Bauer (center) was one of 1,400 bicycle riders who trekked 250 miles to honor fallen officers during National Police Week in Washington in 2012.
By JULLIANA REINA
USFSP Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – Officer Christopher Bauer was halfway into his shift when a dispatcher sent him to a suspected crack house to back up another officer.
He jumped into his white 2010 Ford Crown Victoria and sped the few blocks to the scene on 45th Avenue N.
Seconds later, the alley was illuminated by flashes of blue and red lights.
“This (house) is our headache right now,” Bauer said.
It was a Monday night that dragged into midnight, a nearly 12-hour shift for Bauer that lately has carried new, pressing stakes.
Police had been investigating activities at the house for three weeks after neighbors complained about a stream of people who came and went at night. So far three people had been arrested.
Bauer was dispatched after another officer went to the house and found a woman they were seeking with two crack pipes in a paper bag. The officer, Joshua Jordan, handcuffed the 35-year-old woman and arrested her on charges of possession of cocaine.
Bauer, 31, who has been with the department since 2012, is one of 552 officers patrolling the city.
Born and raised in St. Petersburg, he never dreamed he would become a cop. But he abandoned his plans for a career in insurance to follow the footsteps of his identical twin, Michael, who is a detective in the department and six minutes older.
As sometimes happens with twins, the Bauers call each other every day and share a passion for the Tampa Bay Lightning. You can tell them apart by a scar on his head, Chris Bauer said.
Even though most patrol situations are not dangerous, he said, danger is always a possibility and often in the back of his mind. His days are marked by moments of intense action and alertness followed by stretches of exhaustion and boredom.
Bauer recalled the day he was sent to a condominium after neighbors reported hearing gunshots.
“I was afraid,” he said. “We are not robocops. I didn’t know what to expect – only that neighbors heard gunshots.”
He found two people dead inside in what detectives believed was a murder-suicide.
“Every day is a challenge; it’s the adrenaline of the moment” that keeps him doing his job, he said.
A gala for the Boys and Girls Club drew four of St. Petersburg’s finest – (left to right) Officer Joshua Johnson, Officer Christopher Bauer, Detective Michael Bauer and Detective Tom Loveland.
Last year his life changed. He married a woman who grew up in St. Augustine and works for the media company N2 Publishing.
The day he met her, he said, he knew “we were meant to spend our lives together.” They went from Facebook messaging to texting and talking on the phone for hours every night. She said “yes” on his birthday.
“She is my best birthday gift,” Bauer said.
When asked about his thoughts on police and the news media, he said he prefers not to watch police-related news and just wake up every day to do his job.
But “nothing excuses acts of brutality (by police); there are just (some) people who can’t be a cop or a teacher,” Bauer said.
Bauer said he wouldn’t object to wearing a body camera. Officers in some agencies in the Tampa Bay area – among them Pasco County, Temple Terrace and Gulfport – wear body cameras. In St. Petersburg, the department awaiting Chief Tony Holloway’s decision on the issue.
“The problem with body cameras is (they offer) too narrow a field of vision,” Bauer said. “If a person attacks you from behind, the camera won’t record until I face the individual.” He said he would prefer a camera mounted on his gun.
The police body camera issue surged to the forefront in 2014 during the debate about law enforcement interactions with the public after police shootings in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore made national headlines.