A Day In The Life
Saturday, June 28, 2003
Week 2, Day 4
Per the training schedule, I had to spend the night in dispatch...so much for being a crime fighter. Truth be told, it really wasn't that bad. I was able to listen to 911 calls as they came in...at times entertaining...and had the opportunity to actually work the radio as well. Not bad seeing as some of my counterparts sat there like a bump on a log.
At times I found it difficult to simply sit there and watch the screen as the rest of the guys were out on the street takin' care of bidness. I think that moment was the first time that I actually missed working. Perhaps the job is already starting to change me, eh? Now I'm not talking shades of Bruce Banner or anything, but nevertheless, I felt the compulsion to be out and about, dealing with the public.
This concludes Week 2, which means that I am half way done with this rotation (Phase I) of my training program.
Friday, June 27, 2003
Week 2, Day 3
My watch started at 1600 hours as we had a meeting for all of the newbies. The meeting was fairly boring, but it was good to see all of my classmates again. We had the opportunity to talk a little bit and swap some of our stories. I tell you what, it's gonna be awesome when we all get through the training phase and get to work the streets together. God help the citizens. :)
My training officer and I spent some time cleaning our Glocks as we had to go to a tactical low-light shoot earlier in the day. That was kinda cool as cleaing a gun is kinda theraputic for me.
After that we spent almost 5 hours going over paperwork and training materials. This, in a word, sucked. I only spent an hour on the streets and did a single traffic stop. Some dude was cruising down the street without his lights on at 0030 hours, so I pulled him over. Fortunately he wasn't drunk, so I cleared him and his vehicle and sent him on his merry way.
Week 2, Day 2
Another DUI arrest! This guy could hold is booze pretty well, but I thought he was drunk so I hooked him up. He blew a .151 at the station, so he was clearly over the legal limit (.100). Thankfully he was cooperative as he was 6' 05" tall and I am, well, not. I did all of the paperwork on this one and it took me 3 hours and 15 minutes to process him from start to finish.
The rest of the night was a real snoozer.
Week 2, Day 1
Man, it is practically the end of the week and I haven't updated anything up to this point.
For whatever reason, it was a really busy night, especially for a Tuesday. A LOT of calls went out, some really good ones too, but I was tied up with the not-so-cool stuff while the rest of the crew was out fighting the real crime. Two tone alerts went out...tone alerts prefice calls deemed serious by dispatch...which had not happened in over a year or something.
The first was the report of a naked lady chasing a man through a parking lot with a butcher knife. Totally sweet. Unfortunately I did not get to respond as briefing had just ended and I had not even checked out and loaded up my car yet.
The second alert was for an armed robbery. Right after the alert went out I spotted a vehicle that matched the description put out by dispatch and this vehicle was in a plausible location for it to have been involved. The car was parked in a lot behind a fast food place, so I raced over there, threw the lights on, rolled out of the car with my flashlight and gun drawn, and shook-down the vehicle. Nothing. *sigh* So much for being a hero.
The night went on and we were called to the hospital on the report of an underage drinker being admitted to the emergency room. Upon arrival we met with a disgruntled parent and his daughter. Apparently the daughter, who is 15 by the way, and one of her friends decided to go to a party and booze it up a little. That wouldn't have been a problem if her friend hadn't gone overboard. The friend, also 15, was strapped into a bed, suffering from alcohol poisoning. She was thrashing about, eyes closed and foaming at the mouth. Her blood-alchohol level was .255, which is really, really high. We're talking Barney from the Simpsons high. We spent the rest of the evening taking reports, writing a summons and trying to track down the people involved. This is pretty serious as contributing to the delinquency of a minor is a class 4 felony.
Monday, June 23, 2003
Week 1, Day 4
Lemme cut right to the chase: I had my first DUI arrest. This is good in that I took someone who was extremely intoxicated out from behind the wheel of a car. She cried, but I probably would to if I was taken to jail after a night out on the town with my friends. Anyway, it took nearly 3 hours from start to finish to process the driver. Damn! For all of those officers out there that do nothing but DUI arrests, my hat is off to you.
Week 1, Day 3
I made my first arrest. w00t!! I'll do my best to change the names and places to protect the less intelligent.
