Posted: 8/8/2014 3:05:40 PM EDT
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How long did it take you to become proficient at determining your direction of travel and knowing the street names of your entire city? Are there tricks to learn how to do this? What did it take to learn?
I understand that these days anyone can read off the screen of a Garmin that's suction-cupped onto the inside of the windshield, but it's still a skill needed when on foot. I've just always found it impressive to see LEO's in a pursuit or responding to a call, knowing exactly what direction they're traveling in and what street they're driving/running/Segwaying on instantaneously. I'd be looking around like an idiot, trying to find the sun or something, while also trying to find the nearest street sign, then realize it's 2am and there is no sun, and that I can't read the street sign because it's dark. I'd be worthless. Did you older cops carry around compasses with you or something? Was it constant driving around, even while off duty as a new hire, doing memorization drills as you approached intersections, that got you proficient at being able to quickly call out information to dispatch and other officers while on a pursuit? Or was it a gift from God as a trade off for being blood thirsty dog exterminators? |
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I imagine it has something to do with this.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/london-taxi-memory/ |
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When the radio tells you to go to 20 different locations every day in your command, and you have to know how to get to other locations to "back" other units, you learn quickly.
One thing I learned early on is that you learn much, much faster if you drive rather than ride shotgun. Much faster. |
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In addition to spending much of my youth in my tiny town, I spent literally hours upon hours exploring every little street and nook and cranny, even the ones where I had no reason to be. You tell me which house number a guy is at and which direction you're coming from, and I know where to go and which street to take that will put me on the opposite side in case he runs. Edit: No GPS for us. |
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You drive the same streets for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and this may surprise some but certain streets have more calls than others. You pick up on those areas really quick.
If I cant remember an address, the calls are marked on a map on our MDC's. Drive to the dot. 
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When I started we had this thing called a MAPSCO. Essentially, a city atlas. Showed streets, building footprints, even fire hydrants. Everyone in the academy studied it every night at home and were tested on it the next day.
"You are in the 2700 block of North Stevens proceeding West. name the shortest route to the parking garage at 15th and Trinity" Pain in the ass, but it worked. Kids today have GPS on the vehicle laptop. Takes all the fun out of it. I used to work with a guy that could give you directions to the nearest Taco Bell from anywhere in the city. 
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Quoted:
I imagine it has something to do with this. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/london-taxi-memory/ 
The Police Academies in the US send you to London to work as cab drivers for a year?
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Quoted: When the radio tells you to go to 20 different locations every day in your command, and you have to know how to get to other locations to "back" other units, you learn quickly. One thing I learned early on is that you learn much, much faster if you drive rather than ride shotgun. Much faster. |
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Quoted:
The Police Academies in the US send you to London to work as cab drivers for a year? Quoted:
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I imagine it has something to do with this. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/london-taxi-memory/
The Police Academies in the US send you to London to work as cab drivers for a year? I wasn't supposed to let that out. Super secret police club stuff right there. |
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Quoted: I wasn't supposed to let that out. Super secret police club stuff right there. Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I imagine it has something to do with this. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/london-taxi-memory/ The Police Academies in the US send you to London to work as cab drivers for a year? I wasn't supposed to let that out. Super secret police club stuff right there. |
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IDIOT! Quoted:
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I imagine it has something to do with this. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/london-taxi-memory/
The Police Academies in the US send you to London to work as cab drivers for a year? I wasn't supposed to let that out. Super secret police club stuff right there. I'm not going to get kicked out am I? |
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I'm not going to get kicked out am I? Quoted:
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I imagine it has something to do with this. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/london-taxi-memory/
The Police Academies in the US send you to London to work as cab drivers for a year? I wasn't supposed to let that out. Super secret police club stuff right there. I'm not going to get kicked out am I? Turn in your firearm and hidden icon under your avatar. Have your desk cleared out by 4pm. |
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When I started we had this thing called a MAPSCO. Essentially, a city atlas. Showed streets, building footprints, even fire hydrants. Everyone in the academy studied it every night at home and were tested on it the next day. "You are in the 2700 block of North Stevens proceeding West. name the shortest route to the parking garage at 15th and Trinity" Pain in the ass, but it worked. Kids today have GPS on the vehicle laptop. Takes all the fun out of it. I used to work with a guy that could give you directions to the nearest Taco Bell from anywhere in the city. I loved my Dallas and Tarrant county Mapsco's |
| I had to ride around on night shift in the passenger seat and call out the street intersection before we came to them,12 hours at a time. Had to be able to give the addresses of all our problem areas from memory. After 19 years I still find myself doing it in my head. "Maple at Jackson"....... Hatcher at Dent"..... 2700 block of Orange Ave.. Now our MDTs have a mapping feature and draw a line from your current location to the call address and give you your current location in lat and long and street address. |
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Quoted: What's a FTO? Quoted: Quoted: If your FTO didn't get you squared away on streets by quizzing you relentlessly while on patrol, he wasn't doing his job. What's a FTO?  My brother's first night, he showed up at 2200 and was told something to the effect of, "You're trainer didn't show tonight. There's a train vs. pedestrian on the south side of town. You've been through the academy, so you can handle it."
