http://www.wickedlocal.com/west-roxbury/homepage/x1091750778
Roslindale - Area E-5 Police Officer Dave Cataldo is known for two things: community policing in Roslindale; and making his share of arrests.
“If you know Dave, you’ll see him at 4 p.m. at roll call, and then you’ll see him at 4:15 arresting someone,” said one of Cataldo’s colleagues who also works the shift that ends just before midnight.
Cataldo, who has worn a BPD uniform for 21 years after working as a police officer in New Hampshire, said it’s a job he still loves.
Police work, according to the father of two, is “80 percent routine and 20 percent sheer adrenaline.”
One Saturday night this month, the 47-year-old Roslindale native showed the Transcript how he polices and protects in the Parkway.
At the start of his shift, Cataldo headed from the Centre Street station to Roslindale Village to survey the area. His intuition, he said, is finely tuned. He can tell when someone is doing something nefarious or if a car does not look quite right. It was still daylight and he predicted the night would be busy.
The air was crisp and puddles were frozen for the first time this fall, but the streets were still crowded. People were out; some of them possibly “up to no good.”
Less than a minute into his shift, a car ran a red light near Archdale Road, cutting off the cruiser. The driver was pulled over. Before approaching the car, Cataldo used the computer in the cruiser to find out who owned the vehicle and if that individual was wanted on warrants. The driver was warrant-free, but Cataldo still used caution when approaching the car, which was full of kids. Cataldo knows stopping a motor vehicle is one of the most dangerous tasks a police officer performs.
“The driver could be sticking gun right at you from under his jacket, and you would never know,” said Cataldo.
The passengers snickered slightly as the driver argued with Cataldo about the color of the traffic signal.
“Don’t talk yourself into a ticket,” warned Cataldo, who rested his hand on his gun while the young driver fumbled around the car for his registration. Reaching for his firearm, according to Cataldo, is a natural reaction.
“It’s just a tool,” said the officer, who is reminded nightly of potential dangers by his superiors and by responding to incidents involving people who have armed themselves to harm others.
The driver received a warning, which freed Cataldo to respond to more serious matters.
Born and raised in the Parkway
After growing up on Mt. Hope Street and going to school at the Philbrick, the now-defunct Roslindale High School and at West Roxbury High School, Cataldo said it’s a unique experience to work as a police officer where he was raised.
“It was like ‘Welcome Back Kotter,’” said Cataldo, who worked downtown in Area A-1 when he first joined the force.
As the best marksman in his police academy class, he was allowed to decide where he started his career. The honor of selecting your district is bestowed upon the graduating officers who have demonstrated superior skills in shooting, academics and physical fitness.
Only a short time elapsed before he heard from the dispatcher about a report of a Roslindale woman being assaulted by her lover. Domestic violence, said Cataldo, is all too common in the Parkway.
“I try to tell the victims that they have other options,” said Cataldo en route to the call.
With more than two decades as a cop, he said he rarely sees anything shocking, but it’s never easy to respond to an incident that may involve a child who has been hurt or abused.
The house where the woman was allegedly assaulted was on a street that Cataldo knows well. He pulled into the driveway to find another police car and the transport wagon already there. While the wagon is used to transport people who have been arrested, it is also used as a patrol car.
Without hesitation, Cataldo opened the front door and let himself in. Officers were crowded in the kitchen talking to the victim. She claimed another female punched her in the mouth.
Cataldo listened for a while and examined a photograph of the alleged attacker. The suspect was without a car, and Cataldo headed out to see if he could locate her.
Around 6 p.m., Cataldo was on the prowl for the woman accused of assaulting her partner. As he drove through a Roslindale neighborhood, he asked out loud, “If I was a criminal, where would I hide?”
The question went unanswered and was left for the domestic violence unit when a call for urgent assistance came over the radio a few minutes later. Three men were arrested at a West Roxbury residence and help was needed. No sooner had he responded by radio to the dispatcher, and Cataldo was headed up Washington Street toward Dedham with lights flashing and siren wailing. Despite the commotion made by the police car, motorists failed to pull to the right. Drivers on their cell phones continued their chats while plodding along. A female driver in a truck pulled over to the left, coming to a full stop in the cruiser’s path.
“You’re supposed to pull to the right,” said Cataldo as he changed the siren from a wail to a yelp. Sometimes, he said, drivers are more responsive when the siren is not constant.
Seconds later, he pulled down a street where a handful of cruisers were waiting. Two of the handcuffed men were in the back of a cruiser, and the third was being led from the house with his hands restrained in front of him. The arresting officer yelled out that the suspect is recovering from back surgery.
Allegedly police initially came to the seemingly quaint home to see if a man with a warrant for his arrest was home. Upon arrival, officers discovered two others hiding in hidden compartments in the home. The men playing hide-and-seek also had outstanding warrants.
With the men in two cruisers, Cataldo volunteered to follow one of the transporting officers to the station. Due to a reporter being in tow, he said it was better not to transport a prisoner.
