warrrreagl

Grancey and I are enrolled in our local police department’s Citizen’s Police Academy, and it is an absolute blast! We’ve gotten to do simulated traffic stops (Grancey was “shot” by the driver who had a pistol between his legs, but I saw the gun when it was my turn), we investigated a “murder” at a video store, and we passed around tons of weapons seized from drug busts. In case y’all didn’t know this already, the drug folks don’t play – that was some serious military hardware we passed around.

Last Thursday night, I did a ride-along with a patrol officer from 10PM until 2AM and it was incredible! I highly recommend this for anyone who has even the slightest interest in such a thing. I was not allowed to get out of the patrol car, but I could listen to the officer over the broadcast audio that he was wearing (they video and audio tape all of their stops). These are some of my highlights:

Two traffic stops - both for license plate violations. The first one yielded a citation for a crack pipe and the second one yielded multiple citations for open containers.

Fender-bender - older guy hit parked car and was good enough to stay and call the police.

Domestic disturbance

Suspicious person at a convenience store - five different units responded (including us) and there were cops swarming all over the parking lot with shotguns. After that, he explained they have a new lieutenant on night duty, and the "bad guys" play hit and run with them to see how they'll respond with a new guy on board, so they respond to calls like that with overkill as a show of strength. After that, we spent a lot of time cruising through all the parking lots of every open convenience store in our sector.

Back-up to a traffic stop that started as possible DUI and ended with an exciting three-cop takedown of a beligerent suspect with drugs in his pocket. While they were talking to him, he kept putting his hands in his pockets and they kept telling him not to. After the third time, they attempted to cuff him and the struggle began. Eventually, they got him on the ground and cuffed him - he had pot and crack in his pocket.

The officer spent TONS of time filling out reports during his shift, and he would park in a visible, high-traffic area in order to fill out the report. To passing cars, it looked like he was checking for speeding, but he was actually just maintaining high visibility in the sector. The vast majority of his entire shift was spent filling out paperwork.

He also drove EVERYWHERE as completely fast as humanly possible and it was an E-Ticket ride everywhere we went. I had a blast. Grancey has to go this week or next week.

Have any of the rest of you done a ride-along, and how did it go?

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Sultana

Wow, that sounds very interesting! It's cool to have an insider's viewpoint on the daily life of a police officer. I've not gotten to do this, but the friends I have who did also recommended the experience.

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flat5

Citizen’s Police Academy

Why do the police offer this?

warrrreagl

Public relations, mostly. It's a chance to show ordinary citizens what they REALLY do all day everyday (not anything like police and forensics TV shows), and an opportunity for officers to interact with normal citizens instead of criminals for a change.

It's very eye-opening. In a lot of ways, police work seems to be similar to the red pill/blue pill debate in The Matrix. Most people go on about their lives without ever realizing that there is another world just below the surface that is very nasty, cruel, bloody, and horrible. The police have to live in that world everyday, and once you've seen it you can never go back again.

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Grancey

You didn't tell them about the drunk-driving goggles.....

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Elphaba

There is a small city near us that has a citizen patrol of sorts. They are allowed to write citations for various parking infractions, but nothing more serious than that. It's useful to the police department because it frees up the time of the officers for more urgent duties.

Gosh, I would love to ride a shift with an officer.

Lady Sage

Id love to do that! We dont have it here though

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warrrreagl

AH! The drunk-driving goggles....he he

They brought out a police golf cart and set up a driving course with little tiny orange traffic cones. It was basically a giant square course with a few horseshoe turns inside, and we were supposed to drive the course while staying in between the cones. Plus, we had to wear goggles which would simulate drunk driving.

Grancey and I do not drink - our total alcohol consumption for a year might total 2 glasses of wine, 2 margaritas, and 2 beers each. The police chief (who is the guy leading many of the classes) told us that people who drink and drive regularly do very fairly well with the goggles, and the police could always tell who the drunk drivers were by their performance on the course. In other words, this is a test you want to fail.

