The nightshift

IU police officers begin their weekend nightshift lounging and joking with one another inside the police department, waiting for their assignments. \nAs Mirantha Wilson gets ready for her shift, Scott Dunning motions a sign of the cross and asks for mercy on the unlucky students who will have to answer to her, while Joe Amandola gripes about his assigned district for the night, asking the other officers if they want to trade. \nNo one takes his offer. \nThe chatting and laughing goes on for a few minutes, until one by one the officers leave and get into their cars for a night of driving, questioning and breathalyzing.\nWorking an exhausting shift from 11 p.m. until 7 a.m., the IU police officers on the nightshift outlast even the most die-hard party animals on a weekend night. \nDuring the course of the night, four to six IU police officers patrol the streets around campus, looking for anything that might pose harm to the students or campus.\nDespite the long hours, Wilson said she enjoys the weekend action.\n"It usually takes me a lot of caffeine, but I really enjoy the work we get on the weekends," Wilson said. "They're usually pretty busy because the students are more apt to socialize than do homework, and you never know what kind of call you're going to get."\nThe enjoyment IU police officers take from their work also lightens the hour load, and a strong friendship between the officers on the nightshift is visible. At stop signs, they stop and check up on one another. When an officer pulls a vehicle over, backup is always quick to arrive, even if it was not requested. \n"There's a strong camaraderie between us, and we have a lot of fun together," Wilson said. "We may tease each other, but it's all in fun. We really try to help each other out anytime we can."\nWhen calls are not coming in from the radio and the students are behaving, Wilson admits the work can be a little slow, but it just forces her to work harder, she said.\n"You can always find something to do," Wilson said. "There's always something out there, sometimes you just have to look a little closer."\nLuckily for Wilson, the night was just about to get interesting. \nAfter a missed opportunity in catching a student who ran once he noticed he was being followed by a police car, Wilson called his description over the police radio as a "male in a blue shirt and jeans."\nWhen Amandola heard the description he just happened to spot someone who fit the description. Once again, the student started running when the cops arrived, even though he wasn't the guy Wilson was after.\n"I was just going to hold the kid until (Wilson) could come and see if he was the same guy that ran from her," Amandola said. "But as soon as I told him to stop he started running like an idiot. If he'd just stopped nothing would've happened to him, but since he started running I charged him with resisting arrest."\nRunning from the scene is the worst decision a student can make, Wilson said.\n"A lot of time people aren't doing anything wrong," Wilson said. "but when they've been drinking they get paranoid as soon as they see us, and they usually start to run. But it's always to your benefit if you just stop and be compliant with us."\nThe biggest call of the night came about 20 minutes later when Officer Nick Ojeda pulled over sophomore Nick Svarczkopf on the corner of 17th and Dunn streets. \n"He wasn't speeding, but he drove into the curb twice," Ojeda said, "so I pulled him over thinking he may have been drinking."\nAfter the pullover and a series of dexterity tests, Svarczkopf found himself with a Breathalyzer tube to his mouth. After Wilson told him the disappointing results of the test, the busted look on Svarczkopf's face put a quick end to his night. Svarczkopf was arrested for illegal consumption and false information, police said.\nDuring the time Svarzkopf was being arrested, sophomore Lindsay Smarker waited inside his car. But once Svarzkopf was handcuffed, Smarker decided to see what was going on. \nSmarker stepped out of the car holding a brown teddy bear and wearing red pajamas and "SpongeBob SquarePants" slippers.\n"I must have told her a thousand times to be quiet, but she just wouldn't listen to a word I was saying," Wilson said. "It was clear she had been drinking, and when I asked her to take a Breathalyzer, she refused."\nWilson tried to handcuff her, but Smarker refused to let go of her teddy bear. After several failed attempts made by Wilson to place Smarker in cuffs, Ojeda was called over to help. Her teddy bear was tossed on the sidewalk and she was cuffed. \nWhen placed in the back of the police car, Smarker managed to wiggle her skinny wrists through the handcuffs. Exhausted and frustrated, Wilson and Ojeda held Smarker down until a vehicle arrived to transport her and Svarczkopf to the Monroe County Jail.\nAn incident that started as a simple pullover for questionable driving, ended with five charges of arrest, eight police cars, one tow truck and two new visitors at the county jail.\nIncidents as hectic as these do not come too often on the IUPD night shift, but Amandola said he doesn't expect the action to let up on this night.\n"It's been a busy weekend already, and it's not even two in the morning yet," Amandola said. "I made two arrests last night and one so far tonight, and I bet you I'll have one more before the shift's over. I might not even eat tonight"