For police, graveyard shift is boring, unpredictable

It was quarter to three in the morning, and I was slightly under the influence. Not of some uncontrolled substance, but of sleep deprivation, a common side-effect of being a college student. Nevertheless, I had an assignment to complete. My mission: hang with the University of Rhode Island Police Department for awhile to find out exactly what they do during the dark hours.

I was greeted by the dispatcher, Matt Mello, as I entered the station. He radioed the lieutenant on duty and informed him of my arrival. He said I could hang with him for about 30 minutes. Mello was filling in for the regular third-shift dispatcher. Normally, Mello works second shift (4 p.m. to midnight), but he picks up third shift (midnight to 8 a.m.) whenever he can.

The radio piped up. An officer asked Mello to run a plate for him. The officer said that the owner left a note saying that the vehicle died. I asked Mello if this is as good as it gets during this shift. "Yeah, pretty much," he said. "During the week things are pretty quiet. It's the weekend when things can get crazy."

Mello has been a URI dispatcher for about five years. "My old job didn't have benefits, so I basically came here for the benefits," he said. But benefits can't make up for lack of adequate pay. "We're so underpaid," he said. "As employees of the state, we're not paid nearly enough."

Despite compensation concerns, Mello seemed pretty happy. Ultimately, he'd like to work with trains. "That's my first love," Mello said, as he briefly monitored the 60-plus security cameras recently installed in the station. "Train dispatchers make twice as much as I do," he added. A former security worker, Mello is considering a second job in the meantime. "Possibly as an EMT," he said.

While Mello did his thing, Conan O'Brien cracked up the audience in the background, I filled out a waiver so I could ride along with one of the officers. That night, there were three officers and a lieutenant on duty. The lieutenant happened to be David Dowieko, who I was familiar with through a previous assignment. I asked if he'd be around for a while so we could talk after I rode around with the officer. "I'll be here until 8a.m.," he said. Perfect.

Dispatcher Matt Mello. The clock in the background reads 3:35 (a.m.).

I'm introduced to R.J. Gregory, who has been with the URI Police Department for over a year. After our introduction, we exited the building to get in the cruiser. It was 3:37am and the early birds were chirping. It was still dark, but life was beginning to emerge. As we headed out, I asked Gregory about his path to the URI Police Department. "I did security at Brown (University) for two years and before that I worked as an animal control officer for the Providence Police Department," he said.

Gregory comes from an impressive line of law enforcement officers. "My grandfather and two of my uncles were cops, so I grew up around cops," he said. He said that eventually he'd like to move up. "Some goals I've set in terms of what I want to do. I want to work on a S.W.A.T. team, maybe work as a narcotics officer," he said. But for now this job will do.

Gregory also admitted he's always preferred the graveyard shift. "To work this job, you have to have a social life, and I've found that this shift makes it the easiest to do that," he said.

As we drove along, it was clear the roads were void of any activity. Gregory agreed with Mello's comment that weeknights are boring. "If you came down here on a Friday night though, you wouldn't believe some of the shit we deal with," he said. I asked him to elaborate. "One Saturday night a couple of weeks ago, one of the frats had a dance," he said. "We had to deal with about 500 people and by the end of the night we'd broken up about five fights, made a weapons arrest and sent tons of kids home."

I picked up on the opportunity to raise a controversial issue. "How do you feel about your department being armed?" I asked. "Do you think the URI police should have firearms?" His answer was anything but delayed.

"Absolutely. I mean, we're real cops in every sense of the term. We're authorized to do pullovers, make arrests and everything else," he said. "We respond to burglar alarms, banks. Students write in to (The Good 5-cent Cigar) and say 'we don't feel safe with URI police having guns.' But they never consider the safety of the officers."

Gregory made an interesting point. There's a stigma always attached to campus officers, that they're not "real" cops. That couldn't be further from the truth on this campus. "We have a bigger jurisdiction than Central Falls," he added.

One of two holding cells

Just after 4 a.m., there was some movement ahead of the police cruiser. "Oh yeah, this is one of the things we get to do," Gregory said. He turned on the spotlight, which revealed three or four deer in a field. I pulled out my camera and snapped a few shots. Later, we came across another group of deer, and this time we counted 20 in the field. As I glanced up at the sky, I noticed the gibbous moon looked like a copper spot stuck to a black canvas, and it gave this night an eerie feel.

But enough of the nature expedition, and back to the real action. It was just after 4:20a.m. and we were on the lookout for speeders. I noticed a car taking a corner and it didn't seem like it was traveling fast, but Gregory knew better. "Yeah, he's moving along pretty good, we'll get him," Gregory said. He used the speed of his own vehicle to judge how fast the car was traveling. It was a 25 mph speed zone and Gregory estimated the driver was going closer to 40 mph, so we pulled him over. "This is the most dangerous part of our job," he said. "You're at an immediate disadvantage when you approach a subject in their vehicle, so we're trained how to do it as safely as possible."

I sat and waited as Gregory spoke to the driver. He came back and radioed the plate and license number to Mello back at the station. The guy was clean, so Gregory decided to give him a warning. "It all depends on the attitude of the person. If you're cooperative and honest, chances are I'll try to cut you a break," he said. "But otherwise I'll write a ticket."

It was getting late, or early, and we headed back to the station. I sat down and asked Lieutenant Dowieko how he normally passed the nighttime hours. "There's a lot of paperwork," he said. "I fill out parking tickets, maintain reports, background checks, that sort of thing." I asked him how long he's been on the force here at URI. "About 26 years," he said. "I haven't been on the road in about two years, and I've been working third shift for about a year and a half."

Given the length of his experience, I was interested in Dowieko's perception of what had changed over the years. "The type of student has changed," he said. "Thursday night was the big party night back in the (1970s). Students had their parties, and everyone would get drunk, right here in campus, and it was okay because they were here and not out causing trouble."

"Why or how is it different now?" I asked.

"Now, we have gangs, probably mostly coming down from the city, date rape, racism, less integration it seems," he said. "Students tend to group with their own race more it seems." As a casual observer, I knew what he meant, to a certain extent. But he didn't condemn the current student body by any means. "Students are more aggressive in their studies today," he said. For Dowieko to make that observation said something, considering how long he's been here.

Lt. Dowieko spends most of the late night or early morning hours filling out paperwork, but he will assist the officers in the field whenever necessary. In fact, assistance is something Dowieko is quite good at. Before coming to the URI Police Department, he worked for the Institute of Mental Health, where he counseled drug and alcohol abusers. Before that, he worked with the mentally handicapped.

But there must be something about this job or he would've moved on by now. "I've seen it all, major fires, bad car accidents," he said. "There was one incident where a woman died in my arms." And although these things can happen, we should feel safer with Lieutenant Dowieko in charge during the dark hours.