"Estas en Detencion"/A City Street/Sun June 18/2:10 pm: Today, Officer Patchen spotted what appeared to be a sick man sitting in the driver's seat of a 1983 Oldsmobile, so he walked over to check on the man's welfare. When the sick man did not respond to Patchen's "verbal commands," he called in the Seattle Fire Department. After a quick medical examination, the medics informed Patchen that the mysterious man was in fine health. Finally, the healthy man mumbled that he could not speak English, so Officer Hylton (Patchen's partner) used his "Spanish for Police Personnel" to communicate with him.

"ÂżQue es tu nombre?" Officer Hylton asked in police Spanish.

"Mi nombre es Salvador Estrada," the man responded in regular Spanish.

Now that he had established the man's name, Officer Hylton asked him for his date of birth.

"ÂżQue es su fecha de nacimiento?"

"ÂżNo se?" Mr. Estrada said with a puzzled look.

But Officer Patchen, who was searching Mr. Estrada's car as his partner exercised his police Spanish, found Mr. Estrada's birth date on an impound form that was in the glove compartment. Officer Hylton then checked Mr. Estrada's name on the cop database and found that he had a warrant out for his arrest in Portland. He was a fugitive, trying to hide from the eyes of the law! Officer Hylton returned to Mr. "I speak no English" Estrada and said, "Estas bajo arresto," and transported the fugitive to the South Precinct.

"I'm Sorry to Waste Your Time"/Downtown/Tues June 20/1:30 pm: This afternoon, Officer Long responded to a property damage complaint on Third and Marion. As he drove to the scene of the crime, he was advised by radio that several suspects had broken the window of a hair salon and fled northbound on Third in a red SUV. A witness told police that he'd seen four white males get into the SUV--one of them was heavy-set, wearing a black T-shirt and green shorts. Moments later, Officer Long spotted a red SUV heading west on Stewart. As it was the only red SUV he could see on the street, and it was only eight blocks from the scene of the crime, he activated his emergency lights and stopped behind the vehicle. As he carefully approached the SUV, he saw a heavy-set white male wearing a black T-shirt sitting in the left rear passenger seat. There were two other white males in the car, but the driver was a woman with short hair. The officer told the occupants that he was investigating a property damage complaint, and that their car matched a witness description. He asked if anyone in the car knew about the crime. They all said no. He then asked them to step out of the car; at that moment, he noticed the heavy-set man was wearing green shorts. Officer Long handcuffed the heavy-set man, walked him to his squad car, and read him his Miranda rights.

"Do understand your rights, [son]?" asked Officer Long.

"Yes, sir," the heavy-set man respectfully replied, like a guilty schoolboy.

"Now do you want to tell me exactly what happened [back there, son]?"

"Yes. I did it. I'm the one who kicked the window. They didn't have anything do with it," he said, feebly protecting his friends from the eyes of the law. "Sir, I've been drinking and had a few too many. It was a poor decision. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I'm sorry to waste your time. [I'm sorry that I'm an idiot. I'm sorry that I was born at all. I'm sorry that I'm from South Pasadena, California; that's why I'm so stupid you see, sir. Officer, why don't you just shoot me here and now and get it over with. I'm sure my friends won't mind. They are also from South Pasadena.]" Though telling the truth made the heavy-set man feel better, it did not set him free. He was transported to the West Precinct for processing, and then to King County Jail to pay his debt to Seattle.