In the Midnight Hour: On Patrol with the 4th Precincts Graveyard Shift By Chris Horne There are several

police cars scattered about Vineville Avenue. Traffic has been blocked off in both directions. All three lanes, filled with stationary vehicles ablaze in flashing light, have become a field of dancing electric blue. Sergeant Jason Jaffe leans back inside the cab and announces that hell be back shortly. Im fine right where I sit until I realize that the windshield, which faces all the action, is probably not bulletproof. This is a problem because Im told theres a guy with a gun, holed up in a nearby apartment, in a standoff with the Macon Police Department. Thered been no time to grab anything on the way out, not even my smokes, which I never leave behind. Fortunately, Officer Carlos Stokes peeks in and offers me one. He says he never used to smoke before this job, that he doesnt smoke when hes off work. Man, you go from zero to 60, he says, amending, Actually, its more like zero to 160 and back to zero the whole time. A few detectives have shown up, pulling plated vests over their shirts and ties. EMS workers are milling about, ready for the worst. Firemen prep for the possibility theyll have to return. Chatter on the radio wafts in and out with orders and updates. Almost an hour later, the excitement on the perimeter has died down. Then the ambulance moves in closer to the apartment complex. A few officers migrate in that direction. Spectators point and whisper. Shortly, a man is placed on a stretcher. Officers pour out of all corners. The crisis is over; post-game analysis begins. As it turns out, the gun was actually an air rifle. Theres speculation that the suspect wanted to commit suicide by cop, which would be why he trained his weapon on the police. Fortunately, Jaffe says, everyone showed a lot of patience and restraint.

The 4th Precinct is housed in what once was a Med-Stop. Its doors are now
guarded by a magnetic lock system, allowing entrance only to those with badges. Inside, a TV in the lobby is tuned to a re-run of Law & Order. The day and night shifts swap places around 8 p.m. In this in-between time, officers joke with each other. If you want to get your feet wet, have something to cut your teeth on, Precinct 4 midnight shift is the place to be, Sgt. Jaffe says. Generally, when something happens over here, its going to be a report. Its going to be a Stat-5 call. Its not going to be about loud music or a barking dog. Its going to be about people fighting in the street with weapons, drug calls things like that. Precinct 4 is a laundry list of neighborhoods with reputations as dangerous, crime-ridden places: Bloomfield, Village Green, Unionville and Bird City. Stories about the peril are easy to find.

As a recruit in training with the MPD, Jaffe was told that driving through Village Green even during the day meant risking a carjacking at gunpoint and possibly being killed. Though stories like that are usually exaggerations, the officers of Precinct 4 know that it can get ugly quick. That fact binds them. Humor keeps them loose. MPO Ed Johnson is the cut-up, often affecting a Scottish accent and telling jokes. Hes the most likely to put a rookie through an initiation. For the past couple of weeks, hes had Recruit Rozier, a wholesome looking kid most printable nickname is Rosie. On a Friday night, with Rozier behind the steering wheel, Johnson calls out over the radio, in code, a car chase in progress. Just as the play-by-play had become riveting, Johnson sighed and said, Nevermind. He evaded my rookie. Sgt. Jaffe pulled up to a traffic light on Williamson Road and a yellow car ran through the intersection with Officer Josh Blanchard in pursuit. The same car Rozier and Johnson engaged earlier.

Unless you were looking for Village Green or seriously lost youd never know it
was there. It seems forgotten too. Running along Bloomfield Road from the bend at Rocky Creek Road to a dead-end, the neighborhood is hidden from I-475 but close enough to be within throwing distance. Outlined on a map, it looks like a land-locked peninsula on the southern edge of the city. Poverty and deprivation hang like a fog over the neighborhood. It is a ghost town in the making. North of the trailer park, there are a few dozen abandoned homes. Many are boarded-up and tagged with graffiti. Some have been set on fire before. A few hold, in the yard, the remnants of families that once dwelled there: childrens toys, rakes, moldy lawn sculptures, and car parts. Sgt. Jaffe pulls back the loose plywood hanging over a window at a home covered spray paintgang signs and friendly warnings like Lay Low Bitch. He says, I bet if I took you in there, wed find a couple of nice crack pipes. A few condoms, liquor bottles, feces. Its easy to understand why so many people have left. Perhaps easier to understand why crime festers here. In fact, its a lot harder to understand those whove stayed. There are decent, hard-working people whove worked through the years, and theyve worked for their house. Theyve lived here since it was a real great neighborhood, and they refuse to give in, Jaffe says. While there are abandoned buildings all over Precinct 4, none is eerier than on Moore Street at Moore Terrance. Two strips of duplexes face each other eight units on each

