Posted: 6/4/2009 6:36:50 PM EDT
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What's the best time to go on a ride along, on average? I want to do one before I start the LE academy, and I was thinking like 10pm-3am. Bars close at 2am, would make for some interesting sights I'm sure.
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Did two ride a longs.
One was strictly day time, lasted 10 weeks, about 30 hours in total. The other was strictly night, with a 7pm to 3:30am shift. That lasted 13 weeks, and I totaled over 150 hours. I saw more in one night than I did in 12 weeks during the day with the other. Night might be slow, but with warm weather approaching and longer days, prepare to be possibly amazed. |
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Quoted:
The standard answer.....it depends. Sometimes there will be no one on the roads and other times it'll be hopping. No shift is the same and you can never predict how many calls your going to get. Sometimes we go an entire shift without a single call for service. Dang. I could always just toss a "whatever is open" in the time slot on the form. Any advice as far as questions to ask, etc? |
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Are you limited in length of ride along? Summer is here, shouldn't be hard to find something in a metro area. Economy also seems to be driving more thefts/robberies/sex crimes. Ask the shift guys and they can tell you when it's most busy.
Bars close at 2am on Sat. night, here. Bar crowd related assault, robberies, DWIs, etc. start picking up an hour before bar close and quiet down around 4:30a. Saturday after pay day is sometimes a high activity night, especially near end of month when money is tight. |
I don't think I'd be limited time-wise, but I don't want to be in the officer's way for the entire shift. I could always go on more than one ride along though.  I want to get it done before school (I start on July 20th) because my buddy that just graduated said they won't let academy guys go for ride alongs after school starts until they finish defensive tactics. I live in a small town (county has about 101,000 pop.) and I want to work for our county sheriff's office when I get out of school so that's who I'd be riding along with.
I'll probably submit the form and put 2200-0300 as far as time goes. Does your department allow people to stay on ride alongs longer than scheduled if they want to and the officer they're riding with okay's it? |
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You're also going to have to factor in the agency's shift-change time. If they swap at 2000, odd are any ridealong will start around then.
We get ridealongs all the time, and tell them to be at the PD slightly before shift change so they can meet the officer, get kitted up (radio & vest), and go to lineup. In the off chance they get a ridealong with one of the specialized units, they also have to start at the beginning of the shift. |
| Ride along is limited to 4hrs. You can choose when you want to come in. You can ride along as much as you want as long as the shift commander is OK with it. They keep a permanent log of who/what/when rides, and mandatory officer comments post ride. We've had a few guys ride more than a few times, but it's rare... usually a guy from the local paper or from the Citizen's Police Academy. |
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Quoted:
Ride along is limited to 4hrs. You can choose when you want to come in. You can ride along as much as you want as long as the shift commander is OK with it. They keep a permanent log of who/what/when rides, and mandatory officer comments post ride. We've had a few guys ride more than a few times, but it's rare... usually a guy from the local paper or from the Citizen's Police Academy. That's why I have the paperwork to begin with, I did the Citizen's Academy here in March 2007 and I never got around to going on a ride along because I was busy with school and then college for a while. Now that I'm starting school for LE I figured it would be smart to go on a ride along or two and see how things work.
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