I suspected it would prove to be an interesting and busy evening. I was not mistaken.

Sergeant Phil Peckford is the supervisor I’ll be riding with. He greets me with a smile and a firm hand shake.

A 12-year veteran of the police service, Peckford is originally from St. John’s, Nfld., and, like most of the people from the Rock whom I’ve met, has a great sense of humour. Given that police often deal with situations ranging from the absurd to the tragic, a sense of humour is probably almost mandatory these days.

He’s also a nephew of former Newfoundland Premier Brian Peckford and attended the same school in St. John’s as comedian Rick Mercer and is a university buddy (he has an economics degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax) of John Paul Tremblay who plays Julian on the TV show Trailer Park Boys.

Acting Staff Sergeant Mark Petkoff, who oversees the night shift across Division 3 (which includes the Mountain, Dundas, Ancaster, Glanbrook and Flamborough) calls Peckford the fourth Trailer Park Boy after he met up with Tremblay and the other cast members following an appearance by the Trailer Park Boys at Hamilton Place in January.

The night shift goes in two waves with the first beginning at 6 p. m. Patrol officers gather around a table in a meeting room where they are briefed about what happened during the day and what to be aware of throughout the night. Photos of wanted people or other information, such as crime trends in various neighbourhoods, is projected from a computer onto a screen.

“Everything’s done electronically,” said Peckford.

After the briefing, the sergeants head back to their office to complete the necessary paper work before they head out on the road.

Each officer has a computer in his cruiser and can access all the information they require from the driver’s seat.

Around 9:10 p. m. Peckford and I head out from the Rymal Road police station and already there are some 80 calls on the computer screen. Some are left over from the day shift.

As many as 30 officers will be on Division 3 roads during Devil’s Night. Several plainclothes HEAT (High Enforcement Action Team) officers are also on patrol. Four officers are home sick with flu-like symptoms.

Inside the cruiser Peckford logs in his badge number.

“Terminal Authorized” pops up on the computer screen. We’re ready to roll.

Peckford also carries a cell phone that he uses to call Petkoff or other officers directly, but notes policy forbids them from talking on the phone while driving. He is also in contact by radio. Each time he clicks his microphone, the folks in the radio room know it’s him.

9:15 p. m.

We head over to the Hill Park Recreation Centre in the area of Vickers and East 16th. Police have been looking for some youths who were shooting off paintball guns at the back of the building about a half hour earlier.

The sidewalks around the centre are empty and we move on checking side streets and the Huntington Park area for possible suspects.

Mischief incidents like this one and calls about eggs being thrown and loud parties will keep police hopping this night.

9:40 p. m.

Police are keeping a close eye on parking lots, especially ones behind businesses and apartment buildings.

We drive through the parking lot at the Sherwood Centre at Fennell and Upper Ottawa. A few bowlers are chatting under the lights near the main entrance. Peckford spots a car sitting in a far corner with its lights off. We head over. Two young men sitting in the car are a bit startled to see us. Peckford approaches them casually to see what they are up to.

Turns out they’re having a quiet coffee and a chat. Peckford asks to see some identification. The two men give him their driver’s licence. Their information is typed into the computer and both come back clean. No police-related issues. Peckford thanks them and we’re on our way. He notes since the two men were parked on private property, they weren’t under any obligation to provide the ID.

9:45 p. m.

A call about youths tossing stones (latter confirmed as eggs) at traffic on the Linc from the bridge on Upper Sherman and last seen running toward McQuesten Park on Upper Wentworth. Within a few minutes we’re at the park. We get out and look around. With flashlight in hand, Peckford walks through the park, checking the area away from the parking lot lights and behind the pavilion. No one there.

9:58 p. m.

We get a call about some people throwing things off a third floor balcony at an apartment building in the area of Mohawk and Upper James. Peckford suspects it might be a tenant with mental health issues that he has dealt with in the past. He tells patrol officers via the radio to park at the nearby Petro Canada station and walk over to the building so as not to alert or frighten the tenant.

Peckford tells me the last time he was at the building a man locked himself in a bathroom with a knife. I’m advised to keep my distance.

Police are met at the main entrance by the building superintendent who is clearly upset.

She says a group of people have been yelling and screaming and spitting off the balcony. A group of four or five officers head up the stairs. Sgt. Peckford knocks on the door of the unit. There is no answer. Within seconds, a 19-year-old man who lives there comes walking down the hallway asking what’s going on.

“People were throwing (things) off the balcony,” Peckford tells the tenant.

“Not my balcony,” the tenant replies.

Turns out he’s not the same man with the knife police dealt with previously and he has no history with the police.

