I haven’t had much to update about in a long time, mainly because where I’m at now in my career is fairly uneventful.
I’m still in a Burglary Apprehension squad and aside from a few random ‘good’ catches, nothing really exciting to report about.
I’m now assigned to a unit which is basically the long arm of the burglary investigations unit.
We’re tasked with hunting down and apprehending the subjects identified by the detectives and we operate under the General Investigations Unit.
I got to the station for my first day and was quite nervous. I met up with my new Sergeant and had to fill out all my paperwork. I’m the most senior guy on the squad again, which is always an odd feeling but it’s been that way everywhere I’ve been for a few years now.
I met my new squad-mates and I have to say, they seem to be a bunch of stand-up guys.
The squad had breakfast at Denny’s and I have to say, they’re all nuts.
We’re going to get along just fine.
I went to the quarter master to get my new set of tan/brown BDUs as that’s the outfit this unit wears and they weren’t in stock, so I stole a few extra shirts from the people on my squad and I just bought a pair of 5.11 brown BDUs until the County ones come in stock.
Later in the shift I met up with the only gal on my squad and helped her take a subject into custody for the Burglary detectives, which was great. She’s a stud and has a set of balls that could rival any guy I know.
Later in the shift they invited me out for lunch before it was time to go home and I met up with them for some Sushi.
Needless to say, the area I’m now assigned too is a much nicer area but it borders my old hood district at its southern point, so I can still play if I feel an itch too.
Primarily, they want me catching Burglary subjects. Knowing that, this unit seems to be more laid back and just what I need right now.
The change of pace and atmosphere is honestly quite nice.
:)
My left shoulder is killing me.
I’ve re-injured it three times in the past week and that was while trying to NOT use it.
I had to go talk to my LT today and tell him I needed to contact the Workmans Compensation people so I could go see a doctor.
Instead of being nice about it, or even asking about it, the first thing he asked for were the keys to my Police car…
Stunned, I handed him my spare key and walked out of his office. He brought a SGT in and basically told me as of that moment I was Officially on Light Duty and to remove my uniform/duty belt.
He was acting as if I’d been suspended or wronged him in some way when all I was asking for was to see a doctor reference my injury a few days ago from doing my job and trying to Tackle a bad guy.
Tomorrow I’m reporting to the mini-station in civilian clothes and have to wait to be called so I can go see a doctor. Hopefully I won’t be out of the game too long, but after that little encounter, I don’t know if I can even respect the guy as a supervisor anymore.
I’m sort of down about the whole thing.
UPDATE
I had my first xrays done and it looks to be a Separated Shoulder (AC Joint). :(
I taught a 16 hour (2 day) Shotgun course of instruction to a group of academy recruits.
It was awesome.
I got there early on the first day and was quite nervous.
Veronica, one of my old instructors when I was in the academy, was up in her range tower at 6AM and we sat and talked for a while since I was an hour early. She made me a cup of coffee and calmed me down.
Around 7AM I met up with Lou and we headed over to the classroom.
He gave me a little pep talk and we entered the room.
CLASS!!!
The trainee closest to the door yelled as we walked in, signaling the class to stand at attention until told to relax by the instructor.
Lou told them to have a seat and we went to the front of the class with the 26 shotguns that were wheeled in.
I was introduced and then fed to the wolves.
I started giving my initial introduction lecture and all of the sudden felt at home.
It wasn’t but 10 minutes before I was engaging the class and making them laugh while learning the information I needed to relay to them.
Lou called me a natural and to hear that from the most senior Firearms instructor my department had was a needed refresher.
4 hours of talking and I sent the class off to lunch.
I pulled Lou aside and told him just how relieved I was that he was right and that once I got comfortable I’d breeze through it.
After lunch we went out to the range to start on range familiarization and firing practice. I fixed a bunch of shooting issues and my entire group were on target.
Awesome day.
The second day came around and we went out to the range. I was pulled aside by two different SGTs and a LT, along with some of the firearms staff and basically told flat out that they want me to take over Annual training and get into the division ASAP.
The group did their practice rounds and then qualifications without much issue at all. It was a good feeling to know that I taught them and they understood the material, were able to apply it and were mostly excited to ask questions.
I’m really hoping this goes through. I was actually happy at work for the first time in years.
Long story short, I didn’t make the list.
No excuses to make, I just didn’t pass.
Let down doesn’t begin to describe the feeling, as I thought I did very well on it.
I found most of the questions/answers in my material and thought I got a high passing score, but for all I know I missed a bubble somewhere and threw the whole thing off.
Blah.
Looks like I’ll have to wait another two years.
I’ve had an entire week off of work to Study for the Sergeants Exam, which is in a few days.
Reading only my Highlights from the Departmental Manuals, I’m going through the volumes quickly, but its still a lot of mindless repetition. The information is stale at best and I can only read so much before I stop absorbing the information and start reading without actually reading it.
So, I stop. Take breaks, watch some TV or play some Video Games.
