Things have been going very smoothly so far in regards to my Phase 2. I am getting more responsibility, more field experience, and to my delight, a set of keys to my patrol car :D. Me being a car guy definitely will pay off in this aspect.... my vehicle is going to be neat, clean, organized, and the best kept in all Dade County, if not the whole state.
After celebrating for a bit, it was time to get to work. Our first assignment for Thursday was to transport this guy from our station to the Dade County Jail. Not only was this a geography lesson, but it was an opportunity to display to my FTO my officer safety skills. Dade County Jail is no joke at all; there are actually signs on each wall stating that if you choose to touch them, you may get a staph infection... just what I've always wanted *eye roll*. My FTO gave me full responsibility in transporting the prisoner, with the exception of driving as I was not allowed to do that yet. I handled the prisoner correctly, all the while all the inmates have that "one step and I'll fuck your day up" look in their eyes. I reacted accordingly and didn't show any sign of fear, because not only did I have the backing of all the Corrections guys, I had the backing of myself and my training. Suddenly, both the attention of myself and the inmates was drawn to something quite more entertaining than the display of ego.... a prostitute with a big mouth, and not in a good way either. One of the other agencies brought her in for, you guess it, prostitution, and she decided to pay the favor of the free ride with some urine on the floor and some "nice" words for all of us in uniform. After her display of affection, I finished processing my prisoner, and it was back to the station. The rest of the night was uneventful, right up until the end of the shift. Explanation below:
So we conduct this traffic stop on this woman who didn't have any operable rear tail lights, and as soon as I approach the driver's door she is already in my ear with the "why did you stop me? what am I doing wrong? don't you have anything better to do?" mentality. I calmly ask for her license, registration, and insurance, and she won't give it to me. "Why did you stop me?" I said to her, "When you give me the things I asked you for, I will tell you." She finally ended the staring contest that ensued and gave me her information. I then gave her my explanation, ran her infomation, and generated a citation. Of course you can only imagine the lip service I got from that, but I knew exactly what to do and activated the "bobble-head" feature. I kept smiling, nodding, and saying, "I understand. I know". After her little rant I politely explained the ticket to her, let her sign, and let her on her way. Just then, a truck driver came up to us and said someone had taken all the gas from his truck. Time to switch hats and conduct an investigation.
It turned out someone had siphoned close to 200 gallons of diesel fuel from this guy's truck while it was parked for roughly 4 hours. I reviewed one of the security cameras located where the truck was parked, and found another semi-truck parked directly next to his and spent roughly 20 minutes there, which is more than enough time to siphon all that fuel with the right tools. I gave him a case number and a ride to the gas station to get some fuel. I then generated a report and went home.
The next day was mostly directed patrol and some traffic. It's amazing what some people will come up with. In a 70MPH zone, my FTO clocked this one guy at 90. We pull him over, and during my conversation with the violator, he said, "I was only going 89." That's still speeding dude, which still means you're getting a ticket. I thought one of the purposes to setting cruise control so that you DIDN'T speed, not that you set a test speed to see what flies and what doesn't. Oh well, another ticket for my Phase 2 stats (I have to write a minimum of 8 to pass the phase, and I wrote 5 yesterday, so only a couple to go), and another day returning home safe.
Now I get to enjoy my weekend and keep my eye on my patrol car sitting in the parking lot, hoping to drive it very soon :D
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Day 16 - "Deux" - 7/7/09 - 7/15/09
Before I get into the meat and potatoes of last week, I'd like to re-emphasize that I will NOT be discontinuing this blog, but please understand that I have been very busy with work and all. Between work and home life, unfortunately this blog has taken a back seat. I am coming up with a solution though to make these blog entries more than once a week; I will promise you that
I am very glad I received the extra week to brush up my skills in Phase 1. A couple of interesting things happened, but the last day offered some of the better calls.
