The most dangerous assaults on me personally during my years in uniform involved people using their cars as weapons. Fights with drunks were never a serious threat, nor were guns often involved in those days before legal carry. But vehicles were a different story.
One Friday night when I was a detective with Plano Police Department, I was working overtime in uniform directing traffic at a parking lot entrance for a football game at Plano East Senior High School. I had just received the order to shut down that entrance, as the lot was full and no more parking places were available.
I held up my hand to stop the next vehicle and directed it to proceed down the road to the next parking lot. But the car, driven by a young girl, pulled right up to me and stopped almost in contact with my legs. I was blowing my whistle, motioning emphatically for her to turn and go down the street to the next lot.
We made eye contact, our faces less than ten feet apart. The girl had shoulder-length dark brown hair and an attractive, but angry face. I got a good look at her in the the seconds we were locked in a stare-down. The game was about to start and she was NOT going to be shuffled off to another parking lot to miss the kick-off.
She shook her head, gunned the engine, and bounced me off the hood of her car as she sped off into the closed parking lot.
After being bounced off her hood, I got up, dusted myself off, and continued directing traffic. We located her car later that evening, parked on a red curb in a driving lane of the lot.
Back at the police station after the game, I ran a registration check on the license plate number of the vehicle. Using the last name, I checked the most recent high school yearbooks we had for both high schools who played that night. I quickly identified the girl who had been driving.
I filed an affidavit for arrest, obtained a warrant for assault on a peace officer, and the next Monday two uniformed patrol officers went to the school. They checked at the office to find out what class she was in and arrested her out of the classroom.
The case never went to court, so I guessed her family had hired a lawyer to plead the case out for a reduced charge and probation. But my biggest comfort in that case was expressed in the old cop’s mantra, “You can beat the rap, but you can’t beat the ride.” If anything, I expect she thought twice before using her car as a weapon again.