The first few people were weaving and swerving all over the place, turning too soon, veering outside the cones, etc. We were all dying with laughter. Then came my turn.

First, they hold the keys to the golf cart out in front of you and make you grab them, and I went right to them. No problem. Then, as I started to drive, I noticed that what I was looking at simply resembled each and every time I've ever driven really tired late at night. When I drive like that my vision seems to get reduced into a tunnel vision, and that was my solution to the goggles - stare straight out the middle and forget the peripherals. It worked. I did much better than anyone else although I still hit a bunch of cones. Grancey said the chief was teasing her about my secret drunk driving skills while she was trying to explain to him that we don't drink. Yeah right, lady.

Then came Grancey. She did even better than I did, hitting only six cones throughout the entire course. Dumbfounded, they threw a final test at her when she finished the course. "Uh uh, ma'am, keep those goggles on," they said when she climbed out of the golf cart. I thought they were about to give her a field sobriety test, which would have been cool. Instead, they held the keys out directly in front of her again. "See these?" they said. "Yes," she answered. The chief then dropped them on the ground and said, "Now pick them up." Grancey was so smooth. She went right down, grabbed the keys, and stood back up. Noooooo comment from the police.

Did you ever see the episode of WKRP where Johhny Fever takes the drunk driving test and actually gets better the more he drinks? That's how the police were looking at the both of us.

Cool.

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Living is easy with eyes closed.

Bill O'Rights

Hmmmm...interesting analogy, and not at all inaccurate. I may have to borrow that sometime.

I like the concept behind this program.
Did/does it give you a perspective that you didn't have before, or is it pretty much what you expected? What I mean is, does it provide a little more insight into the mindset that goes into Law Enforcement? Do they show you the grit, and the grime, or do they try to glaze over it?

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shakran

Ridealongs are one of the most fun parts of my job. Especially when the state trooper tags a speeder going the opposite way, blasts through the grass highway divider at 60mph, whips the car around, then pops it up to 100+ to catch the guy. As a racing enthusiast, I'm grinnin' ear to ear. As a guy who does his own car work, I'm wincing at the suspension damage he's causing


Every once in awhile I end up in the right place at the right time as the cops chase a suspect into the woods. They all know me well enough to know I won't get in the way so they don't yell at me if I run in after 'em. Always a good score to get the guns-drawn, yelling arrest on video

Jinn

I've ridden in the front and the back, and I have to say that your perspective drastically changes depending on which seat you're in.

The ride-alongs I've been on were quite amusing - driving all over the grass in his car looking for a burglar in the tech center, doing breakneck speed to meet 5 other cars at a house that had a burglary in progress, and all sorts of things that make you feel warm inside.

Like checking all the doors of the elementary school just to make sure they'd locked 'em up tight

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warrrreagl

We drove everywhere like this. One of the traffic stops (tag violation) produced the exact same breakneck u-turn and 0-100 acceleration that you described. I know that other drivers we came up behind must have been terrified (I would have been). But this was 2AM, and there were few other cars out.

We're curious to see if they drive the same way for Grancey or if they ease up because she's female.

I guess it's in line with what I expected, just WAYYYY beyond the intensity I was prepared for. They don't actually show us intestines hanging from a ceiling fan after a shotgun homicide, but they talk about it in great detail. They do not glaze over anything.

One of the best parts is that they answer ALL of your questions with blunt frankness. I mean think about it - when can you ever walk up to a strange cop and just start asking questions about homicides and suicides? They would never talk to you because they don't even talk to their families about what they see everyday. But the chief makes them talk to us and it is VERY enlightening.

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Living is easy with eyes closed.

DaElf

I've always wanted to go drive around with a cop for a while. Thier job seems like it would be interesting for a day or two. Like you say it's probably good for them too because it gives them a chance to see people who aren't screaming and don't have a genrealized bad attitude toward police. You're lucky!

Bill O'Rights

Nope. For good reason.
On the other hand, when you keep flipping "the switch" on and off and on and off and on and off...the light quickly burns out.