Well, I apparently got my picture taken by a tourist during the progress of a spontaneous call due to a turtle sunning himself in the roadway. My FTO is like, "Get out and move it". Sure, no problem. I reach into my back glove pouch and my FTO is like, "No, just move him with your foot." I walk up to the turtle and he tucks himself inside his shell; shit, this should be as easy as moving a 30-lb soccer ball. Unfortunately, when I started to move him, he started crawling in the wrong direction, so I tried to pick him up, and all of a sudden all of his limbs came out and he went scurrying off into the bushes. I was like, "Holy shit, turtles are fast!" The next thing I know, there's a car behind us, and the driver is giving me a thumbs up and his passenger appeared to have been holding a camera. Looks like I'll be making Youtube.
Another call was a disturbance at a house, so I fell back on my training(which served me very well, mind you) and approached the house with two other officers, one of which was just released from FTO. My FTO told the two of us to search the house. My weapon came fluidly out of the holster, as did my flashlight. I immediately took the lead and began communincating with the other officer as to what we were to do, room by room. During the course of the building search, it became very apparent how important it was to pay attention in the academy. I personally had absolutely no officer safety issues. However, the other guy had a few, one of which was very dangerous. During the course of the building search, I would open the doors in a tactical manner and he would be the primary officer in the room. I ALWAYS had my finger off the trigger, while in some instances he had his ON. He also didn't know where in the room to begin first, so both him (and his weapon) were all over the place, which made me a little nervous to say the least. During the course of his marauding through rooms, he was constantly putting himself in my line of fire, so I constantly had to lower my weapon and move, which put me at a tactical disadvantage. Thankfully, the other party had already left the house, so we took a statement from the first party and headed out.
During the course of these calls, I have been getting more on point with my paperwork and my radio transmissions, and it would be of much help on my last day in Phase 1. We received three separate calls, all of which required a different "hat" to wear.
The first was very simple. Two vehicles were parked in a construction area and were to be moved. I ran backgrounds on both vehicles, filled out two tow sheets, and began my report. Both vehicles were towed without incident. Just then, another call came in which required a bit more urgency. We arrived in an office where a not-so-gentleman was just terminated from employment, and had apparently started to get a bit rowdy, so we escorted him to pick up his things, issued a trespass order, and escorted out. The last call was even more urgent.... a medical emergency.
A small child was having multiple seizures at one of the clinics, so we responded. I immediately put on all personal protection equipment (PPE) and went inside. I was expecting the worst, but the doctors seemed to have it under control, so it was our responsibility to roll a rescue, where the child was transported to one of the local hospitals.
At the end of the day, it was time for my end of phase eval, where I received a passing grade for phase 1, and got some comments as well. I received a very high grade in appearance, officer safety (which is what I cared most about), relationships with the community and relationships with other officers, report writing, and a couple of others. The only thing I had to work on was my knowledge of the standard operating procedures, which were huge, but something I could accomplish. I was then handed off to my 2nd FTO, who was in charge of guiding me through Phase 2.
The first day of Phase 2 wasn't bad at all. We did some traffic, where I was now allowed to conduct the entire traffic stop by myself and write all necessary citations, and we attempted to respond to a call, but were quickly cancelled after it had been resolved. I used the utmost officer safety on all stops, and I am sure my FTO noticed, which made me happy.
Looks like Phase 2 has a lot in store for me! Hope to keep you updated soon!
I am very glad I received the extra week to brush up my skills in Phase 1. A couple of interesting things happened, but the last day offered some of the better calls.
Well, I apparently got my picture taken by a tourist during the progress of a spontaneous call due to a turtle sunning himself in the roadway. My FTO is like, "Get out and move it". Sure, no problem. I reach into my back glove pouch and my FTO is like, "No, just move him with your foot." I walk up to the turtle and he tucks himself inside his shell; shit, this should be as easy as moving a 30-lb soccer ball. Unfortunately, when I started to move him, he started crawling in the wrong direction, so I tried to pick him up, and all of a sudden all of his limbs came out and he went scurrying off into the bushes. I was like, "Holy shit, turtles are fast!" The next thing I know, there's a car behind us, and the driver is giving me a thumbs up and his passenger appeared to have been holding a camera. Looks like I'll be making Youtube.
