D.E.C.O.R.

                                                             (Pronounced Dee Core)

 

      There are situations and events that happen in everyone's life considered amazing coincidences and they’re just not understandable. Some events even seem downright impossible. Sometimes these incidents are lighthearted situations which can be laughed off, and other times they strike deep down to a person’s soul. They change your life and unfortunately, after your life has changed, you can’t explain why or how.

      You’re going to read about one such incident that occurred in July of 1988 at the Fort Worth Police Department. In the entire history of the department five criminal offense reports have been purged from police files. The reports have been purged because of political pressure, or they involved a high ranking police officer. I'm going to tell you about the one report purged because it couldn't be explained.

      It’s Tuesday, July 12th, 1988. The evening shift is coming on duty in the communications center of the Fort Worth Police downtown headquarters at 350 W. Belknap.

      A meek young woman walks through the buzzing communications area on the third floor. She walks past the banks of phones in the call center, then passes the radio consoles of the glass enclosed dispatch room. She goes through a door to the final area. This is D.E.C.O.R. (Data Entry & Computer Organized Reporting). It’s basically a room full of computer terminals every few feet sitting on flat luncheon tables from the downtown convention center. Police officers call this room to make offense reports to data entry clerks who insert them directly into the computer. The officers dictate information to the operator about crimes they investigated, and the reports are sent to the detectives who continue the investigations. All calls are tape recorded so there can be no issue with what was said between the officer and the clerk when the official report is finalized. The procedure saves a lot of time compared to the old days when officers wrote their reports on paper and then sent them to D.E.C.O.R. to be typed. This process is much quicker and puts less stress on the officers.

      The woman walking through communications to this room is Irma Alonzo and her life is a treadmill of computer screens and keyboards. She is a quiet, pleasant girl who’s considered attractive. She's half Mexican and half Irish which makes her an exotic looking woman. She's well-liked by her coworkers and the officers who call in the reports. She belongs to a unique sorority of women who live their life through other people. She works daily on the fringe of excitement and drama but in reality, sits in a large room with no windows and stares at a computer screen typing words into said computer eight hours a day, five days a week. Words that come from other people, about other lives. She wants something more out of life but isn’t sure what it is currently. For the moment she’s a data entry clerk, a report taker, a purveyor of words for victims of various crimes throughout the city in a daily grind that dulls her life. It continues day after day, hour after hour.

      Irma walks into the large room of tables and finds her seat. The day shift is just finishing up and the hustle and bustle of shift change is about to settle into the evening shift. Irma is putting her things under the table getting ready to push the “go” button on the computer which means she’s ready to take calls.

      In walks Debra Jacobs. She’s a large round black woman with a large personality to match. She's a favorite in D.E.C.O.R. and sits right next to Irma, "Hey girl. How you doing?"

      Irma smiles, "I'm fine, but I'm afraid to push that button."

      Deb, as she’s called, gets a stern look on her face, "Then don't! I hear’em yellin out there. It must be crazy busy. Relax, you can wait a few minutes. Cause you know, when you push that button, the phone’s going to start ringing and you are going to start typing. You’ll be typing for the next eight hours. By the way, have you heard from cute officer Mark? I think it’s about time he asked you out. I know you’re sweet on him. I can tell when he calls. The look on your face is completely different. You light up like an ol hound dog in a hamburger factory."

      Irma was laughing but had a shy look on her face as she looked down, “I haven’t heard anything from him in several days. He’ll stop by soon.”

      “Well, if he don’t, I’m gonna call him and tell him to get his ass in gear.”

      Irma laughed and in a rather sarcastic tone, “Yeah, I don’t know what his problem is. I mean I’ve sent him all the signals.”

      Deb reacted in her high pitched squeaky voice, “Ohhhhhhh, I knew you were sweet on him. You got to watch going out with those  policemans though. They will wreck your heart.”

      “I know what they say, never date or marry a policeman, but he seems really sweet, and I think he could be the one.”

      “I know he’s good looking, and nice. As a matter of fact, he’s one of the nicest men I know. I can see how you are sweet on him, but just watch out. You always got to watch out for the quiet ones.”

