. The girl has a diminished mental capacity and is expecting to deliver her child somewhere near her 14th birthday. Her boyfriend is in his mid-twenties and has been listed a suspect in several misconduct w/minor reports but has eluded detectives thus far. This is the second time I've taken a report of a child being impregnated by her mom's ex-boyfriend.