Another call was a disturbance at a house, so I fell back on my training(which served me very well, mind you) and approached the house with two other officers, one of which was just released from FTO. My FTO told the two of us to search the house. My weapon came fluidly out of the holster, as did my flashlight. I immediately took the lead and began communincating with the other officer as to what we were to do, room by room. During the course of the building search, it became very apparent how important it was to pay attention in the academy. I personally had absolutely no officer safety issues. However, the other guy had a few, one of which was very dangerous. During the course of the building search, I would open the doors in a tactical manner and he would be the primary officer in the room. I ALWAYS had my finger off the trigger, while in some instances he had his ON. He also didn't know where in the room to begin first, so both him (and his weapon) were all over the place, which made me a little nervous to say the least. During the course of his marauding through rooms, he was constantly putting himself in my line of fire, so I constantly had to lower my weapon and move, which put me at a tactical disadvantage. Thankfully, the other party had already left the house, so we took a statement from the first party and headed out.
During the course of these calls, I have been getting more on point with my paperwork and my radio transmissions, and it would be of much help on my last day in Phase 1. We received three separate calls, all of which required a different "hat" to wear.
The first was very simple. Two vehicles were parked in a construction area and were to be moved. I ran backgrounds on both vehicles, filled out two tow sheets, and began my report. Both vehicles were towed without incident. Just then, another call came in which required a bit more urgency. We arrived in an office where a not-so-gentleman was just terminated from employment, and had apparently started to get a bit rowdy, so we escorted him to pick up his things, issued a trespass order, and escorted out. The last call was even more urgent.... a medical emergency.
A small child was having multiple seizures at one of the clinics, so we responded. I immediately put on all personal protection equipment (PPE) and went inside. I was expecting the worst, but the doctors seemed to have it under control, so it was our responsibility to roll a rescue, where the child was transported to one of the local hospitals.
At the end of the day, it was time for my end of phase eval, where I received a passing grade for phase 1, and got some comments as well. I received a very high grade in appearance, officer safety (which is what I cared most about), relationships with the community and relationships with other officers, report writing, and a couple of others. The only thing I had to work on was my knowledge of the standard operating procedures, which were huge, but something I could accomplish. I was then handed off to my 2nd FTO, who was in charge of guiding me through Phase 2.
The first day of Phase 2 wasn't bad at all. We did some traffic, where I was now allowed to conduct the entire traffic stop by myself and write all necessary citations, and we attempted to respond to a call, but were quickly cancelled after it had been resolved. I used the utmost officer safety on all stops, and I am sure my FTO noticed, which made me happy.
Looks like Phase 2 has a lot in store for me! Hope to keep you updated soon!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Day 15 - "Phases" - 7/6/09
Well, it looks like I'll be staying another week on Phase 1. It's not because I am doing poorly (in fact, I am doing quite well), but because my first FTO wasn't really an FTO, so my first week didn't count. Even though I was tremendously excited for Phase 2, I will be using this opportunity to hone my skills on radio protocol, paperwork, and using this time to make as many mistakes as I can. I don't say that in a bad way, though. I'm not going to intentionally make mistakes, but I might as well make them in this phase because they're a lot more lenient when you do, as opposed to making a mistake in Phase 3 where they pretty much say, "Why did you do that? I thought by this time you'd know ......."
Speaking of mistakes, my FTO and I made a fairly funny one. I hadn't written a parking ticket yet, and it was part of my curricula, so my FTO made me write a couple. Usually a parking ticket is issued when the person isn't there, but of course my first ticket was written right in front of someone, so not only was I nervous about completing the ticket properly, but also watching the guy and made sure the "ninjas didn't come swinging from the trees". I tactically positioned my body to the side of the patrol vehicle and began to write the ticket. Roughly 10 minutes later, I had generated my first parking citation. My FTO approved (after a minor correction or two), and then brought me to a remote area, where my FTO gave me a couple of pointers. My FTO said, "Your people skills are excellent, but your body language is 'too tactical'." My FTO pretty much told me my tone of voice was good and my tactics were fine, but my tactics were very apparent, which frighten people who aren't a threat. To me, a little bit of fright in people is OK, because that fright deters them from thinking about attacking me, but at the same time I don't want to scare the crap out of people. I love socializing, and I like putting people at ease and making people feel good, and with my voice I can do that; I just need to work on my body language a little.