      “Yeah, well, I don’t think he’s going to ever ask me out anyway. We talk back and forth all the time and that’s about it. It’s just pie in the sky.”

      “Don’t talk like that. He’s a single man; you’re an attractive woman. He’ll get around to it. Just give the boy time.”

      Irma smiled and sat back to take a few deep breaths. At the far back of the room are three tables with just phones on them. Three supervisors sit at these tables and direct incoming calls from officers calling in reports. They decide which clerk gets what calls. Sometimes officers request certain clerks because they like their personality, or because the clerk knows the routine and can pretty much write the report for the officers. The supervisors are usually pretty good at giving the officer the clerk he or she wants if they’re available. The supervisors are now surveying the room looking for people to start typing because they have calls holding. They’re wondering why there aren’t more buttons pushed to take calls. Irma sees this and puts her headset on so she will be hands free while typing and talking to the officers at the same time. It’s time to push her “go” button.

      She looks over at Deb, “Here we go.”

      Deb smiles and shakes her head as Irma presses her button and the chaos begins. Irma’s phone immediately rings. She answers it, “D.E.C.O.R., this is Irma.”

      “Hi Irma, this is Konic, your favorite pō lice man.”

      Irma rolled her eyes in disbelief at her luck. The obnoxious Michael Konic is her first rattle out of the box. Just as she starts to think, ‘Great, I get him my first call of the day,’ but it gets better.

      “I have a rape report to call in.”

      She just stares at the computer screen for a second, ‘Amazing, Konic and a rape report, I can see how this whole evening is going.’

      Konic continues, “I asked for you because I know you like those juicy rape reports and this one’s a doozy. This victim could be a playboy bunny, and the report is going to read like something out of Penthouse Forum. It’s got it all baby!”

      Irma could tell he was trying to be lighthearted, but the man just didn’t have any social skills, “I thought you were on day shift?”

      “Yep. I got stuck on this call. I’ve been on it since about ten fifty. It’s been a real pain in the ass, so you can damn well bet I’m going to get some overtime on this one. So just take your time.”

      Irma sighed, “Okay, let’s get started.”

      Konic cleared his voice and began, “The complainant is Margaret Towers, white female, date of birth, August 14th, 1962. She’s five seven, one hundred and thirty six pounds.” Kornic then hesitates, “And let me tell you, most of that was boobs. Don’t put that in the report, it’s just an observation.”

      Irma winces slightly but she’s used to it by now. The officers generally give a commentary on the happenings in the field. Sometimes they try to get a rise out of the mostly female clerks.

      He continues, “Her address is 1721 Bailey Avenue. Phone number, eight one seven, two eight one, twenty one twenty nine. Now, suspect info, white male about five eleven, one hundred ninety pounds, muscular build. He had medium length brown hair and brown eyes. He was wearing, a red collared pull over shirt, blue jeans, and white tennis shoes.” Another aside, “but, he was only wearing the clothes for a few minutes.”

      He continued, “There is no suspect vehicle. You ready for the narrative? This is the good part.”

      “Just a second,” as she finished typing the preliminary information and changed screens for the narrative, “Okay, go ahead.”

      “The complainant entered her house at approximately ten thirty hours through the front door. She walked into the kitchen for a moment and then walked down the hall to the bedroom to change clothes. She had just started taking her clothes off when the suspect entered the bedroom from the hallway. He walked up to her and pushed her down on the bed. As she lay on the bed the suspect began taking his clothes off until he was completely naked. The suspect had an erection. The complainant was lying on her back across the middle of the bed. The suspect grabbed her pants and jerked them off violently. The complainant now only had on her panties and bra. The suspect reached down and pulled her panties off. The suspect then crawled on the side of the bed up between the complainant’s legs spreading them apart. At this point the complainant began to struggle. She attempted to kick the suspect but couldn’t get any leverage because he was between her legs. She was also hitting the suspect with her closed fist and attempted to claw him with her fingernails. The suspect overpowered the complainant and turned her over onto her stomach. He then pushed her head down into the bed. He grabbed the back of her bra and tore it off. The suspect then turned the complainant over on her back and crawled up between her legs again. The suspect penetrated the complainant’s vagina with his penis. The suspect made back and forth movements for several minutes before ejaculating inside the complainant. The suspect pulled out of the complainant and got out of the bed. He put his clothes back on and left the bedroom walking down the hall leaving the complainant still lying on the bed.”