So these two people have a little too much to drink and start yelling at one another. So far, so good. Well, "Jon" keeps threatening "Jane" that if she doesn't put a sock in it, then he's gonna call the police. Good move, right? We shall see in a minute. So "Jane" keeps running at the mouth and "Jon" figures he has had about enough of this, so he calls 911. Now "Jon" suddenly gets cold feet and makes the decision to hang the phone up before speaking with dispatch. The problem is, it being 2003 and all, technological advances such as Caller Frickin' ID let us know where "Jon" was calling from. This turns out to be good for us and bad for "Jon".
We roll up on scene and find "Jane" standing outside, waving us down. She's, to quote a phrase from Ice Cube, "...drunk as hell, but no throwin' up." "Jane" goes on to explain the events of the evening, including the fact that "Jon" did, in fact, try to give us a call. This is where it gets fun. She then goes on to inform us that "Jon" has a warrant for his arrest. "Say what?! Shut yo mouth!", I said. Ok, I didn't really say that, but it would have been cool.
We go meet and greet "Jon" and he too confirms the story. Then we ask the golden question, "Do you have a warrant?" He nods his head. We confirm the warrant, so it is time to hook him up (that's cop talk for placing him in handcuffs). I put him through the motions, he complies, and we're off to jail. The rest of the story is rather boring.
Week 1, Day 2
Bear with me folks 'cuz I am writing the next couple of recaps almost a week after they took place. Why? Well, mostly because when I get home I am so terribly wasted (i.e. tired) that I fall into a coma-like sleep. Blogging is importan, but it isn't that important. Know what I mean?
Ok, so it rained a little the night prior (yes...I'm joking). Well it frickin' poured like cats and dogs again. I swore my first traffic stop was going to be Noah and the Ark. Instead, it was some poor schmuck who had expired plates on his car. Hey, I'm new! What did you expect, OJ and his Ford Bronco again?
Let's see....what else went on...
Not much really. There were a handful of noise complaints and that was really it. Slow night, that much is certain.
Friday, June 20, 2003
Week 1, Day 1
Well I've been so busy this week that I've barely had time to even think about updating this site. Allow me to cut right to the chase and fill you in on what I remember of my first night on the job...
It rained. Then it rained some more. Then Mother Nature decided to stop fooling around and really started to dump the wet stuff. My first call, the ever popular Suspicious Vehicle, was spent mostly getting, you guessed it, wet. I allowed the raindrops to pelt me for some 5-10 minutes for my cover unit to respond. You'd think that I would be smart enough to wait in my patrol car, but you'd be wrong. Suspicious vehicles don't expect one to brave the elements for the purposes of stealth...I had the upper hand. Long story short, the guy that lived there had forgotten to close the doors of his car after receiving a telephong call. Neat.
We then proceeded to drive around (in the rain) looking for other suspicious things. This time it was a suspicous vehicle with fogged windows in the park after hours. "Hot, young monkey love?", you ask. Not so much. It was just a couple of guys sleeping off there monster weed high. Joy of joys. I'd provide more detail, but then you'd be sleeping off your monster boredom before you knew it. All you really need to know is that I wrote my first ticket for possession of Orange Boobahnka Weed.
The night ended with the report of a residential alarm. The resident thought a burglar was lurking about, but it wasn't meant to be. Instead I got to do a lot walking around with my gun and looking menacing. Neat-o. Well, neat-o in the sense that firearms and being sleepy is neat-o.
Ok, I really gotta go to bed. More updates to come in the very near future. Cheers!
Monday, June 16, 2003
This is like, uh, the second post or something. Ok, ok, ok...I promise that is the last time that I intro a post like that. ;)
I figure that it would be a good idea to lay the foundation for the massively huge...err...thing that I plan on building over the course of the next few days, weeks, months or whatever. Long story short, tomorrow is my first day on "the streets" as a new Police Officer. On more than one occasion I have heard veteran officers mention their early days on the job were the absolute best of their lives/careers. So I figured that I might take a shot at capturing all of the joy using a medium that I could share with others, as well as creating something for myself.
So fasten your seatbelts boys and girls, 'cuz I reckon it shall be a bumpy ride.
