Racial Profiling

I know Police Officers and Law Enforcement are accused of this frequently and the general citizenry are often quick to make the accusation. Well, in case they didn't realize it, the citizenry does this frequently. 911 call right at shift change as I'm getting ready to go to briefing and this older, very white lady tells me that a truck full of Hispanic males just stopped at a local steakhouse. (For the record, she didn't call them Hispanic Males). I decided to play dumb and asked her what she meant by the derogatory label that she used and she went on to call them "illegal aliens". I then asked her if she knew this for sure and she started accusing me of not wanting to do my job. Eventually, maybe in another world in the distant future, people won't be judged based on their race and by their character instead, whether white, black, hispanic, indian or asian. One can only hope.

Incorrigible Public

Well, I had a first today... Finally got the "Police are never there when you need them, only when you happen to have a blinker out or swerve across the yellow line" speech today. My response: .... My response in my head: Well, lady if you have called the police when you first were "ran" off the roadway instead of following the person to their house and watching them pull into their driveway things may have been taken care of. Her excuse? She didn't have cell service. Interesting, you're in the middle of town and no one else has that problem for sure.

Summertime Antics

As I've said many times, you have to be a unique person to do this job or at least a unique sense of humor. There was a request for the sharing of said antics, but before I do that, I must say this: I answer the phone "Police Department", but what I really should say is, "Animal Control, After Hours Utilities, Medical, Police and Fire Department" I'm not sure it has the same ring, but still... Yesterday was a little crazy, again, we are a small department with a fairly high call volume and a decent per capita crime rate, especially drugs and violent crime. Except for that whole animal control part, we're the epitome of a high class department...lol We've handled cats, bats, and squirrels in the last 2 days. My favorite so far is the squirrel, which was stuck in a pool drain. The solution: pick it up with a baton and fling it over the fence. The reaction: "I could have done that!" Then why call the police? The cat call also involved a baton (of course it was the same officer). Cat was stuck in a tree, and why he thought throwing the baton at the cat would make a difference, I'm not entire sure. He's special :) My other favorite of the day: child custody. You don't have a decree from a judge, so a notarized, handwritten statement should do the trick. Right. Where do these geniuses come from?

Summer Time

Sweet Summer Time... Or more aptly, the season of the lunatic fringe. I admit, it has its entertaining moments...

Patience Short Circuit

I think I may have finally had it with my partner...she's lucky there wasn't a homicide in dispatch yesterday! Late Wednesday night, early Thursday morning we had a tragic occurance in the county. A 16 year old girl was taken from a convenience store and brutally killed, suspect is in custody. My question to those readers who are dispatchers or current law enforcement, when is morbid curiosity too much? My partner would not let it go yesterday, constantly commenting on how she just "needed" to know as many of the gory, intimate details of the crime including COD. Needless to say, my patience with her is done. Kaput. We deal with the most intimate details of peoples' lives and deaths, sometimes we have to leave them in peace. One of the cleaning ladies works as a sectretary for the Sheriff's office and the minute she walked in, the questions started. I wanted to scream "enough!" but I couldn't get off the radio long enough to even complete a sentence. I honestly need some feedback on this because it has bothered me since I left work, do I speak with a supervisor or just talk to her myself? I'm just afraid if I said anything, it would be taken badly.

Confession

Part of the goal of this blog is to entertain, enlighten, vent, and in part keep me honest. I love my job, I do it fairly well (if I do say so myself) and I would do anything for my friends. I'm also one of the millions of people in the world who struggles with an eating disorder. When I heard the term, I used to think of bulimia or anorexia and girls who are skin and bones. I can honestly tell my readers that I never "planned" to be in this position or even realized what was happening until it was too late. For most people, eating isn't necessarily a chore, I have to consciously eat otherwise, I'll only eat around 700 calories a day. My one saving grace is that I'm not a heavy exerciser, but at the same time it's taken it's toll. I urge everyone to pay attention their friends and family, because sometimes it's not a form of dysmorphia or an illness. It's a person genuinely not paying attention to their bodies signals. Thanks for listening :)

Training and Experience

Lately, I've been spending a lot of time lately perusing thru training articles and the FEMA independent study website. In my mind, you can never be too prepared (and it alleviates some of the boredom). I'm such a firm believer in cross-training and establishing a strong working relationship, even when the parties involved may not exactly like each other. I know every agency stuggles with personality clashes, how do they handle them? Do they punish the slackers who refuse to work overtime, do they ignore the pot-stirrers? Here recently I've really wanted to pull my hair out, I feel that there are people who are capable of doing this job within the department, but I also KNOW that there are plenty who need to be removed before they kill someone. Officers are held to a standard of "training and experience" it's a staple within probable cause affidavits, as we all know. Yes, we are held to the same standard of liability, however, many times the training and safeguards are non-existent. I'm lucky now to work for an agency which does have a modicum of training and policy, it's lacking in comparison to that of a rookie officer, but it's better than all of the other agencies in the county.