Editor’s note:

This is the first in a four-part series of articles about staff writer Matt Milner’s ride-along with members of the Ottumwa Police Department.

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OTTUMWA — Police say there’s no such thing as an average night. Anything can happen at any time.

But there are patterns, and life looks a lot like a college student’s schedule. People blow off steam on Wednesday nights and again over the weekend. That’s when police are busy.

And it explains why Officer Reuben Ross is hustling from one call to another at 6 p.m. on a Wednesday. He’s already been to several locations, and now he’s on his way over to a harassment report.

Ross gets out of the car at the apartment. The caller says her ex-husband doesn’t like the fact that she moved on with her life and is dating. She had a restraining order against him, but dropped it so he could see their kids.

Since then, she says, he has sent text messages threatening to kill her and her new boyfriend. She kept the messages, but gave her ex her cell phone for a call when he was last at her apartment. He deleted them.

Ross gives the woman two options. He can take a formal harassment report, which automatically creates a new restraining order, or he can give the ex-husband a call and warn him to quit contacting her. She thinks for a moment. No report, she says. Calling him is enough.

Ross takes the ex-husband’s phone number and promises to give him a call. It might not be tonight, he says, but he will call within a day or two.

“We get harassment calls all the time,” Ross says once he’s back in the car. He knows the ex-husband will have his own list of complaints when Ross contacts him. It’s not about believing one side over the other, but about keeping things from escalating to the point where someone goes to the hospital.

Ross has a year under his belt as a police officer. He is older than most new cops. He worked as a pipe fitter for years. The money was good when he was working, but it dried up in a hurry when things slowed down.

There was another problem, too.

“The job satisfaction was getting to be less and less,” he said.

The move was a pay cut, but not as bad as you might think. And it’s well worth it to have a steady job and a regular paycheck. Besides, he likes the job.