Transcript
A (0:04)
21st Precinct. Sergeant Lyons, you caught a what? A burglary, lady. With a butcher knife. Well, where is this? Where you are by transcription in the muster room at the 21st Precinct, the nerve center. A call is coming through. You will follow the action taken pursuant to that call from this minute until the final report is written in the 124 room at the 21st Precinct. All right, lady, I'll send the officers right over there. Yes, ma', am, right away. Just be careful till they get there. 21st Precinct. It's just lines on a map of the city of New York. Most of the 173,000 people wedged into the 9/10 of a square mile between Fifth Avenue and the east river wouldn't know if you asked them that they lived or worked in the 21st. Whether they know it or not, the security of their homes, their persons and their property is the job of the men of the 21st Precinct. The 21st. 160 patrolmen, 11 sergeants and four lieutenants, of whom I'm the boss. My name is Cronin, Vincent P. Cronin. I'm captain in command of the 21st Precinct. I was doing night duty 4pm to 8am after I turned out the platoon for the night tour and cleaned up the paperwork that had accumulated since I was last on duty 22 hours earlier. Sector car number two came by the house for me and I went on patrol of the precinct with Patrolman David Meister as operator. When the commanding officer is on patrol in an RMP car, he assumes all the duties of the car's recorder, which includes signaling on the two way radio and keeping the desk officer informed by telephone of all police action taken by the crew of the car. Pull over the next call box, Meister. I want to ring in. Yes, sir. I'll just be a second. Precinct. Sergeant Rosen, Captain Cronin, box 14. Yes, sir. I'll be in in a little while. Sergeant. The man named Doyle coming by to see me now, you tell him that he can wake up. We just had a call. A woman's holding a burglar at the point of a butcher knife. 613 East 92nd Street, Apartment 2B. 2B? Yes, sir, that's right. We're right near there. We'll roll on it. Yes. Excuse me, would you?
B (2:36)
Officer?
A (2:36)
Yeah, what is it? Say, Lynn, where's the subway from? Well, you walk two blocks over here to Lexington, one block down to 86th Street. Would that take me to the Brooklyn Navy Yard? Well, you ask the station agent there. We've got an emergency corner. Oh, I'm sorry, sir. What might supply 613 East 92nd. My son. Yes, sir. The call just came over the air. Let's go. The crime of house burglary is often the specialty of narcotic addicts, many of whom are dangerous when cornered. A citizen who attempts to detain a felony suspect is in grave danger. The fact that this citizen was reported to be a woman and was also reported to be holding a burglary suspect at the point of a butcher knife made the call all the more urgent. All emergency radio calls are directed at a particular sector car. In addition, the sergeant's car must respond to every call. And according to the manual of procedure, all department vehicles within a radius of five blocks from the scene of the crime must make the run, irrespective of sector, precinct or division boundary line. In this instance, it happened that we were closer to the scene. The run was a short one. We were the French car to arrive. That's it, Captain. Pull in now. Let's go. Yes, sir. Apartment 2D, wasn't it? Well, they said 2B. At the house lock, Captain. Hit the bella. Somebody will push the button. I can see to the top of the stairs. You hit them all? Yes, sir. There it goes. Put the door in the latch. Yes, sir, I did. All right. There's an apartment door open up there. That could be it. Yeah, it is it inside.