MONROE - It's 6 p.m. on the Friday before Memorial Day and Jake Towns, third-shift patrol officer with the Monroe Police Department, is settling into his squad car, an extra-tall Mountain Dew at his side and the radio dial set to classic rock.
Towns is beginning his shift five hours early this night as part of a state-funded intensified effort to enforce mandatory seatbelt laws. About 400 law enforcement agencies around Wisconsin are participating in the "Click It or Ticket" mobilization from May 21 to June 3.
The Monroe Police Department is sending out three extra squads tonight as part of the mobilization.
The Monroe Times rides along in one car to get a flavor of what this traffic patrol entails.
6:25 p.m. - Towns begins the routine of the evening: driving up and down 8th Avenue and Wisconsin 69, periodically pulling over to aim a speed-reading laser gun at passing cars. The laser produces a reading almost instantaneously and can pick out individual cars up to 3,000 feet away.
The presence of his squad is enough to get people to slow down and be more careful, and that's a big part of these traffic enforcements.
"If they see you and conform, that's the optimal way to get them to conform," he says.
Even when police don't have extra officers out for a mobilization like this, it's rare to take a trip around Monroe and not see a MPD squad out. This level of saturation is strategic, Towns says: "That's one of our goals: be visual, be out in the community."
6:40 p.m. - Towns pulls over a woman on 8th Avenue by 1st Street for not wearing a seatbelt. It turns out he was mistaken.
"So, she had super long hair. That's why I couldn't tell she was wearing her seatbelt," he says, after letting the woman continue on her way.
6:48 p.m. - An instant message pops up on Towns' computer screen: "how do you spell Belville?"
The question is from another officer out on patrol. Towns answers back. He trades short, infrequent IMs throughout the patrol - about a broken printer in another squad, coordinating a meetup, and other informal exchanges.
"It's real good if you have questions on stuff and you don't want to tie up the air," he says.
Towns is surrounded by a phalanx of gadgets and computer technology. Whenever the squad isn't out on the road, it needs to be plugged into an electrical outlet to charge up.
Towns is constantly multitasking. All night, he'll drive, switch the radio and carry on a conversation while simultaneously plugging license plate numbers into a software system to check for suspensions and expirations.
If you've ever driven anywhere near a cop car out on patrol, chances are the officer ran your plates through this system.
"I really don't have a rhyme or reason to the plates I run. It's usually what's in front of you," he says.
7:01 p.m. - Towns issues a warning to a 26-year-old woman from Dixon, Ill., on Wis. 69 at 16th Street. She was driving 14 mph above the speed limit, but Towns decides a speeding citation isn't appropriate since she's from out of town.
"You have to take the totality of the circumstances into effect. If it was someone from town, I might have pursued that differently," he says.
7:34 p.m. - At the observation that the night seems pretty quiet so far, Towns shakes his head.
"You don't say the Q word," he says. It might jinx the night, he jokes.
The squad continues ambling along. Within the next hour, he cites two drivers for not wearing seatbelts, both 19 years old, one from Monroe and the other from Argyle.
"He was just like, 'Yeah, you caught me'-type thing," Towns says, getting back into the squad after citing the second driver.
A seatbelt citation comes with a fine of only $10, but these fines can add up. Technically, a driver can be cited for every passenger not wearing a seatbelt, but Towns tries to be judicious.
"I don't like writing people an ungodly amount of tickets," he says.
8:13 p.m. - Towns checks on a couple of fellow officers conducting a field sobriety test on a driver in the parking lot of Family Video on 8th Avenue.
A field sobriety test gauges in three ways a person's likelihood of being under the influence of intoxicants:
- Moving a flashlight or other object in front of the eyes to check for involuntary jerking as the person's gaze follows it.
- A "Walk-and-Turn" that requires the person to take nine steps, heel-to-toe, along a straight line.
- A "One-Leg Stand" that requires the person to stand with one foot about six inches off the ground for 30 seconds.
The guy outside Family Video is holding out a steady foot and showing no signs of drunkenness. He ends up not getting cited.
8:31 p.m. - Lasering for speeders isn't yielding offenders, and it's getting too dark to easily spot seatbelt violators, so Towns swings over to "Smoky Row," the strip of bars in the 1300 block of 17th Avenue. He'll pass by this area a few times in a typical night shift, to make his presence known and discourage bar fights and drunk driving.