side. Trash, lumber, couches and other furniture litter what had been a courtyard. A homeless man named Larry squats in one of the apartments. To be honest, I think to myself, Id rather be homeless. MPO Johnson says, When they do all those post-apocalyptic movies, they never get it right. This is what itd look like. But people do live next door and across the street. This isnt an isolated place theres a church at the end of Moore. Even if it resembles a war-torn country, it is still a neighborhood.

It gets busy between 11pm and 3am people going out to bars, getting drunk, coming nd
The suspects are believed to be in Precinct 4s Bird City, the housing project on Eisenhower across from the old K-Mart. Following officers from Precinct 2, Jaffes car creeps into the projects, shining his spotlight in search of a white Honda.

home, getting in wrecks, getting in fights. Sgt. Jaffe gets a call from the 2 Precinct requesting assistance. The dispatcher explains that a couple of men got into an argument and one was hit in the head with a bottle then had a gun pulled on him.

Without warning, the first cruiser stops and an officer from Precinct 2 leaps out. Some of the officers follow while others go inside the house to search for a weapon or other suspects. In a few moments, Officer Matt Wood reportedly the fastest in Jaffes squad comes from around the back of the house with a suspect in cuffs.

A native of California recruited straight out of the Army, Sgt. Jason Jaffe spent one
day in Macon before he began training to be a police officer. Asked what he thinks of the city, he hesitates to speak. Its more difficult for me to say something positive because all almost all Ive seen is bad, he says. His wife was raised in Bloomfield and has a much different view. She might drive around and have some memory about how that used to be her favorite store growing up, he says, but when I see it, Im thinking about the homicide I worked over there. Or how, across the street, a car wrecked into the light pole and someone was thrown from the car and died. Its work he does because he wants to make a difference. Its a sentiment echoed by several officers from those with college degrees to former truck drivers. The city of Macon may not pay well, but it certainly has some of the most dedicated officers.

Most of them, Jaffe included, work side jobs to make ends meet. Fortunately, he says, the department is good about allowing them to do it. Christina McMillan, an officer on her side job, calls. At first, she just needs to run some licenses. But when Jaffe realizes shes been lied to, he cruises over to the gas station where this is taking place. As the officers separate the individuals and try to suss out the truth, bystanders offer a running commentary inside the store. One man taps another on the arm and says, Man, why they got to be messing with them? Several others seem to feel the same way: distrustful of the police. When its all said and done, both people are released. They leave with one ticket instead of several, including lying to an officer and parking in a handicapped zone.

Its a Sunday, supposedly an easy night. Sgt. Jaffe receives a call to assist the
Fugitive Task Force with a warrant for a man accused of cruelty to animals, dogfighting and gambling. Theyd attempted to serve the warrant earlier but no one answered, and neighbors advised that there were likely drugs in the house, possibly meth. Jaffe agreed to help with the second attempt and called MPO Johnson to give his recruit some experience. Along the way, a Saturn sedan nearly wrecks into the side of Jaffes cruiser. They both stop in the middle of Eisenhower for a moment then the Saturn pulls forward. Blue lights naturally follow. At the Precinct 2 station, Jaffe meets up with the other officers and the members of the Fugitive Task Force to map out a plan. They joke about the TV show Dog the Bounty Hunter and then head out. Just as they turn on to the road where the house is located, they turn off their lights and in a flash, are sprinting to the front door, around the sides and the back. They bang and shout and wait. Nothing. Itll have to happen another day.

At 3:30am, Sgt. Jaffe takes me back to where Ive parked. Its been slow for a
while and Im tired. Im ready to go home. He says, Just watch. As soon as you get out, its going to get crazy. I laugh, shake his hand and get in my car.

After making a few notes, I crank the engine and turn on my lights. Before I get too far, Jaffe zooms out of the parking lot behind me. Pulling on to Bloomfield, I turn to check traffic and see a police car running code. From the other direction, an ambulance screams down the road, its siren wailing. For a split-second, I consider calling Sgt. Jaffe on his phone to find out whats going on, find out where they are. Maybe I can join them. But I dont call. Ive finally had enough excitement.