Update 2:Well, I did the half shift ride along tonight. It was a pretty slow night, but it was all around very informative and enjoyable.
The first 3/4 of the ride along I spent with the Sergeant on duty tonight. He's worked at the dept. for 13 years. Th night began off with some paperwork and getting some training lined up for his officers tomorrow. At the station the Sgt. had to get one of the patrol cars started that had been having some problems. Turned out snow had gotten in the exhaust, melted, then froze and plugged it up. We then went out and drove a couple blocks and got some plate#'s off some cars parked too far away from the curb. They were called and they moved them. We had the first major snow fall of the year here yesterday and today, so the roads are quite a mess and parking is insane at the moment. There is alternate side parking in place for the next few days, so people were out digging their cars out.
Apparently if they can't get their car out they just call the police
. There were
quite a few stuck vehicle calls tonight. There was one we showed up to and the guy had a miniature shovel and he dug around a bit and eventually the Sergeant and another officer who was in the area helped him rock it out of the snow bank.
The most excitement of the night happened within seconds of one ending and the other beginning. We pulled out onto a 2 lane highway that runs through town and pulled someone over that had a completely obstructed windshield. He hadn't even tried to brush the snow off of it. There was one patch of windshield near the driver side door that was clear and he was leaning and looking out of that. His excuse, "I was in a hurry."
. The Sgt. gave him a verbal warning and stood there and watched him brush off the snow. The guy even had the brush behind his seat, but hadn't taken the time.
The Sgt. had barely gotten back in the car when he spotted an oncoming car with no lights on (it was dark out, well past time when they should be on). We pulled a u-turn and stopped them. It was a 16 year old girl who had had her license for less than 2 weeks. Verbal warning. Logged the two stops in his dash cam record book. The end of that.
We then did some patrolling in the industrial park. Drove around some buildings. I talked with the Sgt. a lot about law enforcement as a career, different aspects of it, etc. Talked about a few different procedures, and just talked about the city in general and how it is expanding. I was a little quiet at first since there was stuff going on, but when it slowed down I asked a lot more questions. He was more than willing to talk. I gained some very useful insight from him.
The sergeant had to head in and do paperwork, so I was passed on to another officer. She has only been on the department a few years. She wasn't as talkative. I had a few questions but didn't get more than a couple word answers. She was enjoying listening to the music on the radio. She was getting tired of all the ride alongs that had been coming through recently. Pretty much one every night for the past few weeks. The professor of my class is a former officer at the dept. and everyone really appreciates his sending dozens of college students there way for ride alongs over the past few weeks.
I understood her frustration. I joked about the professor a little, and joked about all the ride alongs a little and got some laughter. She warmed up a bit then.
Anyway we did a little parking enforcement. Wrote one ticket on complaint in a private lot. Had to get out and direct her while she turned around the Ford Expedition patrol vehicle in a dead end parking lot with only about 30 feet between the apartment and parked cars. Made a 10 point turn and finally got out of there.
Turns out the officer had just graduated from the same local university that I am currently attending, in the CJ program as well. We ended up talking more about that than anything else. The food in the commons hasn't gotten any better, etc. She didn't like to say a lot. Her husband is a deputy in this county, so she just works here at this smaller dept. She seemed to be a little discontent with her job, but only a little. She seemed to be a good officer.
It was a Sunday night in a small town, so nothing much was going on after about 11PM. Circled the city several times, and then I got dropped off back at my dorm. All in all a good night. Learned quite a bit.