He usually takes his last round over here at about 7 a.m.
"I always consider it a win when the parking lot is full at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning," he says. A full lot means many people who'd been drinking made the choice at bartime to walk or catch a ride home.
9:09 p.m. - Towns cites a 24-year-old woman for not carrying proof of insurance and warns her to update her address with the Department of Transportation and fix a broken headlight.
His body language is subdued when making these stops. He never slams the driver's door on his squad as he walks to the stopped car; instead, he closes it slowly and so gingerly it sometimes doesn't even latch.
9:31 p.m. - "His eyes were bloodshot. There was a kid in the back," Towns says by way of explaining why he asked a driver to step out for a field sobriety test in a parking lot at 8th Avenue and Wis. 69. The driver, a 27-year-old Monroe man, had also just started chewing gum and the car smelled "weird."
Towns initially stopped the car for a burnt-out headlight and had already issued a warning to get it fixed when he noticed the driver's suspiciously bloodshot eyes and odd smell.
But the driver passes the field sobriety test. His heel-to-toes are meticulous. "Not a problem!" he says cheerfully to Towns and another officer as they let him go.
10:17 p.m. - Towns is called to a traffic stop on 21st Street by Wis. 69 to speak Spanish with the driver, a man with limited English abilities. Towns learned Spanish from his Mexican father and can speak it well enough to handle a traffic citation. He's the go-to Spanish speaker on staff at the Monroe Police Department.
10:19 p.m. - A 9-1-1 call comes in, reporting a custody dispute in the 2700 block of 8 1/2 Street. Towns is called off traffic duty and races over, lights on and siren wailing. When he pulls up, lights off, a group of people are standing in the front yard of an apartment building. One woman carries a baby in a carseat, draped with an afghan. Towns and another officer eventually lead an agitated 28-year-old man away and put him in the backseat of a squad.
Towns is familiar with the man - he's one of several locals the police informally refer to as "frequent flyers." He'll be charged with disorderly conduct.
By 10:45 p.m. Green County Human Services is on its way to evaluate the situation, and Towns is back at the police station to take a quick break before he goes out again on patrol.
Towns is beginning his shift five hours early this night as part of a state-funded intensified effort to enforce mandatory seatbelt laws. About 400 law enforcement agencies around Wisconsin are participating in the "Click It or Ticket" mobilization from May 21 to June 3.
The Monroe Police Department is sending out three extra squads tonight as part of the mobilization.
The Monroe Times rides along in one car to get a flavor of what this traffic patrol entails.
6:25 p.m. - Towns begins the routine of the evening: driving up and down 8th Avenue and Wisconsin 69, periodically pulling over to aim a speed-reading laser gun at passing cars. The laser produces a reading almost instantaneously and can pick out individual cars up to 3,000 feet away.
The presence of his squad is enough to get people to slow down and be more careful, and that's a big part of these traffic enforcements.
"If they see you and conform, that's the optimal way to get them to conform," he says.
Even when police don't have extra officers out for a mobilization like this, it's rare to take a trip around Monroe and not see a MPD squad out. This level of saturation is strategic, Towns says: "That's one of our goals: be visual, be out in the community."
6:40 p.m. - Towns pulls over a woman on 8th Avenue by 1st Street for not wearing a seatbelt. It turns out he was mistaken.
"So, she had super long hair. That's why I couldn't tell she was wearing her seatbelt," he says, after letting the woman continue on her way.
6:48 p.m. - An instant message pops up on Towns' computer screen: "how do you spell Belville?"
The question is from another officer out on patrol. Towns answers back. He trades short, infrequent IMs throughout the patrol - about a broken printer in another squad, coordinating a meetup, and other informal exchanges.
"It's real good if you have questions on stuff and you don't want to tie up the air," he says.
Towns is surrounded by a phalanx of gadgets and computer technology. Whenever the squad isn't out on the road, it needs to be plugged into an electrical outlet to charge up.
Towns is constantly multitasking. All night, he'll drive, switch the radio and carry on a conversation while simultaneously plugging license plate numbers into a software system to check for suspensions and expirations.
