Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (GA)1994-11-25Section: LOCALEdition: FINALPage: A3

IT'S JUST ANOTHER DAY ON PATROL   Maria M. Lameiras Staff Writer

The man stood in front of Columbus police officer Stuart Carter's patrol car, turkey dressing dripping from his shirt and blood dripping from cuts on his hand.He and his girlfriend had been having Thanksgiving dinner when an argument disturbed the holiday peace. He threw the pan of dressing out the back door and she picked up a knife. He reached over to take the knife away and grabbed the blade, cutting his fingers.Both had been drinking.Happy Thanksgiving.While most families in Columbus were gathered around the table to enjoy turkey and all the trimmings, law enforcement officers were dealing with just another day on the job.Thursday morning was quiet at the 911 center in the Government Center basement, where dispatchers answer emergency calls and send out firefighters, police and ambulances. But supervisor Carol Hancock said she expected that to change.``It's still early,'' she said about 1 p.m. ``People haven't got up and started stirring around, families haven't gotten together yet. In the afternoon and at night, it gets busy, people get into partying and enjoying the holiday a whole lot.''Hancock has been a 911 worker since 1985. ``I couldn't tell you how many holidays and Thanksgivings I've worked.''Her husband, George, was at home with their adult daughter and the daughter's family, cooking a meal Hancock would share with them after she got off duty at 4 p.m.Working holidays ``doesn't bother me anymore,'' she said. ``It bothered me more when my children were small.''Also in the 911 center were a full crew of workers -- Ruby Jones, Sheila Bussey, Melissa Smith, Tony Jackson, Deborah Scarpulla, Dawn Matthews and Nicky Christopher.Getting into the holiday spirit, Christopher and Matthews had cut turkey feathers out of fire, emergency medicine and police note cards the dispatchers use when the computers break down. They wore them on their heads, like multicolored Indian headdresses.Christopher has ``worked just about every holiday'' since starting as a 911 dispatcher in San Antonio, Texas, almost six years ago.``Somebody needs to be here,'' she said. ``Besides, I'm the jokester. I bring everyone else up in here.''Thursday morning, Christopher played a practical joke on Matthews, the animal-control dispatcher, by calling in a loose turkey at Gibraltar and Plymouth roads.``And she dispatched it because she wasn't thinking right,'' Christopher said, giggling.Upstairs, among the darkened halls and locked doors of the Government Center, Deputy Sheriff Gary Goodwin staffed the radio in the Muscogee County Sheriff's Department.Two patrol units and a sergeant were out on the streets, conducting business at usual.``They're serving civil papers and I'm getting information for them as they need it and answering the phones,'' Goodwin said. ``Thanksgiving probably isn't the best time to do it, but we have to try and serve the papers when we can find the people.''Meanwhile, officer Carter was on patrol, answering the calls that were steadily coming in to the 911 center and being radioed to him.Of the dozen calls he answered, eight or nine involved family disputes. In each incident, at least one person had been drinking.``It's usually one bad egg in the bunch that makes it rough on everyone,'' Carter said, cruising the streets of his beat.``We don't want to put anyone in jail on Thanksgiving, so we try to talk to people and make them understand what they are doing, but sometimes we don't have much of a choice,'' he said.

During the day, Carter pulled up to a woman walking in the middle of the road. He called her by name and asked what was wrong.Alternately calm and crying, the woman said her husband was threatening her and would not let her in to eat her Thanksgiving ham.``I'm hungry and he won't let me eat,'' she said in a wavering voice. ``I just want to be happy.''``You go on over there and I'll come talk to him,'' Carter said. While turning his squad car around, he explained that the couple are ``regulars.''``They're really nice people when they're not drinking. They always come up and talk to you if they see you. Nobody every calls the police on them, they just call the police on each other,'' he said.In the house, the man was smoking a cigarette and sulking next to the holiday ham.``He was complaining that he spent all day slaving to make her a nice dinner and now he couldn't cut the ham because she had thrown all of the cutting utensils out the back door,'' Carter said after coming out of the couple's apartment.Meeting up with police Sgt. Bill Orlich, Carter stopped to trade stories about the calls of the day. They compared notes on the domestic disputes they'd been sent to.Orlich related the tale of the woman with a home full of relatives and a snootful of alcohol who threatened to kill someone, then implored the officer to take her with him.``Just another Thanksgiving,'' Orlich said, pulling his patrol car away to finish his work for another day.