While I wouldn't expect them to place you in the middle of a crime scene, with the ooze still dripping, I'm just as surprised that they allow you to go on a "domestic". Those were some of the most dangerous calls that we got. Never ever turn your back on a battered spouse. Often (more often than not) they will violently defend the abusive spouse, during a "take down".

__________________
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

fhqwhgads

warrrreagl...

First off, as a cop, I want to thank you for actually taking the time to experience the job first hand... everyone always seems to have preconceived notions about what the job entails. Everyone thinks that all we do is run traffic... it's nice to see that you got a taste for what an actual night is. They never seem to show the hours of paperwork on television...

As for the comment above, it couldn't be more true. There isn't a day that goes by that a small part of me doesn't wish that I could have my blissfull ignorance back...

USMC6531

I'm currently in the Police Academy in Florida and let me tell you, I have learned a lot of things about the realities of Police work. It requires a lot of paper work and a lot of patience. The Police Departments are more professional and more advanced than ever, but it still amazes me how bad a rap we still manage to attain with most. Which is why I am so glad to see a post like this about the positive side.

shakran

The trouble with cops is the same as the trouble with any other visible profession that the average person doesn't have any experience with at all.

You get a few asshole cops who ticket you for 57 in a 55 or who think the badge gives them the right to lord it over everyone, criminal or not, and people wrongly project that onto every other cop. - -- until they need you.

Same in my profession. We get a couple of jackasses like Geraldo out there and pretty soon people think everyone in the media is a grandstanding ethically-bankrupt jackass. - - - until they call your station wanting you to do a story on the business that just ripped them off.

Lawyers get it too. Everyone loves to make fun of the sleazy ambulance chasing shark lawyer, until they need one.

What it all boils down to is that a lot of people are really stupid.

USMC6531

good way to put it in perspective Shakran, thanks.

pan6467

I'm sorry all I can think of is the movie Police Academy 4 "Citizen's On Patrol" and I hear the Fat Boys rap the theme in my head...... I see Tim Kazurinsky being the puny, runty, passive aggresive......

I know didn't add much positive but Hell, it could've been worse I could have posted Steve Guttenburg's name........ damn......

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Lady Sage

Please pardon Pan... you can dress him up but you cant take him anywhere... in fact should he have joined the C.P.Academy he would spend the entire night trying to talk the cop out of giving anyone a ticket!

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USMC6531

lol when I first looked at the title of the thread I was thinking along the same lines. No worries!

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warrrreagl

I've missed the last couple of weeks because of a play I was in, but Grancey has continued going. Last night was my first night back and we were allowed to use the FATS - Firearms Training System. COOL!!!!!!

It was essentially a video game with real people. A standard-issue 40-cal handgun (not a toy gun at all) has been rigged into a computer system. We used the handgun, but they also have assault rifles, shotguns, and even pepper spray hooked into the system. Then, you stand 20 ft away from a giant screen where a filmed, typical scenario is played out in front of you. You have to give verbal commands to the people on the screen and the officer running the computer can adapt the screen-people depending on your strenghths and weaknesses. There are hundreds of different scenarios and they don't do the same thing if you repeat them.

Sometimes they comply with your commands and everything works out. Sometimes they don't and you have to shoot them. The computer tracks your shots and if you hit them they fall down but if you don't they keep shooting back at you. Then, you replay the video and it shows where all of your shots landed, and which hits were lethal and non-lethal. It also shows if you hit any innocent bystanders. Sort of like Will Smith's shooting test in Men In Black, but WAYYYYY cooler. WAYYYY cooler. Plus, it is a real gun - you have to load it and rack it, and it recoils.