If you've ever driven anywhere near a cop car out on patrol, chances are the officer ran your plates through this system.
"I really don't have a rhyme or reason to the plates I run. It's usually what's in front of you," he says.
7:01 p.m. - Towns issues a warning to a 26-year-old woman from Dixon, Ill., on Wis. 69 at 16th Street. She was driving 14 mph above the speed limit, but Towns decides a speeding citation isn't appropriate since she's from out of town.
"You have to take the totality of the circumstances into effect. If it was someone from town, I might have pursued that differently," he says.
7:34 p.m. - At the observation that the night seems pretty quiet so far, Towns shakes his head.
"You don't say the Q word," he says. It might jinx the night, he jokes.
The squad continues ambling along. Within the next hour, he cites two drivers for not wearing seatbelts, both 19 years old, one from Monroe and the other from Argyle.
"He was just like, 'Yeah, you caught me'-type thing," Towns says, getting back into the squad after citing the second driver.
A seatbelt citation comes with a fine of only $10, but these fines can add up. Technically, a driver can be cited for every passenger not wearing a seatbelt, but Towns tries to be judicious.
"I don't like writing people an ungodly amount of tickets," he says.
8:13 p.m. - Towns checks on a couple of fellow officers conducting a field sobriety test on a driver in the parking lot of Family Video on 8th Avenue.
A field sobriety test gauges in three ways a person's likelihood of being under the influence of intoxicants:
- Moving a flashlight or other object in front of the eyes to check for involuntary jerking as the person's gaze follows it.
- A "Walk-and-Turn" that requires the person to take nine steps, heel-to-toe, along a straight line.
- A "One-Leg Stand" that requires the person to stand with one foot about six inches off the ground for 30 seconds.
The guy outside Family Video is holding out a steady foot and showing no signs of drunkenness. He ends up not getting cited.
8:31 p.m. - Lasering for speeders isn't yielding offenders, and it's getting too dark to easily spot seatbelt violators, so Towns swings over to "Smoky Row," the strip of bars in the 1300 block of 17th Avenue. He'll pass by this area a few times in a typical night shift, to make his presence known and discourage bar fights and drunk driving.
He usually takes his last round over here at about 7 a.m.
"I always consider it a win when the parking lot is full at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning," he says. A full lot means many people who'd been drinking made the choice at bartime to walk or catch a ride home.
9:09 p.m. - Towns cites a 24-year-old woman for not carrying proof of insurance and warns her to update her address with the Department of Transportation and fix a broken headlight.
His body language is subdued when making these stops. He never slams the driver's door on his squad as he walks to the stopped car; instead, he closes it slowly and so gingerly it sometimes doesn't even latch.
9:31 p.m. - "His eyes were bloodshot. There was a kid in the back," Towns says by way of explaining why he asked a driver to step out for a field sobriety test in a parking lot at 8th Avenue and Wis. 69. The driver, a 27-year-old Monroe man, had also just started chewing gum and the car smelled "weird."
Towns initially stopped the car for a burnt-out headlight and had already issued a warning to get it fixed when he noticed the driver's suspiciously bloodshot eyes and odd smell.
But the driver passes the field sobriety test. His heel-to-toes are meticulous. "Not a problem!" he says cheerfully to Towns and another officer as they let him go.
10:17 p.m. - Towns is called to a traffic stop on 21st Street by Wis. 69 to speak Spanish with the driver, a man with limited English abilities. Towns learned Spanish from his Mexican father and can speak it well enough to handle a traffic citation. He's the go-to Spanish speaker on staff at the Monroe Police Department.
10:19 p.m. - A 9-1-1 call comes in, reporting a custody dispute in the 2700 block of 8 1/2 Street. Towns is called off traffic duty and races over, lights on and siren wailing. When he pulls up, lights off, a group of people are standing in the front yard of an apartment building. One woman carries a baby in a carseat, draped with an afghan. Towns and another officer eventually lead an agitated 28-year-old man away and put him in the backseat of a squad.
Towns is familiar with the man - he's one of several locals the police informally refer to as "frequent flyers." He'll be charged with disorderly conduct.
By 10:45 p.m. Green County Human Services is on its way to evaluate the situation, and Towns is back at the police station to take a quick break before he goes out again on patrol.