Minute by minute

Saturday Night Ride-along with police

Kelly Jasper / senior photographer Lt. R.N. Landes provides backup to another JMU police officer on Port Repulic Road.

10:17 p.m.* Ride Along
Lt. R. N. Landes climbs into a patrol car. The first third of his 12-hour shift was spent in an unmarked car, one of three JMU Police operate.

10:32 p.m. On Patrol
We drive the perimeter of the mutual aid area – a jurisdiction patrolled both by campus and city police. The route takes us on a loop along Reservoir Street, Neff Avenue, High Street, Court Square and up Cantrell Avenue.

11:36 p.m. Always Prepared
On one of three rings, Landes fishes for a key to assist a housekeeper at the new athletic center. He also always carries rope for fishing students out of Newman Lake, snow chains, a shovel, a fingerprint kit and spare handcuffs in the car. He wears a bulletproof vest and a belt that weighs 21 pounds. On it, Landes carries two cell phones, a radio, extra ammunition, rubber gloves for body fluids, a flashlight, an expandable baton and handcuffs.

11:51 p.m. Eagle Hall Elevator
A broken elevator has stranded a student who is on crutches and lives on one of Eagle Hall’s top floors. Landes resets one of the shafts. "You’ve got to be a jack-of-all trades," he says.

12:30 a.m. Drunk in Public
Another officer makes an arrest for a drunk in public on Port Republic Road. A college-age male was hitchhiking in his boxer shorts.

1:30 a.m. Notes Confiscated
Landes leads me into the county jail and I watch as two people are booked. A jailer approaches me and, though I was invited into the office, I’m told to leave and four pages of notes are confiscated.

2:00 a.m. To the Rescue
A resident of Bell Hall was punched in the face while at a party in Forest Hills. JMU Police and the Harrisonburg Rescue Squad respond to a resident adviser’s call. The male sits with an ice pack to his face in his dorm room when police arrive. Another officer questions the student and a friend and we leave as the rescue squad arrives.

2:18 a.m. A Fight at Eagle Hall?
Landes gets a call that two males followed students back to a dorm and tried to start a fight. From the police station off South Main Street, Landes whips through campus, taking a shortcut through the stadium alleyway and arrives in under a minute. The car isn’t spotted.

2:22 a.m. Open Container
A cadet spots a person walking in P Lot with a handle of Captain Morgan’s rum. Police stop the male, who is over the age of 21, and the alcohol is confiscated.

2:32 a.m. Possible Abduction?
Officers stop a driver on Port Republic Road suspected of asking women to get into the car. Landes provides backup as the officer investigates. No arrest is made before we leave the scene.

2:41 a.m. A Slow Night
Our ride-along ends back at the police station. Landes logs an average of 65 miles while on patrol. Tonight, he says, was slow.

*Times are approximated.