So, a couple of parking citations later, we found an unusual situation, which turned out to be hilarious. We ran an out of state tag with no decal. My dispatcher came back and said the tag was registered to a vehicle which CLEARLY didn't look like the one in front of me. OK, no problem, I run the VIN. The VIN has never been registered. Uh oh. My FTO told me that vehicle had to be towed. No problem, I filled out a tow sheet (or two, or three due to misc errors), wrote a citation, seized the tag, and watched the vehicle leave on a flatbed truck destined for an impound yard in downtown Miami; a job well done in my humble opinion. Roughly two hours later, the owner surfaces, who made contact with one of our detectives. The detective comes back to me and said both to myself and my FTO, "Congratulations, you towed an undercover police vehicle." HOLD ON! Please apply brakes.... I did WHAT? I thought to myself, "There is no way on Earth that the vehicle (an SUV with baby diapers and such in the back) could have been a police car." Apparently it was DEEP undercover. We released the vehicle to the detective, I completed all of my paperwork, and went home.
Now, it's my weekend. Time to relax. Ahhhhhhhhhh yesss. :D
Speaking of mistakes, my FTO and I made a fairly funny one. I hadn't written a parking ticket yet, and it was part of my curricula, so my FTO made me write a couple. Usually a parking ticket is issued when the person isn't there, but of course my first ticket was written right in front of someone, so not only was I nervous about completing the ticket properly, but also watching the guy and made sure the "ninjas didn't come swinging from the trees". I tactically positioned my body to the side of the patrol vehicle and began to write the ticket. Roughly 10 minutes later, I had generated my first parking citation. My FTO approved (after a minor correction or two), and then brought me to a remote area, where my FTO gave me a couple of pointers. My FTO said, "Your people skills are excellent, but your body language is 'too tactical'." My FTO pretty much told me my tone of voice was good and my tactics were fine, but my tactics were very apparent, which frighten people who aren't a threat. To me, a little bit of fright in people is OK, because that fright deters them from thinking about attacking me, but at the same time I don't want to scare the crap out of people. I love socializing, and I like putting people at ease and making people feel good, and with my voice I can do that; I just need to work on my body language a little.
So, a couple of parking citations later, we found an unusual situation, which turned out to be hilarious. We ran an out of state tag with no decal. My dispatcher came back and said the tag was registered to a vehicle which CLEARLY didn't look like the one in front of me. OK, no problem, I run the VIN. The VIN has never been registered. Uh oh. My FTO told me that vehicle had to be towed. No problem, I filled out a tow sheet (or two, or three due to misc errors), wrote a citation, seized the tag, and watched the vehicle leave on a flatbed truck destined for an impound yard in downtown Miami; a job well done in my humble opinion. Roughly two hours later, the owner surfaces, who made contact with one of our detectives. The detective comes back to me and said both to myself and my FTO, "Congratulations, you towed an undercover police vehicle." HOLD ON! Please apply brakes.... I did WHAT? I thought to myself, "There is no way on Earth that the vehicle (an SUV with baby diapers and such in the back) could have been a police car." Apparently it was DEEP undercover. We released the vehicle to the detective, I completed all of my paperwork, and went home.
Now, it's my weekend. Time to relax. Ahhhhhhhhhh yesss. :D
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Day 10 - "Advance" - 6/30/09 to 7/5/09
The drive to work, for once, was VERY interesting. Just follow the equation below for an explanation:
Florida downpour + Night driving + Incompetent Florida Drivers + Incompetent Florida drainage systems = Chaos.
