A Night On Patrol With the Wayzata Police Department

It’s just after 7 p.m. on a Friday night as Wayzata police officer Dave Wilson climbs into his squad car and begins his shift.

As he does most nights, the five-year veteran starts his tour with a lap around Wayzata and Long Lake. He pulls into parking lots, waves at pedestrians crossing Lake Street and checks public boat ramps.

“Patrol and presence are a big part of what we do,” Wilson said as he cruised down a lakeshore road and past a house once owned by the Pohlad family. “We’re looking for anything out of place, anything that catches our eye.”

To this point, everything is exactly where it’s supposed to be and nothing seems out of the ordinary. Wilson keeps an ear focused on the crackling radio, but units in surrounding cities are responding to only a handful of minor disturbances. All is quiet.

Wilson is soon back zigzagging through Wayzata’s central business and residential areas and checks on the new municipal liquor store site, now in the last stages of construction. He glides through the parking lot of a local church and circles several parks. He cruises past a light pole in Long Lake that had been sparking earlier in the day and stops to note that the electric company has yet to inspect it.

“They must be busy with all this wind,” he says.

On several occasions he pulls off to the side of the road and aims radar at passing cars. He checks brake lights and tabs, but traffic is staying near the speed limit and he finds no malfunctioning equipment.

Temperatures drop as the sun sets, and large snowflakes begin to fall. The cool weather seems to be keeping most people inside, and Wilson begins to wonder if this is going to be “one of those nights.” It’s been more than two hours since he came on duty, and dispatchers have yet to call his squad number.

"That's part of the reason people live here though," he said. "It's quiet and safe. Wayzata is the kind of town that in weather like this the streets just roll up."

He stops at a local restaurant for a short break and orders a Pepsi from a flirtatious waitress who gently teases him for not ordering an entrée.

“I eat before I come on duty,” he tells her.

A young woman recognizes him and waves from across the dining room. Wilson waves back and exchanges hellos. The woman, a neighbor of his parents, and her friend soon come over to talk.

“I saw your car over at your mom’s the other day,” Liz Lang says “I was going to stop by. I need to talk to her about how she trained her Pomeranian.”

Lang and her friend Amy Hahson talk with Wilson for 15 minutes about a series of regional bank robberies, the proper paperwork needed to own a gun and how a female can obtain an order for protection.

“That’s part of our community policing,” he says after they leave. “We want to get to know the people we’re protecting.”

It’s about 10 p.m. when Wilson gets back into his squad car, clicks his seat belt and resumes his roving patrol. His car isn’t the only one having a quiet night. The other Wayzata police officer on duty is performing similar patrols, as are officers in Minnetonka and Plymouth—cities Wilson monitors via radio.

Suddenly his cell phone vibrates. After a conversation of less than 10 seconds and even fewer words he’s en route to a location on Lake Street to check on a suspected intoxicated woman. He doesn’t say who the phone call came from.

Wilson quickly spots the vehicle and its female driver. He exits his car and approaches the driver side door. He would later say he smelled alcohol as soon as the woman rolled down the window, and after failing a battery of field sobriety tests she is placed under arrest.

“Even though she was just sitting behind the wheel, it’s classified as physical control,” Wilson said.

Per standard operating procedure, Wilson calls in a tow truck to remove the BMW.

“Can I please ask you to take these handcuffs off,” the woman says from the back seat. “I’m not going to flee.”

Officer Wilson responds that it’s department policy for anyone under arrest to be handcuffed while in the police car and that the restraints will be staying on.

The woman is transported the few blocks to the Wayzata Police Department and is booked and processed. Wilson said her misdemeanor offense means she’ll likely be released tonight and not have to spend the night in jail or wait to appear in front of a judge on Monday morning.

Wilson will have just a few hours left on his shift once the booking and processing chores are complete. At 3 a.m. he briefs his relief on the night’s activity, locks up his service weapon and heads home. He’ll be back at the police station in 16 hours.