“Thank you, everyone,” said one of the officers who led the operation before the police headed for the station in a pack of blue and white cars down Centre Street.
When the men were processed, the officers presented them to the lieutenant and the duty supervisor like a cat offers a mouse to its owner.
“Only the best for the lieutenant,” they announced.
The offenders were hardly behind bars before Cataldo hit the streets again. The radio was set to 93.7 FM and he occasionally hummed. Rap and country music are banned from the cruiser when Cataldo is at the helm, but other officers are more lenient with their musical selections.
He drove through a handful of neighborhoods before heading to a location near Roslindale Square that he called “the spot.” It’s where he waits for cars that look “funny” to him so he can check their license plates to see if the driver is wanted. Many criminals are taken off the streets this way, said Cataldo.
“Nope, nope, nope,” said Cataldo as three cars passed. The drivers, respectively, were an elderly man, a teenage girl who was probably newly licensed and a mother with a car full of kids.
“They don’t have the look,” he said. Soon, a car with “the look” passed.
“We might have one,” says Cataldo.
Punching the plate into his computer that he sometimes calls Betsy, he learned that the driver has been arrested 37 times and has a restraining order against him. However, the man has no active warrants. More plates were run and like magic, similar results were produced — he identified drivers who have had run-ins with the law, but none were wanted. His experience, Cataldo said, helps him “just know” about someone. When Cataldo finds a driver with an active warrant, he pulls the person over and calls for backup.
“I usually call first when I know that I’m going to make an arrest,” said Cataldo, who is among the top officers in Area E for putting people in cuffs. On this night, none of the drivers he checks have active warrants.
“I’ve never run so many plates and not had one come back with a warrant,” he said. “Where is everyone tonight?”
He then headed to dinner with another officer. How much time the police have to eat depends on what’s going on. Sometimes he heads to Tony’s, Pleasant Café or to Wapo Taco for chili. Other nights, he eats at the station.
“But if it’s a really crazy night, you end up eating stuff that’s really bad,” said Cataldo, who likes to sit in the rear of restaurants so he can see the whole room. The hosts and wait staff at most eateries in the Parkway know him by name and remember his seating preferences.
As he waited for a colleague to join him at the table, the theme song from “Dragnet” bellowed from his cell phone. It was his daughter, Katelyn, 16, who he describes as a social butterfly. His son Nicholas, 14, he said, is more reserved. Checking in with his kids in the middle of his shift is part of his routine that he looks forward to.
His nightly habits also include checking places where people loiter such as behind the Irving Middle School and the Burger King parking lot on Washington Street.
After taking a spin around the home of the Whopper, Cataldo noticed a pizza deliveryman getting into his car. Keeping his distance, he followed the man with the pizza box. Earlier this year, a handful of food delivery workers were held up near Beech Street.
“If he goes down June Street, he’s going to get robbed. We could be there to stop it,” said Cataldo, naming the street where a deliveryman was held hostage in his car a few months earlier.
“He made the first turn [onto Beech Street]. If he makes the second, he’s going to get robbed,” he predicted before the man bringing dough, sauce and cheese drives past June Street.
The pizza was delivered without incident and Cataldo drove toward Forest Hills. A call came over the radio. Officers were being summoned to High Point Village to take a report for a residential break-in that occurred earlier in the day. With no help needed, Cataldo instead went to Archdale to break up a group of congregating kids.
Without backup, Cataldo pulled up to a building where a dozen teenagers were standing.
“Take it somewhere else, guys,” he ordered.
“Guys, it’s time to break up the party,” he said after his first command was ignored. A few minutes later, the kids capitulated.
“At that age, if a police officer told me to do something, I wouldn’t stand around to see what would happen,” said Cataldo.
Days earlier, he arrested a handful of teenagers from West Roxbury and Roslindale when they reportedly refused to leave the parking lot near the Village Market.
With the pack dispersed, Cataldo headed to the Flaherty Pool.
As soon as the cruiser was parked, he turned off the lights and a car flew past. Cataldo pulled over the driver, who was contrite. Despite not having his license in his possession, the driver was given a verbal warning.
“It’s officer-friendly tonight,” said Cataldo as he climbed back into the car to hear that the breaking-and-entering report was updated to a breaking and entering in progress.
With the siren wailing again, Cataldo raced up Washington Street to High Point Village. As he tried to enter the sprawling apartment complex, the security gate suddenly closed, ricocheting off the cruiser’s windshield. Although Cataldo has had the windshield of police cars he’s driven shattered in the past by criminals, the glass survived and he arrived at the apartment. The door of the apartment had not fared as well.
Pebbles of glass covered the home’s entrance and the officers, concerned that the suspect was still inside, prepared to search the house.
Guns drawn, Cataldo and his colleagues entered the dwelling. They found it in disarray but otherwise unoccupied. It was the second time in as many days that this particular apartment had been broken into, according to a High Point security guard.
Once detectives arrived, Cataldo returned to the street, not to wait for the next call to come in but to hopefully stop a crime before it started.
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