As Peckford speaks to the man we find out he had been told to vacate the unit several weeks earlier, but is fighting the eviction. Apparently he owes as much as three months rent and his driver’s licence is suspended.

The superintendent tells another officer that there have been many problems with the tenant with booze and drug-related noise and commotion often running until 2 a. m. or 3 a. m. and that several tenants on the third floor have told her they are afraid for their safety. After about a half-hour on the scene, the man says he and some friends are heading off on foot to a club and will not be returning tonight. The matter is left for now as a landlord-tenant issue, but police suspect they’ll be back.

10:40 p. m.

We’re checking the area around Mohawk College. A spotlight from the cruiser shines on walkways and down driveways.

On West 1st a guy is outside raking leaves. He waves to us as we drive by. There’s noise coming from around the corner on West 2nd.

A group of young people are standing on the front step of a house and talking and yelling. Peckford gets out and speaks to the female tenant at the home. He tells the group to keep the noise down and take the party back inside the house. They do; we move on.

11:05 p. m.

It’s getting noticeably busier now.

A call comes in about three youths who were just mugged at knife-point in the area of Mohawk and Upper Gage. They called police from a nearby Tim Hortons. We head over. The three boys come out when they see the cruiser pull in. They look shaken up, but otherwise unhurt. “They took my phone, my hat and my sweater, and his money,” said one of the youths, pointing to his friend.

The boys say they were walking to a variety store when another group of youths began following them and then robbed them. There is an indication they may know who at least one of the assailants is. Another police officer arrives at the scene and so does the mother of one of the youths. Peckford tells the officer to take the boys back to the Mountain station and get a statement from them.

11:50 p. m.

The most bizarre and interesting call of the night comes in. There’s been a stabbing at a home on Beaverton Drive, off Upper Sherman south of the Linc. The cruiser’s flashing lights and siren are switched on. Here we go!

A small group of neighbours are outside when we arrive. The male victim is still inside the home. The hinges on the front door have been kicked off. It appears his spouse or girlfriend ran outside looking for help.

“She rings on my door like a crazy maniac and she was covered in blood,” said one neighbour, who would not give his name. “This doesn’t surprise me.”

Turns out she was getting ready to go to a Halloween party and was wearing a costume with fake blood on it. Possibly ketchup.

Another neighbour says he saw the man acting strangely prior to the incident.

“I heard him come out and heard him freaking out,” the neighbour said.

The neighbours say there had been a number of incidents at the house in recent months, including a couple of small fires.

An ambulance and other emergency officials arrive and head into the home.

There’s a black-handled kitchen knife lying in the driveway. Peckford gets out a roll of yellow police tape and strings it across the front of the property. It’s now a crime scene. Detectives and forensic officers are being called in.

Peckford notes the woman in the house told police that some intruders rushed into the house and stabbed her boyfriend. The victim may have been chasing some youths who had egged the house and returned to attack him.

This story would change a number of times during the night. Peckford says the victim’s vital signs were all good, but he was not responding and was taken to hospital. While there was a considerable amount of blood, Sgt. Peckford couldn’t quite tell where the blood was coming from. We find out later that the victim was not stabbed, but had likely suffered a broken nose. It’s not clear at this point who hit him. Could it be an ex-boyfriend of the woman? No clear answers are forthcoming.

By 12:40 p. m. police are taking statements from neighbours and it’s beginning to rain. We are told the victim has not been particularly co-operative with police at hospital and now says he suffered the injury at a downtown party earlier in the evening. I suggest to Peckford the victim might have been unresponsive on purpose. He agrees it’s a possibility.

The matter is now in the hands of Mountain detectives as we head back to the Mountain station for a break. Back at the station, Petkoff tells me that while we were busy on Beaverton Drive, police had a few scary moments on the Linc. Before midnight they got a call about a man with mental health issues who was standing on the Upper Sherman overpass. There was concern he might jump. The man then climbed over the barriers and began walking east along the westbound lanes of the Linc before he was grabbed by police and taken to hospital.

3:10 a. m.

Back on the street, this time looking for a suspect after a shed was entered on Inverness.

The suspect is described as five-foot 10 wearing a ball cap and very drunk. We check several backyards in the area. There is no sign of anyone and there are no footprints on the wet ground as the rain continues to fall.

By 4 a. m. my shift is over. Peckford is heading back to the station to finish up some paper work. Devil’s Night proved to be as busy and eventful as I thought it would. The ride-along clearly demonstrated that to be a police officer these days you also need to be part psychologist, part counsellor and part stern parent … and possess an infinite amount of patience.