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My brother's first night, he showed up at 2200 and was told something to the effect of, "You're trainer didn't show tonight. There's a train vs. pedestrian on the south side of town. You've been through the academy, so you can handle it." Quoted:
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If your FTO didn't get you squared away on streets by quizzing you relentlessly while on patrol, he wasn't doing his job. What's a FTO?
My brother's first night, he showed up at 2200 and was told something to the effect of, "You're trainer didn't show tonight. There's a train vs. pedestrian on the south side of town. You've been through the academy, so you can handle it." They gave us a map of the precinct, told us what our foot posts were, made the sign of the cross, and set us loose. |
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When the radio tells you to go to 20 different locations every day in your command, and you have to know how to get to other locations to "back" other units, you learn quickly. One thing I learned early on is that you learn much, much faster if you drive rather than ride shotgun. Much faster. this. I also learned the address of several landmarks in each of our patrol beats and made a mental map of where they are with realtionship to our station etc and use the land marks to get me there. Also most cities will group similar street names together. For instance my city has one neigborhood that are all tree names (oak, elm, maple etc) and another that are all presidents (washington, adams, jefferson etc). Additionally parallel streets should have the same/close to the same block numbers ie 400 blk of elm and 400 blk of maple have the same cross street. As for N/S/E/W I am lucky as the main routes in my city run either due N/S or due E/W and split the city in four sections. All the streets have a direction prefix based on their orientation to the main routes. ie North Maple/South Maple, East Washington/West Washington. When I started 20 years ago we didnt have computers in our cars and the dispatchers would atleast give you a couple of cross streets to look for too. Now we have MCTs and when the dispatched call pops up on the screen it has the cross streets and any other special routing instructions that might be needed. We also have a mapping program which is helpfull if you have to go back another agency up and arent familar with their juris. Hope this helps J- |
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When you put a couple hundred miles on your car every day you learn the streets pretty quickly
I tried to learn them better on weekends while still in the basic school but that was a waste of time. Once you learn the major roads its easy to find the side streets from there I play a bit of a game by trying to never touch the same road in my zone twice in a shift. I think it helps improve my visibility in the zone, unlike the younger guys who stay to the state roads Lots of days I'll bring the car back at the end of the night brown from the various logging and backcountry roads I've been on. I actually self-published a local road book for sale to taxi drivers and delivery guys ( before the era of smart phones ). it did take some time after being overseas to re-acclimate to some of the less common roads in my zones. |
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One of my FTO's had this trick to "convince" you to learn. About 3am or so when it's nice and quiet and you're creeping around neighborhoods to catch car burglars and the type, he'd say put it in park. Then he'd proceed to say you just got shot. What block and what street are you on? If you got that right, he'd then ask your previous street and so forth back until the last "major" roadway you'd left before entering the neighborhood. As soon as you got it wrong, you exited the vehicle and began backtracking your path...on foot, with him following behind in the unit.
Thing was, he knew what he was planning on doing but you didn't, so he'd be bullshitting and joking around with you beforehand to see if you would pay attention to your surroundings while conversations were taking place. Something I picked up on and used later on when I was my shift FTO. |
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One of my FTO's had this trick to "convince" you to learn. About 3am or so when it's nice and quiet and you're creeping around neighborhoods to catch car burglars and the type, he'd say put it in park. Then he'd proceed to say you just got shot. What block and what street are you on? If you got that right, he'd then ask your previous street and so forth back until the last "major" roadway you'd left before entering the neighborhood. As soon as you got it wrong, you exited the vehicle and began backtracking your path...on foot, with him following behind in the unit. Thing was, he knew what he was planning on doing but you didn't, so he'd be bullshitting and joking around with you beforehand to see if you would pay attention to your surroundings while conversations were taking place. Something I picked up on and used later on when I was my shift FTO. Interesting, but doubt it would work if your zone is 2 1/2 townships |
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Quoted: Wasn't too hard, my precinct was 1 square mile.  Now, when I started driving on the fire department, in a neighborhood where the streets were pretty haphazardly arranged in some areas... that's when it got interesting. Then, you just learn by doing. Repetition. (That, and spending a lot of time looking at the big map on the apparatus floor.) Frankly, I found the radio to be more challenging: a bunch of numbers and gibberish. And yet, in no time, it just becomes second nature. |
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Frankly, I found the radio to be more challenging: a bunch of numbers and gibberish. Roast Beef Lettuce And Onions
You got off easy, look at at the 10 codes now and see how many they added after you left. LINK |
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Quoted: Roast Beef Lettuce And Onions You got off easy, look at at the 10 codes now and see how many they added after you left. LINK Quoted: Quoted: Frankly, I found the radio to be more challenging: a bunch of numbers and gibberish. Roast Beef Lettuce And Onions You got off easy, look at at the 10 codes now and see how many they added after you left. LINK Well, just as long as they still have the most important one: 90-Z. |