I'm driving to work and the first thing that comes my way (traveling Southbound) is a vehicle in my lane HEADED THE WRONG WAY! I immediately pull over, flashing my lights and trying to gain the driver's attention to no avail. Well, before this guy goes ahead and kills somebody, let me get this guy off the road. With a quick push of the accelerator, I spun my car 180 degrees, rolled down my window in the pouring rain, and told the guy he was headed in the wrong direction. He then turned his car around and drove the right way. One Florida driver spared, several million to go. To further worsen the driving situation, many places on the roadway were 6"-10" underwater, so, in the natural course of things, I began to hydroplane. My automotive knowledge of vehicle dynamics, performance driving experience, and police training came into play very quickly. All I did was gently let off the gas pedal, input a light steering adjustment, and I felt a reacquisition of traction. The rest of the drive was uneventful.
In fact, a majority of my work time for the past couple of days have been uneventful, which has given me plenty of opportunity to ask questions, brush up on my skills, and practice all of the protocols I will need in this profession. However, there were a couple of exciting rifts and some changes that have happened. The most interesting change I had to overcome was the transition in shifts, from midnights to mornings.
I am by no means a morning person. I am more of a "night owl" so to speak. I'd rather get up late and stay up late than do the opposite, but the morning isn't too hard an obstacle with a cup of coffee or some orange juice. I also got a new FTO, so keeping up my reputation is a priority. As of 7/5, she passed me in my first phase of FTO, so I get yet ANOTHER FTO to impress.
I am anticipating Phase 2 because of the added responsibility and challenges. Sorry it took awhile for an update, but with all of this work it gets a bit taxing sometimes.
Florida downpour + Night driving + Incompetent Florida Drivers + Incompetent Florida drainage systems = Chaos.
I'm driving to work and the first thing that comes my way (traveling Southbound) is a vehicle in my lane HEADED THE WRONG WAY! I immediately pull over, flashing my lights and trying to gain the driver's attention to no avail. Well, before this guy goes ahead and kills somebody, let me get this guy off the road. With a quick push of the accelerator, I spun my car 180 degrees, rolled down my window in the pouring rain, and told the guy he was headed in the wrong direction. He then turned his car around and drove the right way. One Florida driver spared, several million to go. To further worsen the driving situation, many places on the roadway were 6"-10" underwater, so, in the natural course of things, I began to hydroplane. My automotive knowledge of vehicle dynamics, performance driving experience, and police training came into play very quickly. All I did was gently let off the gas pedal, input a light steering adjustment, and I felt a reacquisition of traction. The rest of the drive was uneventful.
In fact, a majority of my work time for the past couple of days have been uneventful, which has given me plenty of opportunity to ask questions, brush up on my skills, and practice all of the protocols I will need in this profession. However, there were a couple of exciting rifts and some changes that have happened. The most interesting change I had to overcome was the transition in shifts, from midnights to mornings.
I am by no means a morning person. I am more of a "night owl" so to speak. I'd rather get up late and stay up late than do the opposite, but the morning isn't too hard an obstacle with a cup of coffee or some orange juice. I also got a new FTO, so keeping up my reputation is a priority. As of 7/5, she passed me in my first phase of FTO, so I get yet ANOTHER FTO to impress.
I am anticipating Phase 2 because of the added responsibility and challenges. Sorry it took awhile for an update, but with all of this work it gets a bit taxing sometimes.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Day 9 - "Paperwork"- 6/29/09
Last night I slept like a baby, which was good because I really needed the rest to fight the onsets of a cold. When I woke up, I didn't feel any worse than I did the day before. In fact, I actually felt better! I was so pleased that I was beginning to knock this crap down before it ever became a serious problem. However, my Dad informed me that we were headed to my Mom's for dinner, which is always a good thing. She cooked salmon, which is something I could really eat every day, regardless if it is raw or cooked. When it comes to food, I love trying new things and going to new places, but when I find something I like, I tend to stick to it. I'm one of those people who only orders 1-3 entrees from a given menu, except for one restaurant: Taco Bell. I am "proud" (I don't know if you can even call it that) to say I have tried absolutely every dish on their menu, but I refuse to tackle the #9 by myself (the family value meal) in fear of dying from congestive heart failure.