I had three scenarios. 1) a suicidal lady was holding a knife to her wrist and trying to cut herself with it. I was supposed to talk her out of it without using deadly force, and I thankfully did not shoot her. 2) I was called to a bar about a drunk and disorderly patron who ignored my commands and verbally abused me. He stood up with his beer bottle in his hand and when I told him to put it down, he threw it down, pulled out a knife, and lunged at me. I shot three times and hit him twice. 3) I was called in on a domestic disturbance and I found a man brandishing a shovel standing over another man who was curled up into a ball on the floor. He ignored me and would not put down the shovel so I shot six times and hit him with four of them. They told me that was one of their grey-area scenarios where it's iffy whether or not deadly force was necessary. I believed he was going to hurt the guy on the floor with the shovel so I shot him, and they said it was an acceptable solution. However, I hit him with my first shot and he started going down right away, but I kept shooting. So, my first shot was justified but the other three bullets I put into him got me arrested.

He told me my verbal commands sucked but my shooting was pretty good.

WAYYYY cool!

I'll let Grancey tell about her scenarios.

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Living is easy with eyes closed.

warrrreagl

UPDATE:

Last fall's Citizen's Police Academy was in a neighboring city. This spring, Grancey and I are enrolled in our own hometown's CPA. This one is remarkably different, and I've been very interested to learn how differently two neighboring police departments can operate.

Last Saturday, we went out to the shooting range and fired some weapons. They let us shoot a SIG 226 handgun, an AR-15 that the SWAT members carry, and a Beretta 12S automatic. The Beretta was by far the coolest because they allowed us to fire it on fully automatic. OK, show of hands. How many of you have ever fired a fully automatic machine gun before? It is COOL AS SHIT!!!!! There was no kick at all to this weapon. It was just like a gangster movie - you hold the thing at your waist, pull the trigger, and about 3 seconds later you're out of ammo.

Grancey's brother has been an avid weapons collector for more than 20 years and he's never fired a fully automatic weapon before. So now he's deeply jealous.

We also did the FATS training again a couple of weeks ago, and it helped a lot that we'd both already done it once before. I got a really hard one where there was a hostage scenario at a high school and I was advancing down the hallway to the sounds of screams and cries as these damn kids were running at me from all angles. It turns out there were two gunmen in the school and I luckily got them both.

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Living is easy with eyes closed.

caver

/me raises hand...
I have fired a full-auto a couple of times.
Once was in ROTC in 1986, I fired exactly 5 rounds through a M-16.
That could have been really cool, if it had been a full mag or more.
It does'nt take long to run 5 rounds through an M-16.
I did get two trigger pulls out of it though, as I understand the goal is usually
three rounds per pull.

I have also fired a Mac-10, rented from a gun range.
Most of the expense on that occasion was the cost of rounds,
which I would regard as significant. (big grin)

Lots of rounds, a combination of proper short burst technique, and
playing with longer bursts. lots o fun.

Way to go on the school scenario.

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warrrreagl

Thanks. I should have added that I didn't shoot any innocent kids, either. When I first got in the hallway they were running at me from left and right (all headed past me and away from danger). Then, this one kid emerged from another hall and he was walking slowly and calmy towards me. I instinctively yelled at him (because he looked so out of place in a hallway of running kids) and he pointed at me. I shot at him twice (missed) and he ran away around the corner.

When it was over, I was terrified I'd get ripped for shooting an innocent kid, but it turns out I was right. He was one of the gunmen. My instincts were true.

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Living is easy with eyes closed.

Jetée

Wait, let me try to understand this...

You were actually practicing in the simulation firing-range where those cardboard bad-guys along with innocent civlians pop-up?

But the way you describe it, it would seem as though they also integrated real personnages to make it feel more authentic, is that about right?

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shakran

Naw, I've seen this thing before. Think of it as a choose your own adventure movie. Based on your actions some cop at a keyboard is changing what plays out on the screen. It's live actors in this movie - not a cardboard thing like you saw in MIB. It's pretty neat technology actually. The first time I covered one of 'em I spent the longest time trying to figure out how it all worked. You know it's bad when the cop at the computer calls you a nerd

Bill O'Rights

/me raises hand.

Many...many times.

And...yeah...it's a rush.

__________________
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony

"Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus

It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.