It was a little after 1 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 30 and Herndon Police officer Jay Choi and Herndon Town Council member Charlie Waddell, who was participating in a police ride-along, arrived on the scene near Worldgate Centre at a routine traffic stop of a mini-van. They had arrived as back-up for officer Brian Hamilton, who had made the stop.
There were four teenagers in the van and none were acting suspiciously. A quick scan of the rear tags showed that they were expired, despite a sticker that said the contrary. But something did not seem right when the officers conferred about the stop, and it wasn’t just the expired tags.
“You can never take a traffic stop as being routine, you just have to be on your toes at all times,” said Hamilton. “I guess you can call it … a sixth sense, but you have to go with your gut and there was something about this stop that didn’t appear right.”
Choi walked around the van and noticed that the front license plate was different from the one on the back. A quick check of the vehicle’s identification number [VIN] showed that the car had been stolen out of Fairfax County about a month and a half earlier.
After an investigation, police were taken to a 19-year-old Fairfax County man who claimed that he was watching the car for a friend who was out of state. After some questioning by the two officers, he was arrested for possession of stolen property, according to Hamilton.
The incident was not common. In 2005, there were seven stolen vehicles recovered by Herndon Police officers according to Lt. Don Amos of the Herndon Police Department.
IN THE POSTED activity report of that week, the incident was listed as larceny, and in three sentences described the apprehension of the man and the charges of possession of stolen property. But for Waddell, who witnessed the entire incident, it was more than three sentences.
“When you see it personally and you’re with these guys at work, you really admire the level of awareness and dedication that they show when it comes to situations like this,” Waddell said. “Anytime an incident goes without a problem, it’s considered successful, and it’s just a small line in a newspaper.”
“It’s only when something goes wrong that you ever hear in detail about this sort of thing.”
But more impressive is the frequency in which police officers are able to respond to complex and often tense situations and get it right, he added.
“If you just watch these guys first hand, you see that they’re quick, they’re alert … they notice those subtle things and figure out what’s going on in situations like these,” Waddell said. “It gives you a whole new level of appreciation for police work.”
SEEING THAT WORK on a first-hand basis is something that all citizens are able to do if they choose. Police ride-alongs are free and can be arranged with the police department on most nights.
Waddell, who goes on police ride-alongs once a month, said viewing the work close up yields a true appreciation of the job and what it entails.
“One of the things that I have seen when you ask anybody why they live in a certain area, they’ll say that it’s because it’s a safe neighborhood,” Waddell said. “That’s one of the ultimate reasons people choose to live in a certain place and that feeling of security is something that we owe in large part to our police officers.”
To sit in with a police officer on an evening shift is the perfect opportunity to see that dedication in action, Hamilton said.
“It gives us a chance to show the citizens more about what we do on a daily basis,” he said. “I think it gives them a greater appreciation of police work and the risks involved with it.”
The appreciation of that job is what keeps Waddell coming back on a frequent basis.
“They’re the unsung heroes of the community,” Waddell said. “I think that 99 percent of the community would benefit from coming along and gaining a better idea of what they do for us on a daily basis.”