Ride-A-Long: Done and Gone

Whew, last night was a dozy. Not really actually. Last night from about 5:45pm to 6:30am I did a ride-a-long with campus police. Needless to say it was quite interesting. I arrived at the station at about 5:45pm and had to wait till 6:30 to actually start hanging out with the police. Dispatch told me that the officers need to check their cars as well as sit through briefing. The officer I spent most of the night with came in about 6:30, introduced himself and asked me to follow him. I did so, expecting to be padded down and interviewed and stuff like that for safety reasons. I entered the compound and followed the officer. We got to a cruiser and he opened the trunk and told me to put my bag in there. I did so. He then went to the drives side door and got in. I heard him unlock the passenger’s door so I took it as a que and got in. it was a little cramp because he had a touch screen laptop hanging from the dash on the passengers side. We then left the compound and started driving around campus. That was it. No background checks like I was told, no dress code check like I was told. I just showed up, got in the car, and away we went. I thought it a little strange but whatever. Right away I was intrigued. The car was brand new and had half a cage in the back seat and half a regular seat. He said they did that so that if they need to give someone a ride to their car or something they would be more comfortable. And it sucked a little bit more for people being arrested. The officer I was with was very cool. He was about 40-45. He said he’d only been an officer for a year. He just decided half way through his life that he wanted to be a police officer and changed course. He was married and had a couple of kids. He had a microphone on and there was a little camera in the windshield and a little monitor over head so that when we pulled someone over I could watch and hear with out getting out of the car. We drove around for a little while and I asked him about police stuff like codes, reports, calls, etc. at about 7:30 we passed someone with out their lights on and went after them. He said that most of the time people with out their lights on were probably drunk and forgot to put them on. We flipped a Uy really fast and speed off after the person. It was really cool. He turned on the lights and they pulled over. Nothing happened. The guy just forgot to turn on his lights because he was parked in the structure. We then drove around a little more and I asked him all kinds of boring questions about routines etc. He told me he had to drive with the window down because that way he could hear if someone screamed help or something. I noticed that the officer’s dashboard radio was set to 99.9 KEZ but the volume was muted. We patrolled the frats and I found out very quickly that campus police dislike greeklife a great deal. Mostly because they’re their primary source of stupid drunk calls when the police have more serious things to deal with. The night was very quiet. Nothing was happening at the dorms or the frats. I learned from the officer that the education building’s bathroom is a hotspot for “anonymous homosexual sex” which I found to be very strange. It doesn’t surprise me too much that it happens, I just never new it happened there. Every time I walk by the building I’m going to look at it differently. There were too things that happened last night that I thought were just great for my research. For one, on the laptops in the car is a window that shows the location off all the units on duty at that particular time, and at about 1pm it showed the sergeant at lunch at none other than IHOP, which was one of my concerns for the film. I had a scene where the officers go to lunch at Ihop but I wasn’t sure if that actually happened. And I meant the lunch break at a restaurant thing. But not only was the sergeant taking a lunch break at a restaurant, but at IHOP itself! The second thing that happened was that at about 11pm I got to switch officers. The officer I was with had to run an errand at the west campus so I got put with someone else, and this guy was like a polar opposite. He was young and hot headed and out to get people. It was awesome! I asked him why he wanted to be a cop and he said “it’s a good job, besides you get to arrest people, drive fast, and carry a gun”. He said it like it was a game. We drove around campus and listened to love line with Dr. Drew and Adam Corolla, while patrolling. It was really strange. With this guy I got to see him bust an 18 year old girl for minor in consumption. It was such a scene I’m going to try and include it in the SP. At around 3:30am I switched back to the other officer and finished the night with a theft call at one of the dorms. It looked like a prank nobody fessed up. We got back to the station at about 4:30am and he took about an hour writing the report. I talked with other officers while I was there and watched as the officers talked to each other. I think one of the most interesting things I found was just how honest all the cops were. Even with their differing personalities, these guys didn’t want people breaking the law. They believed in the law and believed it was there for good and valid reasons. It was also interesting to see them talk to each other informally, while so formally dressed up in their uniforms. They way they interacted with one another when on a call together was interesting too. There were only five officers on duty all night and usually 3 or 4 would all go to suspicious call together. At around 2 we went to a possible bike thief/suspicious person call at the north side of the mu. It was cool to see the officers, who before would tease each other and horse around, now be so serious and work as a team. They wouldn’t even have to speak to communicate with each other. Just a small gesture and the other officer would know what to do or what was going on. All shifts are the same so officers work with the same officers all the time. You could really tell. They always knew what the other was doing or was going to do. They were cool guys but when they needed too they could really take charge of a situation and you could feel their presence. They all had very strong personalities. I guess that’s a requirement for the job. Anyway I really enjoyed the experience, not only was it cool, but I now feel very very confident in finishing the police portion of the sp. Hopefully I’ll have a good draft by xmas.