Radio Operator: February to September 1979.

One night, while working as a radio operator, I received a phone call from a citizen in Zone 1. Back then, Zone 1 had only one patrol deputy per shift. That night, it was Deputy Robin C. (the same R.C. from the stop sign story). The citizen caller advised that he heard loud noises outside his house in his backyard. It was a slow night. We had only a couple of calls that night. I immediately radioed R.C. that he had a “10-37” in progress. In case you don’t know every Georgia Police Radio Code by heart, a 10-37 refers to the investigation of a suspicious person or vehicle. I gave R.C. the location and contact person information. R.C. began to hot-foot it to the call. I could tell by the sound of his patrol car as we spoke on the radio. I told the citizen that a deputy was on the way. He said, “I’m gonna be in the backyard with my shotgun, looking around”. I said okay, and ended the call. Dep. R.C. called 10-23 (arrived at the scene) a short time later. After a few minutes, R.C. radioed that he was 10-8 (in service).

About 10 minutes later, R.C. came in the front door of the Sheriff’s Office. That was odd. Even with my short time there, I knew that the deputies typically entered the Sheriff’s Office through the back door where the Jail was. The two parking spaces up front were always reserved for the Sheriff. R.C. rushed into the carport/lobby door. He took the 3 steps to the radio room in one leap. He flew into the radio room, and I turned in the swivel chair all smiles to greet him. Now, the radio room was part of a brick home that was built by a previous Sheriff. Radio was walled off from the rest of the house/sheriff’s office. The radio room had wooden walls and a balsa wood door. Like I said, Robin entered, or more like he burst, into the radio room where I was. I could see his face was seething with rage. He was breathing hard and he had a red face. He was miffed. He very calmly and politely asked, “Did the man say he would be outside with a shotgun”?

Nonchalantly, I smiled innocently and said, “Yeah”. R.C. instantly spun around with all his might and put his fist through the wall. Wooden wall. I was shocked. I asked myself, “What the hell is up?” R.C. spun back around and with a gasping and seething voice said, “I almost killed a man tonight because of you”. He said that when he walked around the corner of the house to the backyard, he encountered a man with a shotgun. But luckily, the homeowner dropped the shotgun and put up his hands when told to!

Oh my gosh! I became sick to my stomach about the mistake I made. I was never taught about that kind of situation. But still, to this day, I ask myself, why didn’t my common sense kick in?  Common sense is often what will keep a Law Enforcement Officer alive. Whether it be their own self or their fellow officers. R.C. turned around and slammed out of the front door. I was speechless. I heard R.C. on the radio ask for our shift supervisor, Sgt. Joe W, to 10-25 (report in person) with him. His traffic was for me, or else he would have gone to the car-to-car channel to speak directly to the Sergeant. Robin wanted me to hear it. “There it is,” I thought. “He’s gonna tell Joe, and I’m gonna get fired.” Well, being an officer was fun while it lasted!

No one came by to talk to the kid on the radio for the rest of that shift. And that was unusual. Oh great, now the other deputies hate me. They trusted in their new young radio operator, but I failed them. When it was 06:00 and time for shift change, I went into the patrol room as usual. Well, I say patrol room, but it was a walled-off living room of that house. Reports were mainly done at the secretary’s desk. No one looked up as I entered. It appeared that everybody was talking about their calls as they wrote their reports. Robin never looked at me that morning. I kept waiting for the shoe to drop. Sgt. Joe said, “Eddie, I’ll need to talk with you when everybody leaves.” Here it comes. I just slumped back into the radio room and sat with the morning Radio Operator. I told him what happened with R.C.

After the shift left, Joe took me aside and said that the whole shift knows about what happened. He said R.C. got with him and was very angry. We discussed punishment. OMG… here it comes. Joe said R.C. told me to do what I thought was best. So, Sgt. Joe scolded me to “WAKE UP” and to “Screw your head on straight.” He said, “We’ve got a deadly business here”. What still makes me ashamed of my actions that night is that Robin quit the department and all law enforcement a few months later. I’d hate to think it was because of what happened that night. Wherever they are, I hope that Robin C., as well as the citizen involved, can please accept my humblest apologies. It still bugs me to this day. I guess that’s all part of P.T.S.D.