Astoria Police Officer Andrew Randall wakes up a transient Friday at the Sixth Street Viewing Platform who had previously caused a disturbance with a motorist next to McDonald's. Randall cited the man for having an open container of beer, told him he had to leave the riverfront park and offered him a Clatsop Community Action resource book, which was declined.

While many Astorians clocked out Friday evening for Pacific Northwest Brew Cup weekend, Astoria Police Officers Cory Gerig and Andrew Randall prepared themselves for a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. night shift patrol.

Over the next 12 hours, the two officers would encounter an unruly transient, teenage runaway, sinking boat, a reported stolen vehicle and other calls of disturbances and public urination.

“You never know until you get there,” Gerig said of being dispatched to a scene.

Inside Gerig’s Chevrolet Tahoe patrol car, he set up a mounted iPad that includes applications such as WebMD to search prescription drugs and iBook to recall policies and ordinances.

Both officers carry a Taser, pepper spray, baton and pistol. Each patrol car is equipped with video cameras, portable spike strip, a nonlethal shotgun that fires bean bags and an AR-15 rifle.

Gerig’s screen lights up all dispatch calls immediately as he pulls the Tahoe out of the station parking lot.

The first call of the night was for a man in skull pajamas who urinated in the Columbia River in front of a restaurant and gas station.

Without needing a GPS, Gerig knew exactly where on Second Street the call came from.

All officers are trained to know every address in city limits without looking at a map.

After citing the man for public indecency, Gerig continued his patrol. Officers do not have set routes through town. Instead, they patrol at their own discretion.

“It’s our preference. We patrol areas we may know are trouble spots, but we don’t have set patrol routes so people don’t know where we are going to be,” Gerig said.

Often, officers drive by known addresses where burglaries have occurred and parks where transients have camped illegally overnight. Gerig drove the Astoria Bridge, where drivers have sped up to 90 mph and to the Astoria Column, which closes to the public at 10 p.m.

Nighttime patrol commonly brings dispatch calls for disturbances, noise complaints and domestic disputes that are mostly fueled by alcohol and drugs. The most common drugs used in Astoria are heroin and methamphetamine. Cocaine and crack are not as prevalent.

“Drugs are the big thing everywhere. You can’t get away from them,” said Gerig, who has served in the Gresham, Oakridge and now the Astoria Police Department. “They stem a lot of other things, the assaults, the thefts. A lot of it stems back to drugs.”

No drug- or alcohol-related arrests were made by APD Friday night; only warnings given to minors near a known party house.

With Brew Cup underway Friday night, both officers kept tabs on possible DUIIs and other alcohol offenses, but they said the annual event rarely brings trouble to the town.

“We haven’t had any major problems. It means the people putting it on are doing what they are supposed to and the people there are behaving,” Gerig said.

By 10 p.m., Gerig is ready for his brief lunch break. He returns to the police station to eat his sack lunch and watch whatever is on the break room television.

He prefers to stand as much as possible on his break, because each shift can feel like a 12-hour road trip around Astoria. On some shifts, Gerig said, he will walk the Astoria Riverwalk and city parks to stretch his legs.

Officers are salaried to work 180 per month with potential overtime. One part of the job, citizens do not understand, Gerig said, is all the extra responsibilities of paperwork, court dates and training sessions. Sometimes after a night shift, officers have to be in court by 8 a.m.

“A lot of people don’t realize how much extra time you have to put in,” Gerig said.

After a workweek of constantly driving toward crime scenes, Gerig said, he prefers to get outdoors to hunt, fish or hike on his days off. Spending time with family and away from the public is an important outlet for police officers, Gerig said. Although some do have a hard time separating work and home life.

“I get out and relax away from the public sometimes,” Gerig said. “I like to keep home and work pretty separated. I have a lot of friends who are not in law enforcement.”

Just as Gerig is finishing his sack lunch, his unit, No. 817, is dispatched.

The early hours of Saturday morning brought a report of a sinking 25-foot boat in the West Mooring Basin. The sailboat somehow capsized in its slot. The only thing keeping it afloat were the ropes tying it to the dock.

Gerig and Randall met with the marina secretary. The officers gave the boat a quick inspection with flashlights and handed the case over to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Throughout the night shift, the two officers were dispatched to incidents while already on scene for other calls. Very rarely did dispatch stay quiet.

Eight hours into his shift, Gerig was dispatched to a possibly stolen 2010 silver Mazda 3 from the Maritime Museum parking lot.

“Your car is gone?” he asked the driver of the lost car. The driver, from the Long Beach, Wash., area, said he came over the bridge for the Brew Cup, went out after to the bars. When he returned, his car was missing.

Gerig had a hard time believing the car could have been stolen since Mazdas have security systems that shutdown the car during a break-in. More likely, the driver forgot he moved it or a friend may have taken it. However, Gerig took the information and spent the remainder of his shift looking at parked cars to see if they matched the description.

Searching, Gerig said, is part of the fun.

“I like on night shift to go look and hide and seek,” he said.