Alone or with a partner?

[veloman]

Do the majority of you work alone or with a partner? Also, what determines if you work with a partner? Is it the size of the department? Lack of personnel etc.? Thank you for your time.

[hawkman]

We work alone, I would assume it has to do with the size of the department, crime rate, personnel, etc...

[Dan]

in My dept I havent heard anybody ever say anything about working with partners, but in some of the bigger cities near by(Springfield, holyoke ect...) i think they do partners, but they also have a ****load more crime than Westfield and in Westfield back up is a minite(sp) away

[Stump]

Most of our officers work alone in their patrol car, but I never send just one officer to an in-progress call.
We have a special "field force" squad that rides 2 cops to a car, and responds to all call they go on with 4 cars (8 cops total) and 1 boss in a car. They want to swarm jobs with cops to try and stomp out some of the violent crime we're having.

[Officer Vader]

We have a variety of both. Being partnered has it's good points an bad. For one it's good that you have someone to talk to and should have your back. The bad thing is that if you do not like that person you are partnered with you're day goes as slow as a turtle with constipation. Personally, I prefer being w/ a partner.

[coucousis]

Working alone day shift ....(8h00 till 19h00)

Starting at 19h00 with partner....

Sometimes alone if no one to match with but it is not common....

[mcsap]

We always work alone except in the winter during a snowstorm. We only have four four wheel drives so we just double up.

[gdowkpc]

All the cars that are assigned to a geographical district work alone, unless there is a trainee in the car.

Reserves ride partnered.

I ride with a partner because I am tasked to a special detail car. I am not subject to radio calls, but am tasked to a precinct. My car is tasked to a special mission to deal with crime in a certain area. I often times find myself in hard to reach areas and in progress drug crimes. I do a lot of mere conversation with drug dealers and prostitutes/pimps. The car comes into contact with dangerous people at a rate much greater than a radio car, and having a partner there all the time is a great advantage.

I once found myself under a freeway with a gang of 12 street kids who had just murdered someone 4 days before. We did not have p/c at the time and had not even identified them as suspects. The area is difficult to reach and is a heck of a place to get into trouble. That had pocket knives, chains, and baseball bats. I called for 2 more units to assist, but having someone there to watch your back all the time is great.

Our gang team officers also ride with a partner, for obvious reasons.

Our department is about 1,100 officers in size.

[resqr1]

All our guys ride alone, even reserves.

[metallicat]

I think up here they try and use partners for the shifts at night. But it all depends on man power at the time.

[vadep]

Alone.... Only time we partner up is during heavy snow (lack of 4 wheel drives)

[hawkman]

Originally posted by resqr1
All our guys ride alone, even reserves.

Have your reserves all been to the academy as well? I was sent to a part time academy and I'm sometimes the ONLY one on duty here.

[hwpd]

Alone...
Only time is when a we have an FTO, he rides with another officer... to learn all procedures, city and stuff...

[tcsd1236]

We generally work alone, and have historically done things that way. Historically it was due to the small size of the agency and the call load. You'll see us teamed up if there is a call that obviously needs two people and they're both responding from the office together, or if there literally aren't enough cars to go around..thats less of a problem now than when I started with the agency 15 years ago when we only had a handful of cars that were run 24/7.

I don't like having a partner anyway..that would be one more person I would have to play nice with if I was having a bad day, or appease them as to what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go between calls.

[Stump]

Originally posted by tcsd1236
I don't like having a partner anyway..that would be one more person I would have to play nice with if I was having a bad day, or appease them as to what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go between calls.

Now come on, TC, you loved having me as your partner!!! :D Remember the purple house? The purple doors? Whoo hoo!!!