When most people are settling down for dinner, the Orangeville Police night-shift officers are putting on their uniforms for the 12-hour shift ahead of them.

When the clock strikes 6 p.m. they have a briefing to discuss anything that may have been left over from the day shift before dispersing for the evening.

Vehicles are inspected to make sure all lights, sirens, etc. are working. The back seat with little room is also inspected to make sure nothing has been left behind from the previous detainee that could endanger the officer’s life. It’s also done so that later if the officer finds something such as drugs or weapons after the detainee has been taken out of the car, the officer can then say they know it belongs to them because it was not in there prior to their arrest.

The main thing Rick Romaniuk, acting sergeant for the evening, told me is to make sure he has the spike belt. He always carries a shotgun, which is used for protection but more so for animals that have been hit.

I attempted to throw the spike belt and discovered it isn’t easy. I hurt my knuckles both times. The goal is to throw it out (during chases) and just before the criminal drives by to pull it straight to flatten the tires and then immediately pull it back so the police cars’ tires aren’t ruined.

Sgt. Romaniuk said that unlike in the movies, the cars don’t immediately spin out of control. The spikes are designed to gradually let the air out.

Before going out on patrol, Sgt. Romaniuk tells me about the CPIC and NICHE systems used by the force.

CPIC is a federal system used across Canada to identify wanted persons, stolen cars and all driver’s information, etc. Officers need to have a reason for using the system and running someone’s name and audits are done to ensure the system is being used properly.

Certain names, such as Karla Homolka’s, are flagged and if a call would be made to the Orangeville Police station asking why they were looking up Homolka, they’d also be in a lot of trouble.

To show me how it works, Sgt. Romaniuk ran my name through the system to make sure I was entitled to go on the ridealong and not actually wanted for murder somewhere in Canada.

NICHE is more of an operating system amongst all Ontario forces that’s used strictly for reporting. However, not all forces have it, such as those in Toronto or Ottawa. So the officers would have to call to get information instead of being able to search it in the system.

I was introduced to the heart of the station for the evening, the dispatchers. Beth Haines has been with Orangeville for nine years and Sarah Hilder for eight.

Ms. Hilder said it’s a lot to take but the more you do it the easier it gets.

“Getting upset is not going to help the other person and you learn to control your feelings,” she said.

However, sometimes at home the ladies think about the difficult calls, even though they try to leave it at work.

They dispatch calls for all of Dufferin County including Shelburne, and for the Grand Valley, Orangeville, Honeywood and Shelburne fire departments.

The first call of the night comes in shortly after 6 p.m. and the excitement begins.

Someone is threatening to kill their father. Off to the apartment the police go, driving fast with flashing lights. However, once in the proximity of the apartment building the lights are turned off so the police presence isn’t known. This is done for the officers’ safety and to give them the element of surprise.

As we were making our way upstairs the adrenaline rush kicked in with the mystery of what was about to happen racing through my mind.

Luckily for the chicken in me, the people ushering the threats had already left before we got to the apartment. The two officers talked to the residents remaining in the apartment to find out what happened, and as it sometimes happens the initial dispatch sounded much worse then what was occurring at the time the officers arrived.

The two people renting the apartment had recently ended the relationship and with the apartment still leased until the end of the month things were getting heated.

The man who had been threatened didn’t want to press any charges, and given the situation the officers urged him to get his daughter out of the apartment as soon as possible.

After leaving the apartment the officers checked for the others who had been in the apartment in the surrounding area, but they were not spotted.

This was a fairly common weekend call, as the disturbances tend to be domestic disputes or alcohol/ drug-related.

Once we were back at the station to pick up the ALERT device (roadside breath monitor) and the radar gun, I tested what it would be like to blow into the breathalizer.

It was a little difficult to blow as long as I needed to for a reading and I was afraid I was going to run out of air.

The result read zero because I hadn’t been drinking. However, if I was pulled over and appeared intoxicated the officer would investigate a little further. It could be possible someone appearing drunk with a reading of zero was either diabetic or on drugs.

The test can detect alcohol consumption for the last 12 hours.

If the test reads “A” the person receives a 12 hour road side suspension. If it reads “F” (Fail) the person is arrested and brought back to the station to do the intoxilyzer test.

I was allowed to test this as well. Before you blow into the intoxilyzer the arresting officer puts in a test record and enters his/her information such as their rank, number, name and unit. Then the arrested person’s information is entered with the date of birth, drivers licence number and the vehicle plate number. Then the date of the occurrence and the charge is entered.

