Taking everyone along for a ride
Twitter ‘ride-along’ allows Hatters to see what police night shift is like
Medicine Hat Police Service S-Sgt. Jason Graham took to Twitter this weekend to gave Hatters an inside look at what it’s like for an officer to work two night shifts in the city.
Graham was armed with a couple cell phones and his desktop computer, and put everything he could on to his account, allowing people to see, hear and watch his shifts unfold, and to ask him questions as the nights went on.
“The second ride-along has been good, I guess,” Graham said jokingly around 1 a.m. on Sunday, just a few hours before his second overnight shift ended. “What I mean is that there has been a lot of content. There’s been a lot for people to see, which is good for the ride-along. People are responding very positively again, which is good to see.”
Over the course of his two shifts, Graham and other officers responded to many calls, ranging from mental health calls, a car turnover, fights and drug related calls. One Tweet that caught a lot of people’s attention was a weapon Graham and his officers confiscated Saturday night.
“The pool ball in the sock did interest people for sure,” he said. “The pool ball in the sock is actually a pretty common weapon we see. There’s only one purpose for a cue ball in a sock, and it’s not to carry it to the next match of pool. When we locate something like that, it’s pretty clear what someone’s intentions are — to seriously hurt someone.”
Another growing issue Graham says the police are seeing is drug-related, and overdose calls.
“Unfortunately, we do see overdoses on a nightly basis,” he said. “We do carry Narcan with us now, and we administer it regularly because we often are the first to arrive at a scene.”
Graham says he thinks the ride-along is a great way for police to interact with the community, and to continue to grow an open dialogue with the people of Medicine Hat.
“I think you have to be open like this,” he said. “I don’t want to say like an open book, but we are a part of this community, and we need the community’s support. We need the community to understand what we do on a day-to-day basis, and to educate them the best we can. We need the community to be a part of us, just like we are a part of them, and there’s no better way of doing it than opening ourselves up.”
When asked if he would be doing more ride-alongs on Twitter in the future, Graham says it is up in the air, and that he does not want to overdo it.
“It will be up to my bosses and what they want,” he said. “I do get satisfaction out of doing this and showing people that do enjoy it, but it is a lot of work — it’s not something I could do every day or week. I know there’s people who enjoy it, but too much of a good thing can be bad, so we’ll see.”
To catch up on Graham’s Tweets from the weekend people can see his Twitter account at @MHPSSSgtGraham
“The pool ball in the sock is actually a pretty common weapon we see. There’s only one purpose for a cue ball in a sock, and it’s not to carry it to the next match of pool.”
– MHPS S-Sgt. Jason Graham