It's a cold, rainy Friday night in the sixth District of the Metropolitan Police Department. Officer Francis Jenkins III is on a call for a missing person.
A bipolar 14-year-old girl's mother last saw her daughter leaving school at 7:30 that morning and at 8:26 p.m., when Jenkins responded to the 911 call, her child had still not come home. Jenkins recorded names, a description of the girl and then he went into his patrol car to make phone calls.
"This is Officer Jenkins from 6-D," he said as he calls the D.C. morgue, asking if a body matching the girl's description has been dropped off today. Negative.
Phone calls to local hospitals and shelters continue; it appears to be a dead end. All of a sudden at 8:53 p.m., Jenkins' eyes widen as a call comes in on the radio.
"1033!" an officer yells into his radio. A dispatcher repeats the call and instructs all officers to respond.
Within seconds Jenkins is speeding down a road at 75 miles per hour in Northeast D.C. Blue and red emergency lights are pulsating and the sound of a siren is commanding drivers to yield to Jenkins, who is on his way to back up a fellow officer.
As he arrives on the scene, a handful of police cars with their lights and sirens equally alarming also drive up to a recreation center where a band is playing a concert.
As Jenkins walks into the gymnasium where the concert is, he is surrounded by scores of other 6-D officers. Upon entering, he finds that a fight between two young men has broken up and police backup is no longer needed. Jenkins hangs around for about five minutes before he and other officers leave the scene.
"Well that was a little bit of excitement," Jenkins said. "You seldom hear a 1033, so when you do, you get there quick."
Jenkins explained that a 1033 is a call sign for an officer in trouble requesting backup.
"Sometimes a 1033 means an officer is in a dangerous situation so you have to get there," he said.
A bipolar 14-year-old girl's mother last saw her daughter leaving school at 7:30 that morning and at 8:26 p.m., when Jenkins responded to the 911 call, her child had still not come home. Jenkins recorded names, a description of the girl and then he went into his patrol car to make phone calls.
"This is Officer Jenkins from 6-D," he said as he calls the D.C. morgue, asking if a body matching the girl's description has been dropped off today. Negative.
Phone calls to local hospitals and shelters continue; it appears to be a dead end. All of a sudden at 8:53 p.m., Jenkins' eyes widen as a call comes in on the radio.
"1033!" an officer yells into his radio. A dispatcher repeats the call and instructs all officers to respond.
Within seconds Jenkins is speeding down a road at 75 miles per hour in Northeast D.C. Blue and red emergency lights are pulsating and the sound of a siren is commanding drivers to yield to Jenkins, who is on his way to back up a fellow officer.
As he arrives on the scene, a handful of police cars with their lights and sirens equally alarming also drive up to a recreation center where a band is playing a concert.
As Jenkins walks into the gymnasium where the concert is, he is surrounded by scores of other 6-D officers. Upon entering, he finds that a fight between two young men has broken up and police backup is no longer needed. Jenkins hangs around for about five minutes before he and other officers leave the scene.
"Well that was a little bit of excitement," Jenkins said. "You seldom hear a 1033, so when you do, you get there quick."
Jenkins explained that a 1033 is a call sign for an officer in trouble requesting backup.
"Sometimes a 1033 means an officer is in a dangerous situation so you have to get there," he said.
