Day 8 - "Transfer"- 6/28/09

My weekend was a fantastic one. I went jet skiing with my wonderful girlfriend, got to catch a couple of very good movies, and got a chance to relax. However, it was most certainly inevitable that I managed to feel the onsets of a cold. All I can say is, “I told you so.” I immediately began taking special precaution in regards to my health. I went to the local pharmacy and grabbed 1000mg tablets of Vitamin C, multi-symptom cold syrup (day and night), and lozenges to try and thwart this formidable foe as quickly as possible. And, of course, this had to happen the night I rode with the patrol Sergeant.

I not only wanted to be on top of my game, but on my P’s and Q’s as well. I started by getting there extra early, making sure all of my stuff was taken care of, and that I had plenty of cold medication to last me through the night. Our first assignment was a special detail, which I volunteered to take by the horns. I made sure that everything was taken care of, all the way down to the last detail. I WANTED to make a good impression, ESPECIALLY to my Sergeant. The detail went off without a hitch, and off to the substation we went. I completed the detail by finishing all necessary paperwork. The Sergeant said he needed to catch up on paperwork, so I was entrusted with a single task:

OBJECTIVE – Keep busy and out of the Sergeant’s hair

I began to look over all of my stuff and grab extra paperwork, reports, and other essentials to be sure I didn’t waste any of the Sergeant’s time later down the line. After that was all done, I needed something else to do. Just then, I got an idea. One of the other officers had a new trainee, and he said that the writing on our area map was too small. The light turned on almost instantaneously. I was going to make a new map of the entire area, and make it look damned good as well. I used the program only the finest computer graphics designers with amazing art talents could use….. Microsoft Paint. Trust me, I can barely draw a stick figure, so it was perfect for me. Slowly but surely it came together. Roughly an hour later, I had my “masterpiece”. I showed it to the Sergeant, who told me to make some minor changes, and to come back with a finished product. After 15 minutes of minor touching up had elapsed, I had my completed map. I had put in a great deal of effort, and now reaped a great reward… not only was he impressed, but he told me to distribute copies of my map to the entire department. Off to the copier I went, with a smile on my face.

Before I knew it a couple of hours had passed, and it was time to get back on the road. We stopped at one of the checkpoints, where the SGT told me to transfer with another officer, who I would be conducting area checks with. I said OK, grabbed all of my stuff, and put it in the officer’s patrol car. We completed a property receipt for a lost wallet, did a couple of area checks, and then headed to a different checkpoint, where I transferred again to a different officer. We did another community patrol of a different area of town, and then waited for an opportunity to do some traffic. After some grazing of the playing field, we found a car we wanted to stop for a faulty tag light. We pulled up behind it, went through the whole traffic stop protocol, and pulled the vehicle over.

I watched as the officer contacted the driver as I kept watch on the four passengers. Even though my attention was focused in two different spots, I made it a point to listen to the conversation the officer was having with the driver. It turned out the five occupants were from Kendall, but rented a car to drive around, which to me was a bit suspicious. Just then, I got the familiar scent of marijuana coming from the car. I discreetly alerted the officer, who then confronted the driver, who admitted that two of his occupants had smoked some on their voyage to our jurisdiction. He then willfully consented to a search of the vehicle, which turned up no results. We decided to turn them loose. It was now time for yet another transfer. Now I was in ANOTHER patrol car with a different officer. We did some area checks, then sat on checkpoint until the sun came up. I went home amidst a sea of thunderstorms, took a shower, crawled into bed, and slept for 9 hours. I now feel very well rested, and ready for another night of work.