= UPDATE 5/9/2009 =
I’m having trouble sleeping, which is linked to the inevitable stress of the pending test. It’s 6AM and I’m still awake. My sleep schedule is totally off.
I’m convinced “Starfleet Regulations” are smaller in volume.
We’ll see how I do on the test.
Recently in the past month I’ve been approached by three different departmental entities about being transferred around to them.
1) Gangs
2) Homeland
3) Firearms
Gangs would be a great place for me. It involves more information and fact finding and building cases on actual gang members over a period of time. It isn’t a jumpout unit but it’s also not an office job. They basically want me for my computer skills and to compile a database system for them. Being that I’m fairly skilled with PHP and MySQL, it’d be cake.
Homeland is our liason with the Feds at the department level. I have no idea what they actually do but I was told to interview and they wanted me for my computer skills.
Firearms notified me that they’re having an instructor leave permanently due to illness and that I was the guy they wanted to be his replacement. I’ve wanted to teach firearms since I got on the department and I think this would be the best spot for me.
We’ll see which of these things come through for me.
Just a small update. I’ve been working 70+ hours a week trying to pay the bills. My wife was laid off from work last November so I’ve been working extra details 4 nights a week.It’s been rough and also the reason for the massive lack of real updates. I assure you, many crazy events have transpired in the last few months, but I just don’t have time to write them all out. Maybe sometime soon.
My motivation has returned in full force.
No new stories of any entertaining value but I have to say that for now, even though I’m working 70 hours a week, my desire to keep pace with my unit is there.
So far this month I’ve made a good arrest every day and have impounded a pocket revolver used in a shootout last year, several grams of cocaine and about an ounce of marijuana. Nothing major but it’s a step in the right direction.
I’ve finished reading the volumes of my departmental Standard Operating Procedures and now need to focus on the leave usage/bargining agreement. After an initial read of the SOPs I’ve learned some valuable things and I intend to reread it after I finish the other stack of papers.
To give you an idea just how much reading these SOPs actually are :
4 Binders with 2 inch rings Packed cover to cover.
The Leave usage/bargining agreement are another binder.
Somewhere around 2500 pages total.
80% of it can be compared to reading the ingredients on the back of a food product.
I want that promotion.
Signed up for the exam, it’s several months away.
I’ve got a few thousand pages of Manuals to read and memos to memorize.
Fun stuff.
I’ve had the same guy riding with me for the last few months. He’s been on about three years, give or take and has worked in this district for the last two of those years.
As an officer that’s been in a raid/jumpout unit for the last several years and fairly experienced at that specialty, I was teaching him what I knew and I’d like to think I’ve been successful at that endeavor.
However, as much as I teach him, there are certain things you just can’t teach someone. One of those things is judgment and the other is being cognitive of someone other then your own safety.
We’ve had discussions about his personal fear threshold and how I thought that he was too timid at times, even though he’s a fairly muscular guy with all sorts of tattoo’s which boast his personal confidence and aggression. Tree takes his energy vitamins and supplemental diet items which I couldn’t even begin to name. He works out quite often and if you looked at him or spoke to him, you’d think he was some bad ass.
In the last few months little errors in judgment with my partner, Tree, have been occurring. After each incident I tell him exactly what I think he did wrong and try to hold back my personal feelings in the matter. Sometimes the screw ups are small and no one gets hurt. Other times, the screw ups are overbearing and I find myself in a house with possibly armed subjects, alone, while he is no where to be found and not answering the radio.
Today the unit decided that we were going to hit a HUD apartment complex that’s fairly left to its own means. It’s yet another high crime area, filled with drug dealers and guns. The complex itself is setup in a manner that its entirety is all encompassed in a box about half a city block wide, inside 6 foot straight vertical white steel fencing. The apartments themselves are setup in a four box formation with a large central parking/courtyard area. Each individual apartment building is two stories with exposed balconies, walk ways, stairs and painted a peach color that was probably once a royal tint of orange.
Prior to the jump our unit talked about who was going to be responsible for what as to avoid any confusion. As usual, I was responsible for the main area and any runners that were in the center. This means that my partner, Tree and I we’re going to rush in the center and the other four units were going to hit the four corners to cut off avenues of escape and help with containment. Tree knew what the drill was and he hopped in my cruiser as passenger.
Upon arrival at the HUD apartment complex, we parked right on the main street and I got out of the car running towards my designation. Tree was behind me and immediately I saw a group of three males spot us, drop a bomb (bag of drugs) and they started to run west bound. I got on the air, advising what I saw and then I started to run after the group of guys.
The other units had also advised over the Tac channel on the hand-held radio of people they either had in custody or where also chasing after.
I was closing in on my group of guys, all the while I was yelling,“Stop, police!”. I knew it was of no use but legally and obviously so they had no question in their minds what I wanted them to do, I was still yelling those words repeatedly towards them.
They didn’t stop and instead they ran into an apartment, slamming the door behind them. I had a felony which occurred in my presence (tampering with evidence), so I had the law on my side and fresh pursuit applied. I advised of the apartment and still in a full run made contact with the door with my right foot, just to the side of the handle assembly. Thankfully, the door gave on the first kick. I drew my firearm as I made entry, expecting my partner to be directly behind me and I saw the three males as soon as I entered the living room.