      Konick stopped for a second to catch his breath, “Phew, we still have a way to go. I have got to tell you, she was gorgeous. I don’t know if he planned to get her or was just burglarizing the house and got lucky. This’d make a pretty good porn movie huh.”

      Irma began to get uneasy and started to fidget in her chair. Partly because of Konick’s disgusting attitude, partly because of the subject matter, and partly because she was becoming slightly aroused, “Yeah, really juicy. Go ahead, I’ve got eight hours to kill.”

      Konick laughed, “Yeah, it all pays the same.”

      He started again, “Several seconds later the complainant heard what she believed to be the front door close hard. She lay there for several minutes and then got up to call the police. Officer M. Konic, I.D. seventeen sixty two working Frank one fourteen (designated by the department as F-114) received a signal five, rape investigation. The officer arrived on the scene at eleven zero two hours. The complainant related the details of the incident. The officer contacted other patrol units to initiate a search for the suspect. The officer discovered an entry had been made through the east bedroom window. It had been jimmied open. The complainant stated the suspect never said a word, and she wasn’t sure if she had injured him or not in the struggle. At this time there doesn’t appear to be anything missing from the house, but the complainant will advise us as the information becomes available. The complainant was transported to John Peter Smith Hospital for a rape exam. The complainant had minor bruises and was treated at the hospital. The Crime Scene Investigation Unit was called to the location to process the entire house. It is unknown what direction the suspect left the area. That’s it. What do you think?”

      “I think you’ve been a cop too long. You’re beginning to enjoy your work too much.”

      He laughed, “Yeah maybe you’re right darlin. You have a good shift and I’ll talk to you later. I got to go home by way of the Executive Suite.” The Executive Suite was a local strip joint officers patronized.

      She laughed like she was supposed to and hung up. After a few modifications the finalized report was sent to the detective’s office, and she pushed the button to send it off. Immediately after she pushed the button to send the report her phone rang again. Another report.

      This time it was an officer she enjoyed talking to. She droned through the theft report with the standard details and narrative and again finalized the report sending it to the detective office. She takes more reports, and the pattern continues. Complainant information, suspect information, suspect vehicle information, stolen property, narrative, end of report. This happened several more times with more mundane details and more banter between officer and clerk.

      Then she got the call she’d been waiting for. She answered the phone, “D.E.C.O.R., this is Irma.”

      “Hey Irma, this is Officer Stevenson.” Sounding official.

      Irma is normally very shy and reserved but when she’s talking to someone she enjoys having a conversation with, she’s more engaging. She becomes witty and somewhat of a smartass. In this case she instantly recognized his voice, “Hi Mark. Long time no see. I guess you’re going to say you’ve been busy or something.”

      He laughed, “Yeah, a little bit. It’s crazy out here. The radio is non-stop. Listen, I’ve got to come downtown in a little while to talk to one of the detectives about a case. I thought I’d stop by D.E.C.O.R. for a minute if that’s all right.”

      “Sure, come on by. We’re just sitting around typing.”

      “Great, I’ve got an auto theft report for you.”

      “Go ahead, I’m ready.”

      Stevenson proceeded to give Irma all the pertinent information for the auto theft report. After the report was finalized, they bantered back and forth for a few minutes and then hung up.

      When Irma hung up, she looked over at Deb. She was just staring at Irma smiling, “See, I know that look! You just talked to Officer Mark didn’t you.”

      Irma had a big grin on her face, “Yeah, he’s coming up here in a little while.”

      “Ohhhh yeah, you gonna have a good time on your days off.”

      “We’ll see, I’ll believe it when he asks me.”

      Several hours later Irma was just about finished with a report when she noticed an officer coming through the door. It was Officer Mark Stevenson, a tall, six foot two, good looking specimen. When he entered, a lot of the women in the room stopped and looked. It wasn’t unusual for an officer to come into the D.E.C.O.R. room but everyone just liked to look at Mark. He had a big smile on his face as he walked towards Irma’s position at the computer.

