A ride-along spanning half of a night shift with Woodland Police Officer Roberto Cuneta featured numerous traffic stops as well as working on advancements in an ongoing case.
After a few traffic stops, Cuneta was notified that a suspect’s vehicle was spotted in Kalama on Tuesday, July 15. According to scanner information relayed by the Cowlitz County Safety Feed Facebook page on Saturday, July 11, law enforcement was in pursuit of a vehicle that a male driver reportedly brandished a firearm and was also wanted on warrants and eluding law enforcement. Due to the suspect driving recklessly through traffic the pursuit was terminated, according to scanner information.
During the ride-along with Officer Cuneta on July 15, the suspect was not at the residence where the wanted vehicle was located. The vehicle was impounded on probable cause for felon in possession of a firearm with items that led officers to believe a firearm may be in the vehicle and a search warrant was written to search the vehicle. Due to the time of night and non-urgent situation, the search warrant awaited approval by a Cowlitz County Superior Court judge during the ride-along.
At the beginning of Cuneta’s shift, the warm day gave way to a great evening with a lot of traffic on the road in busy Woodland. Cuneta performed traffic stops for no license plates, multiple traffic violations observed and more including failing to maintain the lane of travel.
Cuneta’s path into law enforcement
Cuneta, now six years into a career in law enforcement, has been interested in the career path since about 2015-16, he said.
“I was kind of starting to think about it as a career that I could really feel good about,” Cuneta said. “You make a positive impact and do good things and have a variety of different things every day. I went and did a ride along with the Portland Police Bureau and it was super exciting, like crazy stuff happened and I was hooked at that ride along and knew that it was something I wanted to do.”
Cuneta pursued the career with a little different path as he entered it with no college or military experience. After a couple of years he was hired by the Warm Springs Tribal Police Department in Central Oregon. Cuneta, from Vancouver, later wanted to be closer home and was hired by the Cowlitz Indian Tribal Public Safety Department before making the switch to the Ridgefield Police Department for a more fast-paced environment with further opportunities.
“I was at Ridgefield Police Department for three years and I decided to come to Woodland for a change in environment and politics and just culture, you know,” Cuneta said. “I’ve been pretty happy here. It’s been a little more interesting. There’s a little more stuff to find when I’m making traffic stops and I’m being proactive.”
Cuneta said he hopes his career will ultimately include a role as a school resource officer and later as a SWAT team member or even a detective with his experience he has gained so far in six years.
Cuneta’s time in Woodland has been active
Cuneta said when he is making traffic stops he is often finding drugs, finding guns possessed by felons and people with warrants.
Cuneta started with the Woodland Police Department in January and has greatly enjoyed the aspects the city and department have to offer. He said often shifts go by with just one to two low-level calls but then there are instances of armed carjackings, gang violence, drug overdoses and fatalities, including drownings at Horseshoe Lake where water rescue is involved.
“So occasionally something pretty wild will happen here so we kind of have to stay on our toes and be ready for you never know what,” he said. “So yeah, it’s a small town, but some pretty good stuff happens.”
He said either himself or another officer is working a higher-level crime case which includes armed carjackings — even as recent as last week, gang shootings and fights where a weapon is brandished.
In the short time in Woodland, he has observed and appreciated the community support. Cuneta added that the community engagement at Woodland Planters Days was great.
“We have our National Night Out coming up on August 5,” he said. “So that’ll be my first National Night Out here, but I think it’ll be a lot of fun with the people in the community, you know, getting to interact with them and I think it’ll be positive. It’s also cool here that we have a mayor that is pretty pro-law enforcement and is involved with what we do and supports us. And then, you know, a chief that wants us to go out and catch criminals and wants us to grow as a department and as officers.”
Cuneta added that oftentimes a shift or even a week is not like an episode of COPS where all day there’s something on the crazy side of happenings, but there’s a lot of occurrences that people may not be aware of going on in the small city of Woodland.
“You need to make sure that you are putting your best self forward because you on the street are responsible for the lives of other people,” Cuneta said. “So you need to make sure that you’re mentally sharp and that you’re physically fit. I’ve been doing jiu-jitsu for a couple of years and it’s been a huge help already and I think every cop should do that. But also, you need to make sure that you’re a person that can treat everyone with respect and realize that’s not just a drug addict or that’s not just a gang member, that’s a human being that has found themselves in whatever situation. So you need to make sure that you can have compassion for people, but you need to make sure that you’re ready for anything.”
Cuneta’s patrol style is to be visible and proactive, fitting in with the Woodland Police Department greatly, which Cuneta said being a visible officer to the community is important.
“It’s huge, especially in a small town,” he said. “I think when people are seeing us driving around, it deters a lot of stuff that people don’t think about. So if someone’s getting ready to do a robbery or [drug use] or do whatever they see us driving around, it can deter that stuff. So If I’m out there all day long making traffic stops and doing field contacts and driving around, flying the flag, you know, it’s good that we’re visible and it’s good that people see us, not only like the criminals seeing us and potentially getting deterred, but the citizens here want to see us out and about.”
