Mission Valley ROP
Administration of Justice
Ride-A-Long Assignment

On May 12th 2013, I had the opportunity to experience a ride-a-long assignment with the Union City Police Department. I was assigned to Officer Figueredo who was on patrol on that given date. His duty was to maintain peace around Union City at night until the early morning.
Officer Figueredo first responded to loud music located at 14th Street near James Logan High School. After a little conversation, he gave reporting party a warning. We then suspected two males, both wearing black hoodies at Royal Park. We assumed they’d be up to no good, dealing with marijuana. However, park curfew is after 10 and it was only 8 so we decided not to act upon it. Officer Figueredo also summarized how sometimes you have to know whether if it’s worth the chase or not. He informed me about Pro-action and Re-action, which is two important situations a cop must cooperate with. Pro-action is something you’re preventing from happening while reaction is something that is more urgent. He describes to me how sometimes it could also be both. In this case, he was in the search for something more worthy of stopping. For the second time, Officer Figueredo responds again to the same complaint of loud music. Officer Figueredo then does two traffic car stops. The first one had an expired license plate, 3THH526 but Officer let him flee because the guy was already a mess. Apparently his troubled kid, sitting in the passenger seat, ran away. Officer did not want to add on to his stress so he only gave him a warning. The second car had a license plate, 5TQ4372 and was stopped near Paseo Padre Pkwy. This time Officer FIgueredo writes the person a ticket. The rule is to signal at least five seconds but failed to do that, causing him to unsafely tail gate another car. Officer would have released him but he was being defensive and already did not have a license to verify himself. Along the way, we strolled around buildings looking for homeless people who may be dealing with drugs. Officer introduced to me certain places where homeless people would sleep. He interprets to me how business owners would get mad about it too. Sadly, we did not get to interact with any homeless person but I learned that majority of homeless people can’t be trusted. During the ride along I learned a lot of things about Officer Figueredo. He’s been a cop for 5 years now and have worked with San Jose PD. He tells me that the good advantage of this job is being able to help people and feel really good about it afterwards. He likes how it’s a different kind of job because you get to multitask and be alert all the time. The down side is that some scenarios can affect you emotionally and it may be stressful juggling your own life with police life. Although he repeats toe me that at the end, it’s worth it only because you know you’re doing something good. Another down side is how people would treat cops but he reminds me that cops need to talk, act and be professional at all times. Out of all the situations Officer Figueredo has been through, he does not have any type of “best memory” that triggers him the most. This is because all situations to him are leveled the same. He does not categorizes it simply because every situation affects him and is taken to heart. I asked him if he’ve ever had to use his gun and he said yes. Shift work to him is what he finds difficult.