“Let’s go, Coakley!” Officer Brad Fry shouts from the front of the Desert Breeze Police Station.

Dressed in his navy blues, Fry winds his way around the office like an old pro, and begins his late-night shift.

“I like working nights,” Fry explains. “It’s a different kind of atmosphere. It’s more exciting at night.”

Officer Fry has been a cop for sixteen years and this is one of many ride alongs he had administered.

Working in beat five, the tactical term for the area around Kyrene, Fry drives a newer Chevy Tahoe looking for potential arrestees and public disturbances.

His car choice is nothing less than exciting; due to his high rank among his peers, Fry has seniority over the vehicle he drives.

While paired with Fry, I witnessed a car crash, the return of stolen items to their rightful owner, a pursuit of a suicidal character, and the arrest of a person who committed a misdemeanor assault.

With car incidents most officers are in agreement when it comes to roadside precautions.  “If your vehicle can be moved off the road, do it. You’re in the way of other traffic just sitting there.” Fry explains.

Through out the entire night I was always on Fry’s tail.

“Stay on me,” Fry says when approaching the scene of an assault. Staying close to either Fry or the other officers, I was always just outside the scene of events, and always and observer.

However, purists and civil disturbances are not all the Chandler Police Department partake in.

The boys of the force also gossip like old high school buddies when it comes to the uniform.

“We’re getting new vests, supposedly,” Officer David Payne states while Fry and another officer, Dan Anania, stand around chit-chatting after dealing with a fender bender altercation.

“Really? They’re getting rid of the over vest? But I heard they don’t,” Fry asked. Payne proceeds to explain that Chandler PD is receiving new uniforms closely relating to those of Scottsdale PD.

Along the lines of uniform discussions, the guys also talk about college and professional football on their downtime.

“How do you feel about Wing Stop?” Officer Fry asks me, while turning into a strip mall. At eleven thirty at night, most places are closed down so fast food and easy access drug stores are all that are open.

We meet fellow officer Spencer Pitts at the restaurant and the two officers begin talking about the latest debacle football has to offer. From their favorite teams, ASU and Penn State, to which level is their favorite, High school, college or NFL, to who they think will win the Super Bowl.

All throughout the meal the steady voices of dispatch can be heard over their on-person radios, constantly dispatching locations of incoming calls.

Many different terms were thrown around during the night. Over the main radio terms like “10-4”, “901”, and “TSTOP” were all muddled together multiple times.

“901 is the code for dead person, older people mostly who die of natural causes.” Fry explains reading his in-car laptop that allows easy communication between both his team members in the field and the dispatching office.

“TSTOP is code for Traffic Stop and Code 4 is just asking if you’re alright,” Fry states.

Over the course of the night, Fry cruises around town multiple times, checking over the local bars for drunk and disorderly people, rounding neighborhoods for suspicious persons, and running licenses plates left and right hoping for something of interest to come his way.