Well, it finally happened. I got to chase down my first suspect… well, first two suspects I guess I should say. We had a call tonight of a disturbance in progress. Some guy (who we’ll call Clay) hit his girlfriend then fled the scene moments before officer’s arrival. When my shift commander got there he was told by the girlfriend which direction Clay went. The info was relayed to me and that’s the direction I headed.
Well, as I’m beboping along I see a few guys hanging around a known drug house I figured I’ll stop in. 
I hop out and ask these fine upstanding gentlemen :biggrin: if they had seen Clay around. They, of course, responded that they hadn’t. I figure I best be on my way so I start backing out of the yard headed toward my car. Then I hear my shift command come over the radio. He’s a block over and saw a couple guys running from the rear of the house I was at while I was talking to the ones out front. I break and run through the yard and about that time another officer pulls up and shines his spotlight on the guys. They start hopping fences (something I’m not good at, way too fat) and I follow… slowly. Eventually we hit the streets again and I start catching up with one of the guys. Finally, 2 fences and a couple blocks later I catch the guy. I radio for another officer to come and get me and my new friend. :rolleyes: When he gets there I find out that he too, caught one of the guys (and I later found out my shift command also got the other one, so we were 3 for 3 on a drug deal I accidentally interrupted).
While patting the guy down and putting him into the car, dispatch comes across the radio with news that Clay is back at his girlfriends house again. So I hop in the car with this other officer and we head back to where we started. Clay is so busy banging on the window of the house and yelling at his girlfriend he doesn’t even notice us driving up.
I managed to get within about 10 foot of him before he saw me. When Clay finally looked up, he turned and ran around the side of the house and into the back yard. I fell in behind him and kept up quite well considering I had still hadn’t caught my breath from my first chase. Yeah, I kept up well.. until Clay launched himself into orbit over a six foot chain link fence like he was stepping over a blade of grass. Now, normally I wouldn’t even try to jump a fence that tall.. but since I had just jumped a few shorter ones I was feeling a bit frisky so I gave it a shot. I made it up, planted a foot on top and pushed off… eyes on Clay the whole time, victory would be mine :biggrin: …I thought… till one of those doohickeys on the top of the fence grabbed a hold of something on my belt. :crazy: Next thing I know I’m flat on my back watching Clay round the corner into a housing project. 
Oh well. Not bad for my first couple chases. At least I caught the first guy, that’s bragging rights.. right? Oh, and I signed an affidavit on Clay for fleeing… I’ll get him.
