Patrolling Alone

And Officer Uni went to the motor pool to borrow a vehicle for her to drive me to the location where Officer Tim usually does his patrols. She drove me around the city and did a bit of small chat.

"I heard that you were praised by the Chief." Said Officer Uni.

"I was, I just didn't expect that I wasn't scolded after doing that," I replied.

"Why? I mean it was on your judgment that the child was in imminent danger." Officer Uni replied.

"I'm used to it for doing something out of line when I was in prison and boot camp. They'll either beat me up, take my stuff, make me starve by stealing my food, or make me do exercise for days on end without breaks." I replied while staring out the window.

"Sounds pretty extreme for boot camp but for prison I think it's not abnormal that you get punished by other criminals in prison. Don't get me wrong you were lucky to leave it under the RTR program. How was prison anyways?" Asked Officer Uni after clarifying her words.

"Well, it was of course hell. But what's even more hellish there is how the other inmates treat others, you see we had a system there. The weight of their bullying is not equal to the crime they've committed. It's the opposite." I replied to her question.

"What? How can you tell?" Officer Uni was confused.

"Well, those who bully the petty criminals there are the real scum of the population. Human traffickers, sexual predators of the worst kind, drug leaders, cultists, and murderers of the highest degrees ran that prison. If you were imprisoned for just small crimes you'd receive a life in hell in prison. Sometimes you get killed because you were just petty and that prison time for you is just a time out." I clarified the confused Officer.

"I heard you were sent to a maximum sentence there, then why were you also treated badly when you were in prison?" Asked Officer Uni.

"Easy, they didn't believe I was the one who did it," I replied bluntly.

"Wait, you seriously thought that they knew you weren't the one who did the crime." Officer Uni was skeptical.

"Believe it or not, they told me that directly. They saw right through me that I wasn't a criminal, how they knew it because they said that I didn't have the presence of a maximum-time criminal. That person who told me that was on death row and is probably dead by now. It was the last words I heard from him before I was sent to the RTR Program and he was my cellmate." I replied.

"You are one strange guy, Officer Rook." Officer Uni smirked.

As we arrived at the drop-off point...

"I'll pick you up in an hour or two at the location on the itinerary, good luck newbie." Officer Uni rolled down her window.

She leaves soon after I look at the industrial street of District 5 as I start my patrol. Walking following the route of Officer Tim. A noisy industrial street with machines sounding and loud noises covered the street. With trucks and workers carrying and using equipment to move products around the complex, I observed the life around this street. 

From the reports previously Officer Tim mentioned that this place is filled with blue-collar workers and the usual problems here are mostly job site incidents and a few troublemakers do appear here. And the usual Union gang members trying to recruit workers into joining their gang. 

The usual suspects around the area are the troublemakers. Nothing too brash is happening at the moment. And the area isn't quiet, certainly not the most calm of the district's suburbs. It's best to keep it this way since it doesn't disrupt the flow of business here, and the effects are minimal at best in problems.

But there are still some troublemakers bound to be around so I shouldn't let my guard down.

"Hey, you there! No vandalism in private property." I called out a group of trouble-making teenagers trying to spray paint a perfectly clean wall of a building.

"Oh, thank you officer those kids are giving me a hard time keeping this wall clean." Said the old lady.

"No worries Ma'am I'm doing my job." I nodded with my cap as I continued on my patrol.

I did some small officer duties from there and so on. Littering and kids loitering during school hours, simple things like that.

"Hey, this guy needs some help!" A worker from one of the factories carries another worker seemingly injured.

"Have you called emergency services?" I asked the worried worker.

"Yes, but they won't be here for 15 minutes." The worker replied.

I helped the injured worker to make sure he was stable. I treated his wounds with first aid.

"What happened to this guy?" I asked the worker who brought him out.

"He was just carrying some materials from the warehouse when one of the girders swung down and hit him from the side." The worried worker replied.

"He has some broken bones but he'll survive let's just wait for the ambulance," I replied making sure the injured man was okay.

Soon after the emergency services arrived and I told them the context of the situation to give them info about the injured man. This incident caused a stoppage in the factory for now as they analyzed the failed girder that hit the worker.

With that, I reported to the station about the situation I helped a hand with and continued with my patrol. I finished my route around the industrial street double-checking if those trouble-making teenagers had stopped going to the old woman's house that kept being vandalized by those kids.

After finishing up my patrol around the industrial street I went towards downtown which isn't far off from here and about a 20-minute walk according to Officer Tim's itinerary, that shouldn't take long.

A few minutes of walking takes my mind off what had happened yesterday. I still wonder who was that person and why they knew me. Furthermore, I thought I already escaped that past of mine and that I was fully capable of working again after getting better.

I soon arrived at the downtown area where the gang war happened but from the looks of the area seemed like nothing happened there. And everyone is back to normal capacity, did they not get affected by it? Or is it something else?

"Confused there officer?" Asked the old man by the bench.

"I was kinda confused since there was a recent gang war that had happened here and seems like everyone has recovered already," I replied as I accompanied the old man on the bench.

"Do not underestimate the people of District 5, officer. Everyone here is pretty much used to the chaos that those gangs do in these streets. It's not a bad thing nor it's a good thing of course. But it keeps us alert for anything that could happen in these streets. I expect you're a new officer who was sent to patrol the area, yes, am I right?" Asked the old man.

"Yes, I'm pretty new to District 5," I replied.

"You still have a lot of things to learn from these streets. At most, it'll take you 2-3 years to understand District 5 fully. But as soon as you keep doing your best to protect the innocent people here. You'll do fine, I'll be leaving soon it's bingo day at the recreation center." I assisted the old man as he struggled to stand up.

"You need some assistance to walk to the recreation center pops?" I asked.

"Well, the walk there is far enough that I'll get tired so yes. I may need some assistance." The old man replied.

I soon walked the old man to the recreational center it didn't take that long and it is still around the area of my patrol itinerary