I have been an Austin Police Officer for seven years. I graduated
from the Austin Police Academy 3/29/98. I was in the 91st Cadet
Class. I am currently assigned to the Souteast Street Response
Unit for about 20 months. Prior to being assigned to the
Southeast Street Response unit I worked George 200’s. I also
worked Walking Beat at night. I also worked Charlie sector, 300’s
and 500’s.
In the street response unit my partner is Officer Michelle
Borton. I have worked with Michelle for 1 year and 4
months. We work street level narcotic investigations and assist
in prostitutions stings. We talked about working property crimes
but have not had much success with property crimes.
On this Bittercreek operation, Michelle and I have have worked the
Bluff Springs area and researched the area for suspicious
activity. What happens is that we watch the pay phones in the
area, especially the pay phone at Cannon Food Mart at 1719 E. William
Cannon. The way this drug activity works is taht these mobile
drug dealers will drive around to these homeless/drug addicted people
and give them phone numbers where they can call and order some
drugs. The way it works is that the drug dealer will dleiver the
narcotics to the person at a designated place and time.
One time Michelle and I were at the Cannon Food Mart and this guy comes
up to us. We were working undercover trying to buy some
crack. He asked us if we wanted to purchase some crack. We
told him to use our city cell phone but something spooked him and we
didn’t get anything from this transaction. He also wanted in our
car to speed things up but we didn’t do that.
Michelle had worked Frank sector prior to coming to street response and
knew this crack user and dealer named [X name withheld by editor]. [X]
lives at [address withheld by editor.] She is a white female
between [age withheld by editor] years of age. We don’t always
make contact with [X] when we are working. If we are out on
someone at the Cannon Food Mart and [X] is in the area she will stop
and talk to us. We have watched [X] and her residence for some
time. We suspect [X] of being a coordinator or middleman for
these crack dealings. [X] would walk to the Cannon Food Mart and
use the pay phone and make short phone calls. If [X] was not
successful she would loiter around the pay phone and make another
call. If she was successful she would walk directly back to her
residence. We would watch her and [X] would wait for someone to
roll up for a delivery.
On 6/9/05 I came into work at 2:00 p.m. Did some research on some
addresses and names and checked e-mails. The research that I did
yesterday was on other names of people that have come up about some
guys that got busted at the airport with some meth. Michelle and
I went to eat about 4:00 at the Boiling Pot. We were there about
45 minutes then headed to Henry sector to check the address from a
vehicle that had run from us last night. The vehicle had left
[X’s residence.] We tried to stop this vehicle to detain and
identify the occupant. It was a [description withheld by editor.]
We checked some houses over off of Honeybee Bend. One of the
occupants who had involvement in the [vehicle described above] that ran
from us the night before came back to [address withheld by editor]
Honeybee. We got some citizen complaints of drug
dealing. Lots of drug dealing activity, cars coming and
going. We drove past this area looking for the car and didn’t see
it.
Michelle and I drove to the south sub and dropped off our cool car and
picked up the army green/grayish unmarked police unit. We hooked
up with Officer [Y name withheld by editor] about 5:30 p.m.
I don’t remember the exact time. [Y] was driving the black
suburban and we all drove to the William Cannon/Bluff Springs
area. We were in the area trying to see what was going on as far
as suspicious activity.
It was very light out when Michelle and I sat up at [address withheld
by editor] Elm Creek while [Y] had an eye on [X’s] house. He was
atually shufflling from watching the pay phones at Cannon Food Mart and
[X’s] house and the pedestrian traffic in the area. He was
watching to see what looked more promising.
It was very slow so Michelle and I broke off to do regular
patrol. We drove around Frank sector to look for suspicious
activity. We broke loose about an hour before sunset.
During this time I heard another street response unit looking for
F307. They wre following a heroin dealer to a known address at
[address withheld by editor] Echo Lane. We checked by with
them. When they were code 4 we left. We headed back to
William Cannon/Bluff Springs and called [Y].
We sat up at the Sonic, took our vests off and pulled our shirts out
and sat in the picnic area of the Sonic and ordered a burger. We
ate the burger but we were also watching the pay phones. We had
already coordinated with Sgt. Doyle and [Y]. The plan was for
Sgt. Doyle to come to the Sonic and get into the black suburban and
drive [Y] back to [address withheld by editor] Bittercreek. [Y]
was to be in the back of the suburban and keep an eye on [X’s]
house. Sgt. Doyle drove [Y] back to Bittercreek. Sgt. Doyle
walked back to the Sonic when [Y] was on the radio telling us that a
[description withheld by editor] four runner had just driven up
to [address withheld by editor] Bittercreek. This vehicle
was there for a little bit.
Michelle and I got into our vehicle to conduct a traffic stop on the
four runner. It pulled into the car wash on William Cannon and we
went out on a Hispanic male. I was trying to speak Spanish to
this Hispanic male he tried to speak English. We checked him and
he only had a condom in his pocket and he had a previous arrest for
prostitution. We determined he was probably looking for a
prostitute. We cut him loose.
[Y] came up on the air and said that [X] was getting into a
[description withheld by editor] truck witha white male driver.
Michelle and I had briefly gone back to the Sonic but we didn’t want to
be around the Cannon food mart so that [X] would see us. I
dropped Michelle off on the east side of Sonic and she took her vest
off. I then drove around that general area of Sonic.
Michelle was out doing surveillance for about 5 minutes before I picked
her up. I don’t remember who told me [X] had made the call.
I got on the radio and told officers [A & B names withheld by
editor] to come over to our location because we needed another take
down vehicle. I was coordinating the incident. We have had
cars run from us in the past and earlier I had talked to Sgt. Doyle
about doing a stationary take down. I thought it would be safer
to do it in this manner and not get into a pursuit situation.
In the past, maybe in March/April we have ad two vehicles run from
us. A [description withheld by editor] had left [address withheld
by editor] Bittercreek and we tried to get a stop on it and it
fled. The second time the same [description withheld by editor]
was on William Cannon and we tried to stop it again but it fled.
The [description withheld by editor] I told you about also left
[address withheld by editor] and fled from us.
The [description withheld by editor] with [X] and the white male driver
had driven back to [address withheld by editor] Bittercreek after
having been at the Cannon food mart and made a quick phone call. [Y]
has got the eye and says the pedestrian traffic had increased. I
am coordinating the take down. We had coordinated where Michelle
and I are coming from the east and Sgt. Doyle and [A & B] are coming from the west. I was on the radio
making sure everyone knew that we were talking about [X’s] residence
and where we were going to do the takedown. I even came up on the
radio and said that Michelle and I were carrying tasers. I wanted
this to be simultaneous where everyone converged at the same time.
[Y] said that another white male from the front yard of [X’s ] place
had go
tten into the [description withheld by editor] truck and they
drove to the Cannon food mart. Michelle and I had been on Elm
Creek and we hustled back to the Sonic and saw them at the food
mart. I saw the passenger get out of the truck and he went to the
pay phone and made a call. It was a short phone call. I
think he had on a bright yellow shirt but I don’t really
remember. While we were at the Sonic this guy [description
withheld by editor] had come up to Michelle and gave her the name of
this guy who was dealing. The [description withheld by editor]
truck has left the food mart and drove directly back to [X’s]
house. Sgt. Doyle told us the truck was back at [X’s].
[End of Part One]
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