DeKALB | While riding in a police car, many questions a three-year-old might ask may arise: “What do those buttons do?” “Why did you do that?” “What did they do?!”

Unless, of course, you’re taking a ride in the back seat.

The Northern Star tagged along with University Police Officer Craig Diefenderfer from 12:30 to 2:30 a.m. Saturday. Diefenderfer’s night may consist of many different things, from building or parking lot checks to DUI arrests. One thing to keep in mind: Anything can happen.

“Anything you see in a city, you may see here,” Diefenderfer said. “There is no typical night.”

All the buttons

Riding in the front seat of a squad car would be a toddler’s dream. There are numerous lit-up buttons that do a variety of things. Some buttons control the lights on the sides of the car that can help during parking lot checks. Other buttons control the speed of the overhead lights, the tone of the siren and the camera.

“The camera rolls when the lights are turned on,” Diefenderfer said. “It’s a way to cover us if someone accuses us of something, and it keeps us in check, too.”

Why did you do that?

At about 1 a.m., while Diefenderfer was patrolling east campus by the Campus Life Building, a call came in on the radio that an officer pulled over a truck in the Campus Recreation Center parking lot. Diefenderfer turned the car around and headed toward the traffic stop, circling until the stop was complete.

“On a traffic stop, you kind of go toward that area in case something happens,” Diefenderfer said. “It’s a safety thing, in case someone starts fighting or something.”

Throughout the night, one of the six officers and two sergeants on patrol call out their every move, even if it’s something as simple as a parking lot check.

“It’s being aware of where your fellow officers are in case they call for assistance,” Diefenderfer said.

Under arrest

Another traffic stop came up, this time in front of Grant Towers South. Once again, Diefenderfer circled the area, making sure everything was OK, but this one was taking a little longer. The officers spent a lot of time talking to the driver.

“They might suspect he’s under the influence,” Diefenderfer said.

The officers then asked the driver to step out of the truck, and gave him a field sobriety test. The driver passed the test, but officers found it was evident that he had been drinking. It turned out he was not of legal age, and he was placed under arrest.

“On a really busy night, we may get two to three DUIs, but that’s only when it’s really busy,” Diefenderfer said. “One DUI can take a couple of hours for processing, so it’s not easy for us either.”

What did they do?

As our time was coming to an end, we were driving along Annie Glidden Road, when Diefenderfer flipped on the lights and made a quick U-turn. He noticed a driver didn’t have their vehicle’s headlights on.

As he pulled up behind the driver, he read off the license plate number over the radio and then went along with the traffic stop. He talked to the driver for a while and then issued her a warning. Though no citation was issued, it was probably the most action Diefenderfer saw that night.

“Some nights are really slow,” Diefenderfer said. “It’s about 95 percent of patrolling and 5 percent action.”

Diefenderfer has been with the UP for about 10 months and said he liked working at NIU.

“I can see myself here forever,” Diefenderfer said. “I like what I do here and what our mission is.”