By Alyssa Schnugg
Staff writer
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com
As the superintendent of Oxford’s Environmental Services, Amberlyn Liles is well aware of the trash that can collect on curbs during garbage pick-up days. What she didn’t know was the amount of rubbish local police dealt with once the sun went down.
However, after spending about 24 Friday nights riding around with the Oxford Police Department, she’s learned quickly.
Two years ago, Liles was having a conversation with her friend, Katie Horton, who is the wife of Oxford Police Officer Blake Horton.
“We were talking and I said I thought it would be fun to be able to ride around with the police one night, and Katie said, ‘Well, you can,’” Liles said.
Liles contacted OPD and discovered that all citizens, not just city employees, can arrange to ride along with police officers.
The first home football game of the 2016 season, Liles went on her first ride-along with a DUI officer.
“Little did I know how exciting DUI enforcement can be,” Liles said. “It was one thing after another, all night long.”
As a guest, Liles can’t touch anything in the vehicle, and once the officer turns on the blue lights she has to remain silent due to the voice recording on the officer’s cameras.
“I would sit and listen and I could hear them talking to the person they pulled over,” she said. “It’s almost like watching a movie. It’s so entertaining.”
Alone in the car during traffic stops, Liles started posting on Facebook about the things she would see while riding along with the police. Leaving out names, she would post about the unique things she would see or hear.
Her posts garnered 300 “likes” on Facebook that first night. She was invited to ride along again the following weekend.
“I was hooked,” she said.
And so were her Facebook friends.
“I would go to places, even the soccer field, and the other moms would say, ‘Oh my gosh, I would love to do that.’”
Liles said she wasn’t really trying to be funny or gain attention – she was just sharing her experiences with her friends and family.
“People have been very kind,” she said. “But I’m very careful of what I say (on Facebook). I wouldn’t want to embarrass anyone who was arrested or stopped, or embarrass the city I work for.”
For the first 12 or so ride-alongs, most of what Liles saw were drunk people trying to convince police they weren’t drunk or being caught doing something silly.
“You hear the usual, ‘I only had one drink – two at the most.’ Or, ‘Those drugs aren’t mine,'” she said.
During a ride-along with Capt. Hildon Sessums, they found a young man who was trying to climb into a window at a local bank, thinking he was at his friend’s apartment.
One Halloween, the officer responded to a party after receiving a noise complaint.
“When the officer walked in, people were like, ‘That’s the best costume!’” Liles said, chuckling.
When an officer makes an arrest, Liles rides to the Lafayette County Detention Center where the suspect goes through the booking process.
“One night I was sitting there waiting and a lady jailer started taking me up to the counter to be booked,” Liles said.
Around her 13th ride-along, Liles was reminded that a police officer’s job can often be dangerous.
“Up until then, most of the situations were kind of funny,” Liles said. “But one night, the officer I was riding with responded to a domestic disturbance. I could hear everything on the radio. I heard a scuffle and the officer’s mic turned off. Then I hear another police officer radio in for an ambulance and that more units were on the way. I was in a moment of panic. I didn’t feel unsafe, but I didn’t know what had happened. It turned out that everything was OK and the suspect was in custody. These men and women put their lives on the line for us every single day and most of us take it for granted.”
Liles said she tends to do the ride-alongs during football season or home baseball games since that’s when the most people in town and nights are generally busy for local law enforcement.
“This coming football season will be my third season of doing these ride-alongs,” Liles said. “I guess I just enjoy the thrill and the adrenaline rush. It’s nice to just sit in the passenger seat and take it all in.”
Sessums said Liles does a great job of explaining what a civilian sees during a ride-along.
“Sometimes we, law enforcement, have trouble breaking down an event but she doesn’t use any of the police lingo,” he said. “She does a good job of explaining in layman terms what she saw.”
Sessums, who handles most of the social media accounts for OPD, said Liles’ Facebook posts show the public how police officers go out and do their best to protect and serve Oxford.
“We sometimes get accused of making posts up just to get followers or make it sound more funny or exciting than it actually is, but her posts show that there is no normal night in law enforcement,” he said. “I find it funny that when she announces she is doing a ride-along, how excited her followers get and look forward to the ‘aftermath’ Facebook post.”
