First Responders Working The Holiday To Serve The Public
Oskaloosa Police Sargent Nick Landgrebe writes a ticket to a motorist on Thanksgiving night.
November 28, 2022
Oskaloosa, Iowa – It can be a real bummer when you have to work on a holiday. Your family is all gathered together, but your chair is empty.
First responders often face those special days absent from those they love and may have to settle for a quick 10-7 [otherwise known as lunchtime to the rest of us] with them in between calls.
I spoke with one such first responder on Thanksgiving evening. I hopped in the car for a while, seeing what kinds of things happen during a holiday evening.
Sgt. Nick Landgrebe of the Oskaloosa Police Department was one of those first responders on duty during Thanksgiving.
Landgrebe said he tries not to let it bother him. “Many of us realize it’s good to still be working and keeping the streets safe. Here in Oskaloosa, many of us don’t mind working on holidays like that.”
One might initially think that on a holiday, like Thanksgiving, that the number of calls for service might be less than usual, but that’s certainly only sometimes the case.
Families and internal problems within them may become amplified during family gatherings, and officers may become referees in those situations.
In the dispatch area, those from the Mahaska Sheriff’s Office and the Oskaloosa Police Department, along with the 911 center, put together a little Thanksgiving dinner for them to share.
The camaraderie between them during that time of sharing is evident. They were laughing, teasing, and enjoying their brief lunchtime together.
That brief 10-7, or lunchtime, gets interrupted by the report of a person with a gun. The officers race to the scene while dispatchers continue to assist them, helping coordinate the information they receive.
So much for the turkey and fixings that had been prepared.
“Yeah, sometimes we don’t get to eat very much, so we had some calls and stayed pretty busy throughout the evening,” says Langrebe of how the evening turned out.