      Deb turned to her quickly, “Work your magic girl. Here he comes.”

      Stevenson sauntered up, “Hi Irma, how’s it going?”

      Irma looked up adoringly, “You sure know how to make an entrance.”

      “Yeah, what’s the deal. I thought officers came in here all the time.”

      “They’re over worked. I think everybody’s exhausted.”

      Deb was trying to appear busy so she wouldn’t intrude. Stevenson looked over, “Hi Deb, you’re looking good.”

      “Why thank you Officer Mark, you’re looking good yourself.”

      He then surveyed the room quickly before leaning over right by Irma’s face. He whispered, “I was wondering if you’d maybe like to go out to dinner with me on your days off. I know it’s kind of short notice, but I thought maybe….”

      Before he could finish, “Yeah, sounds great! I was just sitting here wondering what I would do tomorrow.”

      “Okay then, it’s a date. About seven?”

      “Sounds great.”

      Stevenson left the room, and Irma had a content smile on her face as she looked at Deb.

      Deb smiled back, “You happy now? Yes, you are. I can see it.”

      Irma’s soft face was still smiling as she just nodded slowly.

      Irma took several more reports and then decided to take a break. She walked down the hall to a room where there were phones employees could make personal calls on. She called her older sister to tell her the news, “Shelly, Mark asked me out for a date.”

      “Who?”

      “Mark! Mark Stevenson, the guy I was telling you about. He asked me out about an hour ago.”

      “Great sis. He’s a big fish. You’ve been talking about him for a quite a while.”

     “I know. He came in the D.E.C.O.R. room and asked me.”

      “I’m really happy for you sis. Just try to keep your perspective though, Okay?”

      “What do you mean?”

      “You know, I think you’re trying too hard. You’ve had several in the past year you thought were going to be your knight in shining armor, and they turned out to be jerks in aluminum foil.”

      They both laughed and Irma said, “Stop it. I know, I know, but I’ve genuinely liked this guy for a while now. I’m going to at least give it a shot.”

      “Okay, but remember the accountant? He was supposed to be the one and after dating for a month you found out he was married. Then there was the doctor. He turned out to be an ambulance driver. Come on!”

      Irma took a deep breath, “The ambulance driver could’ve been a keeper. I just didn’t like the lying part. I really appreciate your input, Mary Sunshine. Why can’t you be happy for me for a change. You’re always poo pooing my choices.”

      “I’m sorry. I just don’t want to see you get hurt. I’m only thinking of you.”

      “Well, I appreciate your concern. I’m still excited. I better get back to work. I’ll talk to you tonight.”

      “Okay, bye sis.”

      Irma came back into the D.E.C.O.R. room, hooked up to her computer and hit the “go” button. She was so happy. She wanted to talk to someone, but Deb was busy taking a report. A few seconds later her phone rang, and it was another report. Irma spent about twenty minutes on the report and was finishing up when she started to hear some sort of commotion out in the dispatch area. She ignored it at first and prepared to finalize the last report.

      A few minutes later Irma could hear the usual hustle and bustle of the entire communications area ramped up and exaggerated. She thought she even heard running as there seemed to be a lot of movement. Seconds later she could hear the screaming sirens of numerous police cars starting up and disappearing in the distance. Suddenly she hears someone out in the dispatch area yell in a blood curdling scream, “Son of a bitch!” Her heart began to race slightly with adrenalin wondering what was going on. One of the three supervisors got up from her desk and walked outside to see what the commotion was about. Irma’s phone rang and she answered it, “D.E.C.O.R., this is Irma.”

      The voice on the other end was instantly recognizable but subdued and monotone, “This is Officer Stevenson. I’ve got a report.”

      Irma’s face lit up as she was happy to hear from him. She could still hear indistinguishable yelling out in communications but went on, “Okay, go ahead.”

      “I’ve got a capitol murder report.”

      She stopped for a second, “Are you alright?”

      Still in his monotone, slow speaking voice, “I’m fine now. Are you ready?”

      “Go ahead.”

