Many Central Ohio police departments offer the opportunity for citizens to ride along with an officer.
Jodie Streeter, a Genoa Township resident, army veteran and grandmother of two, recently went on a ride-along with a Westerville police officer.
She went along with veteran officer David Leighty, who has been a police officer for 14 years and with the Westerville Division of Police for seven years.
He says citizens are welcome to ride along.
"Just so they can get a perspective of what police officers go through on a daily basis," said Officer Leighty.
He says he knows what he's looking for, but never knows what he'll find. "I look for all kind of violations, especially at night. I look for drugs and DUIs. I'm looking for criminal patrol, anyone who's up to no good, usually after midnight people are usually coming into town to steal, break into cars, go to Walmart or Meijer to steal, so I’m looking for violations to stop them."
He does not have to look very long to find violators. He quickly spots a potential drunk driver crossing over the center line. A short time later, he sees a car pulling into a closed cemetery, something that certainly seems suspicious to an officer who knows his beat.
He pulls the car over, and it takes him less than a minute to uncover his next clue to possible criminal activity - something the suspect calls his "snot rag." But Officer Leighty suspects it is being used for drug activity. He also detects the smell of marijuana and decides to search the car.
The officer finds what he describes as drugs and drug paraphernalia, including whippets, "It's like a nitrous oxide that these guys are poking, he's got a knife in there. he's poking holes in them and he's sucking it all out to get a high out of this," said Leighty.
He says he also finds dabs, "It's a high concentration of THC. So, basically what they do is they take this steam pot right here, and after they get their marijuana in there and pressure it. They cook it multiple times to get the THC out of there."
The traffic stop leads to drug possession charges against two suspects. "You know traffic stops aren't always routine," says Leighty. "There's a low risk, high risk and unknown, and that's how it's taught to you, but to me every traffic stop is unknown. You don't know what you're gonna get out of it."
Jodie Streeter says she learned a lot during her ride-along with police. "The dangers that the officers face when they walk up to car, you don't know what you're going to come across. And they're dealing with unknown. It takes a lot of guts to do that," said Streeter.
All of the Central Ohio police departments we reached out to, besides Gahanna police, say they allow citizen ride-alongs.
Sheriff's offices allow them, too. Check with your local law enforcement agency if you're interested.