so apparently there's a car that's in the creek suspicious vehicle parked back in the [Music] [Applause] woods well my name's Matthew Toms and um I started law enforcement 2014 and uh went to the academy and then started out at Sheriff's Department Talladega County which is the next County over and um then came here to Oxford in 2017 2017 been here about 6 years roughly and I'm a little bit different a little more City policing as opposed to the county which is more more rural More Country policing in a way and um really love it here and they've been good to us and um just still trying to learn the job and put in my time and just get better every day so that's about it got almost 10 years in I'll have 10 years in next year 2024 I'll be 10 years in law enforcement so still loving it just still trying to get better and learning as much as I can it's constantly evolving and changing so and you never know what's going to come day to day so I love that about the job and even if you're dealing with the same people it's probably a different situation so see yeah working in tallad County I think really prepped me for this type of policing because you know you just you might have to respond to a domestic or a fight call out in the middle of nowhere by yourself in the middle of the night and your backup you know might be 25 minutes away and so it really taught me how to talk to people how to you know control suspects and how to really do everything I could to avoid a confrontation or unnecessary fights and um I think being a deputy really prepped me for this a little bit because you just don't have backup as close and you got different types of calls and you're on your own a lot more so the deputies that work in the counties here a lot of them got a lot of respect for because they a lot of times they're on their own as opposed to us in the cities and the municipalities we we have a little more backup on average you know we got an officer that's going to be there within a few minutes and help you out if you need it and help you work the call but a lot of these deputies especially in these counties that don't have a lot of a lot of deputies or a lot of uh Sheriff's employees cuz they're just not a big populated county um they're they're on their own a lot so I think being a deputy really helped out these two streets were right here we got one running west one running East uh feeds into our downtown area which there's people walking there's kids there's dogs there's businesses and um the speed limit is only 25 miles per hour so my big focus when I work this area is trying to keep people accountable try to slow them down make some stops and talk to them because to me if my wife or my kids or me you know jogging or playing or enjoying the downtown area I don't need somebody come blistering up through here at 55 mes an hour right next to the sidewalk so I like to work this area and just try to you know I don't always write tickets obviously sometimes I just talk to people and just make them aware that the speed limit is only 25 going this way and that way so that's what we're gonna kind of do now and just see what see what happens so and this is just a self test of the machine it passed and we it just does some calibrations and stuff well not I don't know if that's the right word but it just it runs through its checks to make sure it's working properly so I got to check the rear there we go and it's showing that it's working and I don't I don't stop everybody doing one and two miles over you know I try to be reasonable but they start getting 30 35 and above you know I feel like that's that's too fast through here so we can't stop everybody but we'll stop the ones we can and chat and move on we're going to stop this one we got them going 36 37 mil an hour so 7:37 1039 737 1039 chakalaka Street and whide on a black Toyota Camry 1012 on 1028 final stop be the parking lot of the OPC close to snow Street me Delta 214 22 Juliet d214 22 Juliet hey how are you get ma'am the the speed limits only 25 down through there and also I just saw you I saw you go over the white line a few times so I'm just checking on you you got your license and insurance on you yeah I'm all right head to the game or take my son game okay well look we're not I'm not trying to write a lot of tickets I'm just trying to talk to some people so yeah it's only 25 on both streets so I did think it was 35 you're you're good you're good yeah I got you going a little fast but look I'm not trying to write tickets okay but I just want to talk to you now what game y'all heading to right here he got a a seven and eight grade uh boys hey good deal good deal I hope y'all do well look I'll try to be quick with it do you have your insurance yeah yes okay just hang tight okay I'll be right with you all right you're all right all right we going to check the tag and her license make sure there's no warrants or anything you know it's funny I walked up there she said uh she said you going to get me for going 42 and she thought the speed limit was 35 I said well I said you're still speeding if it was 35 but the speed limit only 25 man C for all right we're going to do we're just going to do a written warning so what I do it'll put her on paper and then you know let's say she gets caught for speeding tomorrow or the next officer that pulls her over he can see that okay she's been stopped for speeding the previous day and um you know she's doing it again she might need a ticket this time but um I'm just going to do a warning and just let her know um and then give her another shot at and hopefully she'll slow down and and that'll be that so one of the big challenges of doing traffic stops is I'm doing legal official paperwork here that I need to focus on make sure I got the right info make sure I got the right charge but also there could be a safety issue up in that car somebody might not like us might be mad at what I'm doing and might be planning to do something that I'm not aware of but at the same time I have to do this so my attention is divided so that's why when you see some of these traffic stops and people walk up and start videoing or start um messing with us why I'm dealing with a traffic stop that's why sometimes you might see officers get kind of frustrated because it's very dangerous because it divides my attention and I need to just be focused on this and this so that's another big challenge that I think the general public sometimes they don't think about so she's being cool she's being nice I don't think it'll be a problem but still I don't know her you know I just stopped her because she was speeding and I've never met her before so I don't know if she likes us hates us you know I don't I don't so that's a that's a big challenge so I'm going to give her this warning and um she'll be good to go all right man look I just did a written warning okay not trying to cost y'all money or issue a lot of tickets but we are trying to get people to slow down we've been getting a lot of complaints if you will just remember up chocal lock and then back down snow it's only 25 mil hour okay all right you got any questions or anything you can throw