Patrol and disapatch in the Goochland

The Goochland Sheriff is a Constitutional Officer, who is elected by and works for the citizens of Goochland—not the Board of Supervisors, not the Commonwealth’s Attorney—the citizens of Goochland. The Sheriff does work with all other county agencies, appointed and elected, for the benefit of all citizens. The Sheriff’s Office performs a wide range of functions, including road patrol, investigating crimes, court security, prisoner transport, service of legal papers like summons and warrants in debt, and dispatch.

GOMM recently spent part of a weekday riding along with a patrol deputy for a glimpse of the basic functions of county law enforcement. (Ride alongs are available to all graduates of the Sheriff Citizens’ Academy.) Due to excessive social media harassment of local law enforcement, GOMM, and GOMM alone, declines to identify the deputy in question.

   

The day starts with roll call. The shift supervisor shares information with patrol deputies about incidents that occurred overnight, including a “be on the lookout” for a vehicle carjacked in Chesterfield, and updates on matters closer to home. They are asked to keep an eye out for the missing teen-ager from Louisa.

One update concerns recent thefts from vehicles along Rockville Road. A homeowner provided doorbell camera video that shows man with a limp looking into cars at night. The account of a credit card reported stolen indicated it was used soon after the theft at a nearby business. A Deputy would visit the business during the shift to confirm the purchase and try to obtain security camera footage to determine if the person recorded on the doorbell camera also used the credit card.

Our next stop was dispatch to pick up court documents for service.

Anyone who disparages the function of dispatch—the heart and soul of emergency response—clearly has no understanding of what this function does and how it operates.  The dispatcher is the initial contact between a person needing help and the appropriate response, be it law enforcement officers (LEOs), an ambulance, fire trucks, a combination of the above, or resources from another jurisdiction. A dispatcher must have detailed knowledge of the geography of the entire county, which resources are currently available, and where they are at any given time.

Multitasking is a prime requisite for dispatchers who do much more than answer the telephone.  The new emergency operations center has security camera feeds from all county buildings, including schools, that enable the dispatchers to keep watch 24/7/365. If they spy suspicious activity sends a patrol deputy is sent to check out the scene.

Dispatchers are multitaskers

There may be no better foundation for a law enforcement career than working dispatch, observed Mike East, who began his now 19-year law enforcement career, which included a stint as a deputy and investigator in the Goochland Sheriff’s Office, as a dispatcher. East said that working dispatch gave him “solid knowledge of the county” before he moved on to road patrol. “It made me a better deputy because I understood what happened on the other end of the radio.”

Barbara Paquette, who served as a dispatcher in a Virginia county like Goochland for 35 years, said that a dispatcher is the first officer on a scene, the citizen’s first contact with help during a crisis. Dispatchers, she explained, are trained to ask a series of questions that enable them to quickly get a clear picture of a caller’s circumstances, assess needs, and send appropriate assistance.

 “Dispatchers sometimes know what officers do not,” she said. “So, it is important to continually share information as a situation unfolds.  Emergency medical dispatch, recently implemented in Goochland, enables dispatchers to help callers take positive action as they wait for help to arrive, adding another layer of complexity to the function.

We proceed to the Deputy’s “unit” a Ford Explorer whose equipment includes radios, emergency lights, sirens, an on-board computer terminal, and speed radar.

The "unit" cockpit.

Using a tuning fork device, the Deputy calibrates the radar device so that readings used in a traffic stop will “stand up” in court. Next stop, the gas pump at Company 5 on Fairground Road. The Deputy will log between 200 and 300 miles on a typical 12-hour day shift, and 300 to 400 on a night shift. Arrests can take him off the road for up to three hours. A mental health crisis can take much longer. Deputies alternate between day and night shifts every month.

Dispatch sends us to a collision on Whitehall Road for traffic control at a two-vehicle crash on a hill requiring a deputy at either end to direct impatient eastbound commuters heading into a blinding morning sun around a blocked lane. Two wreckers arrive and deftly remove the damaged vehicles.  One of the drivers is cited for following too closely. The incident is cleared.

Traffic control .

Dispatch directs us to a medical alert alarm. Fire-Rescue is also toned out, but we are closest to the address. Deputies are trained in CPR and first aid. They are equipped with and trained to use Narcan to counteract opioid overdoses, and automatic external defibrillators. Before we arrive, dispatch reports the person accidentally triggered the alarm and all is well.

We proceed to the business where the stolen credit card was used. Each time a vehicle passes, in either direction, the radar reads its speed and emits a tone. The higher the speed, the more urgent the tone. As we drive the Deputy keeps his head on a swivel, always on the lookout for things out of place. A veteran, like many other Goochland LEOs, the Deputy loves living in the community where he works and keeping the community safe.

“Patrol can be complicated,” he explains. “There’s a lot to learn. Three months of post (law enforcement) academy field training (riding with an experienced LEO) helped me get familiar with the roads and the people.”

At the business, the Deputy explains that bank records indicate that a stolen credit card was used there. The manager shares the transaction list and cannot identify the person in the video but suggests that another employee may have more information. A night shift Deputy will follow up later in the day. The manager agrees to provide a disc of security video for the period surround the card’s use, but that will take a while to prepare.

Back to serving documents. The Deputy has served papers on some of the recipients more than once. Some destinations are remote locations well away from the road. The Deputy is alone and never knows what kind of reception he will receive. Some papers are “served” by wedging them into the door that serves as the main entrance of a home when there is no one at home.

Dispatch sends us to rendezvous with two other LEOs to investigate, at the request of Louisa, a possible lead on the missing girl. We go to a large farm at the western edge of the county. The homeowner has no knowledge of the missing girl and cooperates fully with the search of all buildings on his property. There is no sign of the girl.

Meanwhile, a state trooper, handles a two-car wreck on Broad Street Road and Rt. 288 at the other end of the county. Goochland LEOs and troopers work together. While VSP manly works Interstate 64 and Rt. 288, they also handle incidents elsewhere in the county and vice-versa.

The rest of the papers are served. Our patrol continues with the radar tones playing background music. In the next few hours, the Deputy issues a ticket for an expired inspection sticker, and warnings for speeding.

We return to the Sheriff’s Office where the Deputy makes his case to a magistrate to issue a warrant for charges arising from a traffic stop the previous day. Most requests for warrants in Goochland are handled electronically by Magistrates located elsewhere. On this day, the Magistrate is in Orange. The Deputy faxes his report and is sworn in before presenting the facts in the case. The Magistrate asks a few questions that are answered to his satisfaction and the warrant is issued.

Goochland’s land area is 290 square miles, a bit larger than Henrico’s 245 square miles. Patrol deputies cover a lot of territory in a day and are familiar with the entire county. Often, they are a long way from back up and must figure out how to handle unfolding incidents. Goochland is blessed to have these fine people keeping watch.

Goochland is  a big county.