Dinner was heartfelt, to say the least. My Mom just gets overwhelmed sometimes about my career choice and the big decision that I made and the decisions I will continue to make, but I still had a good time nonetheless. I know that she knows that I will be safe, and whatever decisions I make, personal or professional, will be in my best interest.
After dinner, I got dressed and began the drive down to work. I did need to make a pit stop at the local pharmacy for some more lozenges and such, so I parked and walked inside. Keep in mind this is roughly 9:30 at night, so most kids, especially younger ones, should be in bed. I look to my left down towards the registers, and low and behold there are kids, probably ranging from 4-14, throwing 1LB bags of candy and shit at each other. I looked directly at the cashier with one of those "aren't you going to do something about this?" looks, to which she "replied" with a "I am too tired to put up with their crap" rolling of the eyes and sulk. Well, even though I was out of my jurisdiction, I felt that it was my job at least as a human being to speak with the kids about their behavior, because not only was it driving both the parents and the employees crazy, but how does it look on me if the manager of the store walks in and there's merchandise all over the floor and a lack of order is ensuing and I'm just standing there ignoring it? I mean, I'm walking around in a billboard, so getting any of my basic information and reporting my "misconduct" isn't too hard with the patches on my shoulders and my shiny name tag on my right breast pocket. With all of this weighing out in my head, I decided to react.
I walked up to the boys and talked to them. I said to them in a collected and friendly manner, "Listen guys, the manager really isn't going to be happy that you're throwing all of his stuff around, so I want you to do me a favor and pick up all of this stuff and put it back where you found it, OK?" They apologized and put all the stuff back. Mission accomplished.
The drive to work was uneventful, and I began the evening riding with the Sergeant, but eventually was turned over to a different guy who I had never ridden with before, and this was a guy who liked to stay busy, which I enjoyed. He was also very down to Earth and sociable, which I liked even better. We began with some area checks and some community patrols, all of which were uneventful. We then headed out to the local school to do a foot patrol. The school complex houses the playground, new gym, old gym, and school itself. During our check of the new gym, we found a door unlocked, so it was time to conduct a building search. This meant we had to take our weapons out. I knew in my mind I had to draw, but just to be safe, I waited until he drew his to be sure I didn't surprise him. All of my academy tactics came back to me. My weapon came out of the holster fluidly, as did my flashlight. I assumed the "Watchman" position in regards to my flashlight/firearm grip, and we began searching the building. I followed his lead, weapon pointed down, finger OFF the trigger. We searched the weight room, basketball courts, and bath/locker rooms, all of which yielding nothing out of the ordinary. We got a case number from dispatch, secured the door with flexcuffs, and left. Now it was time to do some paperwork: A short-form incident report.
I opened a new short-form report file on the computer and began filling in all the blank spaces. Roughly 20 minutes later I was done. We then met the SGT on checkpoint, where the guy I was riding with said, "Don't be disappointed if he kicks it back to you." The SGT took the report in his hands, checked it over, and said it was pretty good and said he would keep it. Then I heard the "Ah!" that comes with the discovery of something. The SGT then said, "You forgot to put the case number. Oh well, I'll fill it in for you and it will be good to go." I thought for a minute, and asked for the report back. I put in a lot of effort to make sure everything was typed and neat, and to me filling in a case number by hand takes away from the whole professionalism of it. Plus, it's my first report, so it HAS to look good. I told him I would fill in the blank and turn it in to him later, which I did. I felt a lot better about that.
The rest of the shift went uneventfully. I headed back to the station to print everything out, and sure enough the morning shift had already caught themselves a couple of drunks making a scene at one of the local watering holes. One of them was fairly quiet, while the other was quite "talkative", to put it nicely. In short, he could have made "made a sailor blush". So this guy is hammering away at everyone in the room, myself included, but I didn't care. I opened my daily activity sheet from my hard drive, and found a nice little gift inside of my file.... the file was GONE!" All that proactive work was gone. Superb, really superb. I now had to type it out ALL OVER AGAIN! FUCK. It's ok, though. I can get this done in about a half hour. 30 minutes later, I had a new report, but as I compared the typed sheet to the written sheet, I noticed an error at the top of the page, so now I had to do it all over again. FUCK x 2. Then one of the officers needed the computer, so I just let out a long sigh, packed up my shit, and headed home.
Tonight I will be in a different patrol zone, so it should be quite an interesting night.
Dinner was heartfelt, to say the least. My Mom just gets overwhelmed sometimes about my career choice and the big decision that I made and the decisions I will continue to make, but I still had a good time nonetheless. I know that she knows that I will be safe, and whatever decisions I make, personal or professional, will be in my best interest.
After dinner, I got dressed and began the drive down to work. I did need to make a pit stop at the local pharmacy for some more lozenges and such, so I parked and walked inside. Keep in mind this is roughly 9:30 at night, so most kids, especially younger ones, should be in bed. I look to my left down towards the registers, and low and behold there are kids, probably ranging from 4-14, throwing 1LB bags of candy and shit at each other. I looked directly at the cashier with one of those "aren't you going to do something about this?" looks, to which she "replied" with a "I am too tired to put up with their crap" rolling of the eyes and sulk. Well, even though I was out of my jurisdiction, I felt that it was my job at least as a human being to speak with the kids about their behavior, because not only was it driving both the parents and the employees crazy, but how does it look on me if the manager of the store walks in and there's merchandise all over the floor and a lack of order is ensuing and I'm just standing there ignoring it? I mean, I'm walking around in a billboard, so getting any of my basic information and reporting my "misconduct" isn't too hard with the patches on my shoulders and my shiny name tag on my right breast pocket. With all of this weighing out in my head, I decided to react.
I walked up to the boys and talked to them. I said to them in a collected and friendly manner, "Listen guys, the manager really isn't going to be happy that you're throwing all of his stuff around, so I want you to do me a favor and pick up all of this stuff and put it back where you found it, OK?" They apologized and put all the stuff back. Mission accomplished.
The drive to work was uneventful, and I began the evening riding with the Sergeant, but eventually was turned over to a different guy who I had never ridden with before, and this was a guy who liked to stay busy, which I enjoyed. He was also very down to Earth and sociable, which I liked even better. We began with some area checks and some community patrols, all of which were uneventful. We then headed out to the local school to do a foot patrol. The school complex houses the playground, new gym, old gym, and school itself. During our check of the new gym, we found a door unlocked, so it was time to conduct a building search. This meant we had to take our weapons out. I knew in my mind I had to draw, but just to be safe, I waited until he drew his to be sure I didn't surprise him. All of my academy tactics came back to me. My weapon came out of the holster fluidly, as did my flashlight. I assumed the "Watchman" position in regards to my flashlight/firearm grip, and we began searching the building. I followed his lead, weapon pointed down, finger OFF the trigger. We searched the weight room, basketball courts, and bath/locker rooms, all of which yielding nothing out of the ordinary. We got a case number from dispatch, secured the door with flexcuffs, and left. Now it was time to do some paperwork: A short-form incident report.
I opened a new short-form report file on the computer and began filling in all the blank spaces. Roughly 20 minutes later I was done. We then met the SGT on checkpoint, where the guy I was riding with said, "Don't be disappointed if he kicks it back to you." The SGT took the report in his hands, checked it over, and said it was pretty good and said he would keep it. Then I heard the "Ah!" that comes with the discovery of something. The SGT then said, "You forgot to put the case number. Oh well, I'll fill it in for you and it will be good to go." I thought for a minute, and asked for the report back. I put in a lot of effort to make sure everything was typed and neat, and to me filling in a case number by hand takes away from the whole professionalism of it. Plus, it's my first report, so it HAS to look good. I told him I would fill in the blank and turn it in to him later, which I did. I felt a lot better about that.