that away there's no court no money it's just a warning and then in Oxford in a city you generally you see seems like you get more types of calls that are in the moment they're like like you show up and it's happening whereas a lot of counting calls you know it might take you 25 minutes to get there because you're so far out from everything and um and so that's a difference too I it seems like more calls here um are still ongoing as you get there so I've had to learn how to deal with that a little more too and um just learn how to deal with things that are very fluid a lot of these situations in the city are they change very quickly and you just have to try to keep your keep thinking and keep planning your next move so it's uh it's very challenging at times so uh I'm officer Jordan um with Oxford Police Department I've been in Oxford Police Department for uh almost a year now I've been in law enforcement for uh almost 23 years now I worked in U Jacksonville Police Department for about 15 years and then I was also in Lincoln Police apartment for about 6 and A2 um I've been in Patrol I've been in investigations uh I was um a lieutenant at one time in Lincoln um I guess I started law enforcement I I knew at a young age that I wanted to do law enforcement um CU my dad was in the FBI and in the explosives unit and uh I wanted to do that and um so I started trying to figure out the best way to get into that role and as I did um law enforcement became one of the Avenues that I would pursue to do that and so I started doing that and then um I ended up getting married and having kids and didn't go into um the FBI or even trying to get an FBI so I went into I stayed in law enforcement because I was already in it and pretty much stayed there since then okay uh we're going to a uh suspicious vehicle parked back in the woods uh here at chakalaka park near The Cross Country track they don't know if it's occupied or not they just want somebody to check it out so we're going to3 1048 we're going to come in here and see if we can't locate it how's it going good how you doing good what y'all doing hanging out out here just chilling okay have you got driver's liing with you I do you want mine too oh sure where is my y'all just hanging out nowhere else to go yeah you from Talladega yes well I live here in Oxford but oh do you yes sir okay Caleb you live in Oxford still okay all right youall ain't doing nothing you're supposed to right you just hanging out okay well somebody called said there was some my car backed up here and it's usually kind of unusual kind of suspicious so yeah sometimes I come back here to take pictures of my truck if it's clean but I'm just chilling today good deal hang on just a second for me okay yes two there you go guys like I said y'all just be good and know that if you hang out here they're going to keep calling yes sir somebody's going to see you and somebody's going to call all the time so yes sir all right you have a good day yes sir you too so we just checked out a a vehicle with uh two individuals in it somebody called that was a suspicious vehicle um made contact with them there's they weren't doing anything illegal anything wrong that they were supposed to uh the Park is open so there's really no reason Reon to detain them or to do anything further they're allowed to be there the park open so that's just check make sure that they were were um weren't doing anything they weren't supposed to be and then I let them know that um you know people are going to keep calling because it's it's a car park back in the woods away from everything else um people are always going to call when they see suspicious vehicles and so that's pretty much what all that was is just they're parked out there hanging out my name is John Butler I've been in law enforcement for don't know six years if you count my time in the jail I've only been at Oxford PD for almost two months now I come from a smaller agency where I spent 5 years of my career at reason I got into law enforcement is I've always been kind of interested in it um from a little kid it was always kind of something that I felt like I might want to do when I got in it I actually enjoyed it and kind of feel like it was a calling from from my early age uh I didn't really have much family that was in law enforcement had a lot of family that was in military um yeah I think I made the right choice and what I decided I want to do in my life so apparently there's a car that's in the creek take or C or 12 first down line ADV was 1023 previously 1029 they want be 1126 try get EX location is she stuck the window don't out or what the Cera up she ain't injured is she I don't I don't think so 749 25 Medics there's negative injuries 1049 1028 Alabama 13 Alpha One 90 bravo3 [Applause] Al for 13 alpha 1 90 [Music] Bravo I told him to cancel [Music] whated nothing that he's not me he just isn't partial me he's not mean I swear to you L listen right now okay make sure the dog stays in the car if the dog gets out here and tries to attack somebody no he don't make sure stay roll the window up make sure St how she so how'd she end up down there like all day right here day to and I I got just turned around and put my but here that way roll that window roll your window up there we go I don't know we've been here literally all day he's been playing with they ain't been all right turn the switch off and I put I don't even know and we've been here all day what we got was a call that some car is in the creek okay so that's why we get this kind of response all right I was thinking what in the world I'm looking around going what happened what happened I was on the phone with the interview for an interview okay how are you going to get out I'm on okay you're not stuck or anything no okay no I mean I made sure it was solid I mean I sat there for a minute and then I realized it's you know it's pretty solid ground and I thought well I'll just hook him up where I can throw my feet out and get them cool and we can we tied him up to this at first and then I was like well that's too deep that's too too much and then so I put him on the door where he can get out and get back in so well it's your car but if I was you I would probably when when it started raining I said well I'm in a pick M that's what I'm saying I trying to get out before the right I know you've seen it when it's over that bridge down there before so now my mom and them live up this way so I mean I don't live up this way I just come they want to go ahead see if get the car out okay okay they I mean we've literally been here all day like all day all day no wreck or nothing like that she's got she pulled down there herself you're you're saving just a few steps like just park where everybody else is parking I mean there's a whole paved parking lot right up there is she going to drive in the water that's so see a lot of weird stuff doing this job but that's got to be that's got to be one of the top ones somebody parking in a creek when there's a perfectly paved parking lot right here just to save themselves maybe 10 yards a [Music] [Applause] walking [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh