A couple of weeks after that fateful episode, I received a call at home. It was Radio, telling me to come in early that afternoon and meet with a State investigator. The message wasn’t a request, of course, it was the norm. I continued putting the brass on my shirt and asked myself what this one was about. I didn’t get apprehensive. I’d already been there and done that too many times before.

In my Part 2 story, I said GBI. It actually may have been a Georgia State Patrol investigator.

I arrived early and went to the patrol room to un-gear. Take that heavy belt off. One of our S/O detectives took me to an interview room. The small room had a small table and a couple of chairs. I don’t know if a mirror was on the wall, but I think not. We introduced ourselves and took our seats. The investigator turned on his tape recorder and swore me in. It was “the whole truth and nothing but” type of stuff. I assumed this guy was serious. He logged the date and time as well as whom the participants were into his recorder. This interview was all about the deadly accident that happened a couple of weeks previously. The first question was, how the chase happened. I relayed Part 1 of the story. That was the part of the deadly accident in which he was interested. The investigator then played the chase from Radio’s logs. We listened to the whole chase in bits and pieces. He kept stopping the tape to ask questions. I began at the start of the 10-80, the chase. The audio tape played the beginning of 105’s 10-80 traffic. He stopped the tape and asked if I knew why Lt. Cain didn’t have his siren on. I told him about Allen’s chase starting without blue lights and siren. We street cops know when to let the world know we want attention. Maybe he was calling in the chase before activating emergency equipment so he could catch up? I said it could have been a “catch up to” type of situation, as in my 2nd G.B.I. Investigation story.

Many times on the night shift I would take off after a violator without turning on headlights or any equipment in order to get up to speed and get closer, and then ZAP! When conditions were allowable.

The Investigator then played the “Turning onto Skyview Drive” part of Lieutenant Cain’s transmission. He stopped the tape and asked if I heard any siren, which I didn’t. The next recording pertained to 105 turning north onto Mt. Vernon Road along Sweetwater Creek and the ballpark. He asked if I heard a siren during 105’s last transmission before the accident. I did not. But I relayed my “The Van Part 1” backoff story. Sometimes when a chase gets too dangerous for public safety or road conditions we could stop our chase. The officer in pursuit or their supervisor could call off the chase anytime. Rookie baby blues would rarely call off their chases. That’s what their supervisor was there for. Just transmit to Radio and all that are listening that you’ve decided to end your pursuit. The procedure then would be to follow with blue lights only the last known direction. After a couple of miles, if there is no carnage, you would radio 10-8 back in service for calls. Maybe that was Lt. Cain’s intension due to road condition or children playing at the ballpark?

My interview ended and I returned to the patrol room to start my shift. I told Lieutenant Cain about my interview. Lt. Cain was then called to the interview room. I never asked anymore about that chase when the State ended its investigation. No sanctions were ever imposed that I knew of.

Bio:

Lieutenant Cain had a stuttering problem at times when angry or excited. He was very embarrassed about it. While riding shotgun with Cain a couple of months prior, I witnessed one occasion when we jumped a violator and the chase was on. Lt. Cain picked up his mic and started calling in our chase and had a bout of stuttering. Radio asked him to 10-9 and repeat his transmission. Now he was no doubt doubly embarrassed with me as shotgun. He then threw the mic into the floor and yelled, “Damn It.”

I picked up the mic and functioned as second man. I started giving locations and vehicle information as the chase continued. Blue lights and sirens were all blasting. That chase resulted in an arrest and trip to jail. Afterwords, we returned to our duties of the D.U.I. taskforce. I was still shotgun. Lieutenant Cain was still fuming. I had already learned the hard way not to try and talk to Cain while he was angry. Later on in the night, he calmed down and said, “I will not use my siren during a chase anymore because the radio operator couldn’t hear my transmission.” I knew the stuttering was the real reason and left it at that. Over the next month or two, the above deadly accident occurred. No siren was heard during his recorded transmissions. I’ll let you make your own decisions about what happened. And no, I didn’t bring up the throwing the mic in the floor incident during my interview. I was not going to let my lieutenant take ANY heat for that drunk driver’s accident.

Right or wrong, I was part of the thin blue line that protects each other. Going without the siren didn’t have anything to do with the accident occurring. It was just an observation from Troop’s accident investigation. Think what you will about me and my actions.