The rest of the shift went uneventfully. I headed back to the station to print everything out, and sure enough the morning shift had already caught themselves a couple of drunks making a scene at one of the local watering holes. One of them was fairly quiet, while the other was quite "talkative", to put it nicely. In short, he could have made "made a sailor blush". So this guy is hammering away at everyone in the room, myself included, but I didn't care. I opened my daily activity sheet from my hard drive, and found a nice little gift inside of my file.... the file was GONE!" All that proactive work was gone. Superb, really superb. I now had to type it out ALL OVER AGAIN! FUCK. It's ok, though. I can get this done in about a half hour. 30 minutes later, I had a new report, but as I compared the typed sheet to the written sheet, I noticed an error at the top of the page, so now I had to do it all over again. FUCK x 2. Then one of the officers needed the computer, so I just let out a long sigh, packed up my shit, and headed home.
Tonight I will be in a different patrol zone, so it should be quite an interesting night.
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.
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.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Day 7 - "Memory" - 6/25/09
I didn't sleep as well last night as I did the night before, but I still felt well rested and ready to go to work. I checked my email and visited one of the website I frequent, LS1tech.com. I had posted something in one of the sections, and when I refreshed the page, a thread entitled "Michael Jackson dead at 50" popped up. I knew the person who posted the thread didn't care for the artist, so I thought it'd be a link to a funny video. Instead, I got a link to TMZ (who suck, by the way; I wish they got a real life instead of following useless information) stating the Michael Jackson was dead at 50. I also found out Farrah Fawcett passed as well, which was equally a shame. I closed my computer down, got dressed, and headed for work.
I popped the radio on in the car and on EVERY SINGLE station there was Michael Jackson playing, which was cool. Personally, I don't know whether or not he molested children or whatever (in fact, I think the parents who let the kids sleep over are idiots themselves), but positive or negative, he touched the lives of billions of people for more than four decades, which is something very few even fathom of accomplishing. However, even though Jackson was more of an icon, Farrah put up one hell of a fight, and should deserve equal notation in regards to her memory.
Work was semi-interesting, but fun. My FTO was enjoying his day off, so it was a completely new experience riding with someone else. It turned out my best friend's girlfriend was related to him, so we talked all night long. It was a very different experience than riding with my FTO, because although he taught me everything I know thus far and knew the job inside and out, he wasn't nearly as open as this guy, which not only helped me stay awake and let the time pass, but increased my vigilance and love of the job. I even managed to hammer out some extra studying along the way, and began revising an area map that future officers could use.
The time flew by fairly quickly, and before I knew it it was 7AM. We had sat at checkpoint for 90% of the night, but it still was very entertaining. I completed my daily activity sheet, turned it in, and went home. Now I get to enjoy some time off, and I look forward to Sunday night --- I'll be riding with the patrol SGT.
I popped the radio on in the car and on EVERY SINGLE station there was Michael Jackson playing, which was cool. Personally, I don't know whether or not he molested children or whatever (in fact, I think the parents who let the kids sleep over are idiots themselves), but positive or negative, he touched the lives of billions of people for more than four decades, which is something very few even fathom of accomplishing. However, even though Jackson was more of an icon, Farrah put up one hell of a fight, and should deserve equal notation in regards to her memory.
Work was semi-interesting, but fun. My FTO was enjoying his day off, so it was a completely new experience riding with someone else. It turned out my best friend's girlfriend was related to him, so we talked all night long. It was a very different experience than riding with my FTO, because although he taught me everything I know thus far and knew the job inside and out, he wasn't nearly as open as this guy, which not only helped me stay awake and let the time pass, but increased my vigilance and love of the job. I even managed to hammer out some extra studying along the way, and began revising an area map that future officers could use.
The time flew by fairly quickly, and before I knew it it was 7AM. We had sat at checkpoint for 90% of the night, but it still was very entertaining. I completed my daily activity sheet, turned it in, and went home. Now I get to enjoy some time off, and I look forward to Sunday night --- I'll be riding with the patrol SGT.
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