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Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Die Hard] If Al Powell the cop is on desk duty, why is he out on patrol with a police car?

He states he couldn't raise his weapon again after accidentally shooting a kid and thus put on desk duty. What was he doing with a police car when buying snacks at the convenience store and why did dispatch send him to investigate Nakatomi Plaza if he wasn't a street cop?
gpt
He’s still a cop, and a sergeant, so keep that in mind up top. “Desk duty” could mean any number of things, and as a sergeant, Al’s scope of responsibilities could entail stuff that is mostly desk-adjacent, sure. But he’s still a cop with a radio that has to leave the station sometimes. In most major American cities like Los Angeles, a police sergeant has something akin to operational authority to make judgement calls on the scene. So the fact that he gets the call and is giving orders before deputy police chief Duane Robinson arrived is no oversight.

So Al could have just been on the way home (from, say, desk duty in the robbery unit) and dispatch saw him in a squad car nearby. Being a sergeant, he’s the ideal option for checking out a suspicious though serious hostage and gunfire call, and making the determination on-site if more backup is needed.

That’s a no-brainer for dispatch. And remember, he said himself he was just on his way home when the call came in, so he wasn’t on patrol, really. Just the right guy at the right spot at the right time (like “Roy”)