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ST. CLAIR TOWNSHIP -- St. Clair Township Police Officer Austin Mayfield's shift on Wednesday was not like any other day, because for these officers there is no such thing as a typical day on the job.
During a three-hour period of his shift, Mayfield had to wait with a female at the hospital then transport her to the county jail. From there he went back on patrol, where he discovered smoke in the 16000 block of state Route 267 for which he had to track down the source and make sure it wasn't a ground or structure fire. It turned out to be a resident burning cardboard boxes in a barrel. From there he responded to a private property crash at Walmart, then with lights and sirens on responded to an open 9-1-1 call on Lori Road which ended up being a child on the phone, then pulled over a driver for speeding and assisted another officer with a call about a female walking in the grass on McGuffey Drive.
The few moments between calls were spent running random license plates searching for possible drivers with warrants.
"We have our busy times out here and we have our times where it is super quiet," Mayfield said. "It's a little mixture of everything."
Mayfield noted after the traffic stop for which he let the driver off with a verbal warning, that he believes sometimes an officer can get better results by talking to and educating the driver than issuing a citation.
He also said with the warmer weather people do tend to speed a little more and that getting comfortable at the wheel and a little bit of sunshine can bring out a bit of a lead foot.
Not all speeders are lucky enough to get off with an educational talk and a warning. Mayfield recalled last week pulling a woman over on Irish Ridge Road for doing 60 mph in a 35 mph zone.
"You can't catch them all but it's definitely nice to get some here and there, especially when they are going 60 in a 35 in a residential area," Mayfield said.
There are days when the officers can run 60 some plates and not get anything, according to Mayfield.
Mayfield said the open 9-1-1 calls they respond to can be a scary situation because they have no idea what they are walking into.
Mayfield recalled his first call out after being sworn in was to a private property crash. His most intense call out to date has been when officers were called to a Chiropractic Center that had been broken into and the suspect was suspected of being on meth. The suspect fled the scene and K9 Rebel was brought in to track him. When K9 Rebel located the suspect both Mayfield and Officer Keith Hilderbrand drew their guns and cuffed him.
Mayfield said he enjoys being on patrol in a community where the residents are nice and respectful of the officers. He said he feels the community has their backs.
Mayfield along with the other officers enjoys giving back to the community.
"Chief does a very good job with that, and we all enjoy it as well, just getting out and having the community see who we are," Mayfield said. "A lot of those events we don't show up in uniform and it gives people the outlook cops are people too, not just some person behind a badge."
Mayfield noted that these days there are a lot of people who feel no one wants to be an officer now because of everything they deal with.
"It does take a certain type of person to be a cop, but it also is like everything else -- just one bad apple gives a bad name to everybody," Mayfield said.
Mayfield said he likes to think that all the officers he works with go out with the right mindset. He said Chief Brian McKenzie likes to see the officers being proactive and interacting with people in the community and that's just the type of them Mayfield enjoys
"I love interacting with people and just getting out there and talking to people. It's really such a big thing because it changes people's outlook on cops," Mayfield said. "Because it's not just that cops are people too, but also that we deal with the same things that people deal with on an everyday basis."
Mayfield noted there are also those who think an officer is the worst person ever because they are doing their job.
According to Mayfield, McKenzie is an awesome chief and there is such a mixture of guys with some being older, some middle age and a lot of younger officers, that all act as a team and always have each others backs.
"It's never a question if they are going to back you up and it's nice, it's a good feeling to have," Mayfield said.
He also noted that when an officer gets a call, another one is en route to back them up.
"Because the times we live in now are kind of scary, and you never know what can happen when you walk to the window of a car," Mayfield said. "With the new constitutional carry law we treat every call as a gun call because even though it might be a barking dog complaint the gun is still there."
Some of the biggest issues the St. Clair Police Department faces, according to Mayfield, can be speeders, but nothing too crazy in the area, and unfortunately drugs. With St. Clair Township being in the tri-state area with Pennsylvania and West Virginia both five minutes away, there is a lot of stuff running in and out of the area.
Marijuana is a problem with there still being some wording reworked on the issue. Mayfield said he feels it is something people will have to adapt to as the wording issues get resolved. Officers are continuing to treat those under the influence of marijuana while driving a vehicle as driving while impaired, the same as they do with alcohol.
Mayfield, who joined the St. Clair Township Police Department in August shortly after graduating from West Liberty College with a degree in Criminal Justice, has had a life-long intrigue with law enforcement. He grew up watching crime shows like NCIS with his sister and grandmother.
"It's just something that has always intrigued me," Mayfield said. "Besides being the adrenaline part, which I like, I get to help people in service to the community. "
Mayfield went through several major changes in college before selecting criminal justice. He originally majored in early education with his focus on becoming a gym teacher and a coach, but discovered he didn't want to sit behind a desk and he is a bit of an adrenaline junkie. He switched his major multiple times before deciding he was going to take on criminal justice and falling in love with it.
"I really enjoy helping people. I love being out in the public. It's just the whole round part that when you are out here being a cop you wear many hats," Mayfield said. "You are not just a police officer. You can be somebody's therapist, somebody's mom, dad, brother figure, it doesn't matter, just the idea of helping somebody that really kind of fuels the person I am. "
His parents also worked in the service sector, with his mother as a secretary and his father in the oil fields, and his sister is on her way to becoming a nurse practitioner.
"It's been an eye opener," Mayfield said. "I have only been out here for seven months, but it's definitely been something different."