      There was a hesitation, then he said, “Can we do the narrative first while it’s fresh in my head and then we’ll get to the other information.”

      “Sure, let me skip on down to that screen. Okay, go ahead.”

      “On Tuesday, July 12th, 1988, Officer M. Stevenson, I.D. seventeen twenty, working Adam two seventeen (designated A-217) and Officer D. Karstares I.D. seventeen eighty one, working Adam two fourteen (designated A-214) received a disturbance call at four three zero five East Meadowbrook. Officer Stevenson arrived on the scene and observed one subject standing in the front yard of the house. The subject was a white male five foot eight inches tall, thin build with long blonde hair and a mustache, wearing a baggy pull over white shirt and blue jeans. Officer Stevenson exited his vehicle and approached the subject. The subject said nothing and just stared at the officer. At this point Officer Karstares pulled up and exited his vehicle. Just as Officer Stevenson was about to confront the subject a white female came to the front door of the house and yelled, “He’s got a gun, and he just killed his father!” When the female started to inform the officers what had happened the subject reached behind his back, drew a pistol, and pointed it at Officer Stevenson.

      Irma’s typing started to slow down; she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

      “Both Officer Stevenson and Officer Karstares drew their service revolvers. The subject fired at Officer Stevenson striking him once in the head and twice in the abdomen.”

      Irma stopped typing, “Mark what the hell is going on here. Is this a joke?”

      Stevenson kept talking like a robot, “Officer Stevenson fell to the ground, and Officer Karstares fired six shots at the subject striking him four times in the chest. Both the Officer and the subject are dead. End of report. I really wanted to go out with you tomorrow, I’m sorry.” There was a click as the phone hung up.

      Irma screamed, “Oh my god, Noooo!” She threw her headset off and ran out of the room.

      Deb sat there with an astonished look on her face as a supervisor walked up. Deb asked, “What the hell is going on around here. She just ran out of the room.”

      The supervisor had a sullen look on her face, “Officer Mark Stevenson has been shot and killed.”

      “No, no way! Irma was just talking to him; I saw the smile on her face just before I started takin this report.”

      The supervisor was puzzled, “Why did she run out?”

      “I don’t know but she was upset.” Deb then looked at the unfinished report on Irma’s computer screen and was shocked, “Look at this! What’s wrong with her. Where did she get that report from?”

      Now the supervisor looked at it, “What do you think happened? Did she make it up?”

      “No, I don’t see how. She wouldn’t just sit there and type in made up stuff. Besides, she doesn’t even know about Officer Mark yet. This is the first we’ve heard of it.”

      “Well, when she comes back tell her I need to see her. I’ll check the tape recording to see who she was talking to.”

      The D.E.C.O.R. supervisor called the overall communications supervisor to the recording room to listen to the tape. Both supervisors began listening to the tape and were flabbergasted when they recognized Stevenson’s voice talking to Irma. The time marked on the tape was after the shooting. They listened to the entire episode and were speechless afterwards.

      The D.E.C.O.R. supervisor finally said, “What do you want to do? I’ve never had anything like this happen.”

      “That obviously can’t be him. I don’t know what kind of strange occurrence took place here, but we need to just purge this report number. Officer Karstares is making the actual report anyway. Keep the recording though just in case we need to prove we’re not crazy. Let’s just keep this to ourselves for now. I don’t want to get into the whole crazy, not crazy thing with the higher ups.”

      “You’re going to purge the report? I didn’t think you could do that.”

      “Normally no, but this is one of those rare times it has to be done.”

      “Okay, I’ll get it taken care of.”

      Irma never came back into the room. For now, Irma’s quest for a happy life will have to be put on hold. Anguished human beings will search for answers and want to know why the bad guy killed those people. The investigations will continue for a while, but in the end, there really isn’t anything to investigate, it makes little difference. Three people are dead, and many other lives are affected. Irma will never understand why or how she was informed in that unique and unexplainable way. In Irma’s case, why did this happen? What was the purpose, she would’ve found out eventually anyway. Maybe it was a private goodbye between what were supposed to be soul mates. Does it really matter? For all intents and purposes, the case is closed. Nothing gained, but something was lost …….. Just ask Irma.