“GET DOWN ON THE GROUND! NOW! GET DOWN!”
Two of them dropped immediately and one tried to bolt to the back room of the apartment. I grabbed him with my free hand by the shirt and swung him around, throwing him into the wall next to me. With that same arm, I then pushed him into the wall and he decided he wasn’t going to offer up any more resistance.
That’s when I realized I was in this apartment alone.
Where was Tree?
I ordered the guy I had on the wall to lay down on the floor next to his two friends.
I held them at gun point, because I still hadn’t patted them down for weapons and wasn’t able too because I had three people on the ground and only one of me.
Loosing my temper doesn’t happen often, but it happens.
I keyed my hand-held mic with my free hand, “TREE, where are you?”
Silence.
“Hey Tree, I’m in this apartment, where are you?”
Silence.
“TREE! WHERE ARE YOU?”
No reply.
I poked my head out of the door of the apartment and I saw Tree about 80 feet away from me. He had some crack head sitting on the ground in the parking lot and was just looking around.
Again, I tried to raise my partner on the radio.
“Hey Tree, I’m behind you, turn around.”
Nothing.
I decided that wasn’t going to work and yelled out of the door.
“YO TREE! I’M OVER HERE”.
To my amazement, he still didn’t hear me.
That’s when another guy (Scooby) from my unit found me and took point. He looked at me and then he tossed a look over at Tree, who was still clueless. Scooby looked at me, rolled his eyes and gave me a look that just said, “Useless”.
Long story short, I quickly let two of the three guys go and took the other one out into the hall way. I told Scooby to watch him in haste as I laid the subject face down on the ground and then I started to back track where he ran so I could find the bomb I saw him drop. Tree finally saw me and I merely pointed over to Scooby and Tree walked over to Scooby.
A ninja apparently took the bomb from its resting place because it was no longer there. I was expecting that, its a common occurrence. The dealers actually have people that not only look out for cops, but when the dealer drops the bomb and takes off, the look outs usually grab the bomb and then hide so we have no physical evidence to charge the dealer with except for the usual, resisting without violence and tampering, which usually get tossed out by assistant state attorney’s before they even see a court due to case loads.
By the time I got back to the apartment, my unit had converged just in front of the apartment, in the parking lot. Tree was now standing over the subject I took out of the house, who was still laying face down on the ground.
I walked up to my unit and put my back to Tree. I was visibly upset. Infuriated just doesn’t quite put it in perspective. Yet again, my partner let me down, twice in the same day (first was the same exact incident in a different drug hole on that same day). He once again caused a serious safety hazard for me once again, I was lucky I didn’t get hurt.
My sarge saw my face and knew just what happened. Then asked me a question he knew the answer too but wanted to see what I was going to say, “Hey, is that guy over there under arrest?”.
I told him that he was indeed under arrest.
That’s when he told me that the guy wasn’t in handcuffs yet. I looked over and sure as the day is long, he was still laying face down, uncuffed, with Tree standing over him.
I called out to Tree and got his attention. I then made the prearranged signal that someone was to be placed into custody, I made a cat Meow. Yes, a MEOW. Why you ask? Because the bad guys know our codes, they know our lingo and they also don’t like being placed into cuffs. So, to avoid their pre-knowledge that they were about to lose their freedoms, even momentarily, we’ve adapted and use some completely odd sounds to indicate certain actions. The sound my partner and I decided on was a cat’s Meow.
Tree looked at me funny for a second.
I did it again, “Meeeow”.
Instead of hand-cuffing this guy like I expected, he shouted back to me, “I didn’t run the guy for warrants yet”.
What the….?
In front of my entire unit, I stormed over to Tree, leaned down, pulled out my cuffs and did it myself.
Without so much as a word I tossed the guy into the closest cruiser and then walked back to my cruiser. Tree ran behind me and jumped in the passenger seat. Not a single word was said on the way back to the station.
I got to the station and started writing the paperwork. I didn’t look at Tree and he knew he screwed up again. This was nothing personal but on the rare moments when I get upset, I stop myself from venting and instead focus on the task at hand.
I decided then and there that he would no longer be riding with me. I told my sarge and that was that. I’d rather ride solo then have a partner I can’t trust. My life depends on his actions or inaction and I need to know that the person I call my partner is capable of safe guarding my life, just as I do his.
As of tomorrow, my new partner is a guy in the unit that I used to work with back when I was in my last districts jump-out unit, Navy. He’s a great cop and I trust him with my life. We’ve already been through our share of crap together and I know he’ll have my back. I didn’t ride with him previously because of his shift, which starts later then mine, but I decided that the hour wait is worth my life.
I know as a reader of this blog, this post may seem like non-sense or over-reacting, but keep in mind that I do not post routine events such as daily jumps and catches that aren’t really note-worthy. These issues are persistent and this problem has been in the over-flow process for a while. I’ll keep you updated.