After that is entered it’s time to blow into the machine, which you have to keep up for 10 seconds or you have to start all over.

Since I had no alcohol in my system the machine didn’t require me to blow as long. If I did, it would have to go until the level of alcohol detected in my system stopped rising.

When we were out patrolling I was allowed to test out the radar gun and I caught a speeder.

The driver was doing about 85 km/h in a 70 km/h zone.

Sgt. Romaniuk turned on the lights and we pulled the man over.

He wasn’t given a ticket since I was holding the radar gun at the time; instead, he was given a warning to produce his licence within 48 hours because he had forgotten it at home and had his old one on him.

If he failed to produce his licence it would be a $110 fine.

Shortly after that, a call came in for a domestic dispute, a man who had been drinking was throwing food around the house.

Before officers were able to respond at the house it was reported the man was at Pizza Pizza likely buying chicken wings.

HUGE

Three of the five officers out patrolling that even went to Pizza Pizza to see if the man was in fact there.

Sgt. Romaniuk called in to get a description of the man and sure enough he was in there buying chicken wings. When he came out he was arrested for being drunk in a public place, read his rights and searched to make sure he had no weapons or drugs on him.

He kept saying he didn’t understand what was happening and the officers repeatedly told him he was being arrested for being drunk in a public place.

He was taken back to the station to be held in a cell until he sobered up to prevent any more disturbances back at the house.

What I discovered throughout the evening was that a lot of the stops were purely coincidental, yes the officers are out patrolling the town but they’re not looking to fill any quotas because they don’t have any.

For example, we were heading south on Highway 10 and making a left turn at Highway 9 when Sgt. Romaniuk noticed the car beside us turning left had November 2005 stickers on it. He called it in and the plates expired the day before. So he turned on the lights and pulled the young lady over.

She was aware of the expiry but said she hadn’t had time to get a new one yet.

It’s surprising the things that come back from the dispatcher’s once they receive the driver’s licence number.

This young lady had a record of being violent so I was a little afraid of what she might do after Sgt. Romaniuk gave her the ticket — especially after she got out of her car when we were back in the police car.

My fear dissipated when she asked where the Ministry of Transportation office was located. (Phew!)

The most terrifying part of the night occurred when we were back at the station. The other officers were bringing in a man who was also being charged for being drunk in a public place and being held in a cell overnight.

The handcuffs were removed from the man and he was then searched and asked to remove his boots.

The request seemed

simple enough, except he didn’t want to remove his HUGE CLEARANCE SALE boots.

To the amusement of the officers, he said they can have the shoelaces so he can’t strangle himself but he would like to keep the boots on.

This man was a little more humourous than the previous one arrested for being drunk in a public place because he was francophone and cursed in French, which sounded especially funny since he was also drunk.

His favourite saying of the night was perhaps bilingual, “friggin damn.”

Okay, for the scary part. He was asked to get up to go over to the cells and as a precautionary move on my part, I took a step behind the auxiliary (volunteer) officer. The man turned the wrong way, which was toward us instead of the cells.

Panic set in and my heart stopped, literally. That was one of the scariest moments in my life.

It all happened so quick and the volunteer officer put his arm out and told the guy he was going the wrong way.

When the officers saw the look on my face they had a pretty good laugh.

Another coincidental stop happened around 12:30 a.m. when we were on our way to TJ’s Hangar to make sure everything was going okay and no one was getting out of control.

A car didn’t stop for a red light before turning right on it. The driver barely slowed down, but of course when Sgt. Romaniuk asked the teenager why she didn’t stop, she replied saying she did.

Sgt. Romaniuk and I exchanged a look of, “Are you kidding me?”

Next time she might want to be sure of that and actually stop. The ticket for going through a red light is pretty expensive at $190.

There were a few more tickets issued that night to speeders and other rule offenders, but in Sgt. Romaniuk’s eyes it was a fairly quiet night, as the colder season was approaching.

I, of course, had a totally different opinion (not knowing what’s normal) because the hours flew by. At one point, when I had been there for just over two hours, it felt like only five minutes had gone by.

I must commend the officers for being brave enough to do their job. I found it quite exciting and as I said had an adrenaline rush, but I’m just not cut out for that business.

I really don’t know how they’re able to go into a situation where people are either uttering murder threats or are violent and out of control.

Although I was frightened a few times, I look forward to doing it again, because it was very exciting.