The Crime of the Century

So I did a ride along with Close to Home PD and I had a lot of fun. This city would be considered a smaller sized one than many, with a population of about 70,000, and though there are many farms, and no malls it is growing fast. Among the brand new $400,000+ homes are the older ramshackle ones, the city probably wishes they could bulldoze. Main arrests here are for DUI, drugs, warrants and various 415s (disturbing the peace.) The majority of officer initiated radio calls are for traffic stops, but there is also a steady flow of citizens calling for service as well. Rarely does it seem there is a clear screen with nothing holding. I digress, so I am on my ride along with Officer Smiley and a call comes out for Js who were throwing bricks at cars and are now hiding in the cornfield, evading the SROs (school resource officers.) So we high-tailed it over there and when we show up there are about 5 patrol cars already there. Officer Smiely finds the last remaining suspect and as I watch from the car, all the officers cheer and start closed knuckling each other, (you know like high fives only apparently these days that is too much contact for manly men so they do the knuckle to knuckle thing?) And I am hiding a smile because their enthusiasm is endearing to me, (I can't picture Chris closed knuckling anyone after his first or third near miss shooting, and this was just finding some punks in a cornfield!) Turns out one of the guys has a $50,000 want for forgery and when the dispatcher tells the guys this, another round of knuckle knocking ensues. So I am watching this one officer pat down the 1015 (SIC) for weapons, and as the officer sticks his hand into the guys jacket pocket, he calls out to the other officer, "Wait, wait I think we've got something here..." Let me mention here that for this town, 5 police cars and about 7 cops, a detective and a K9 unit on the side of one of the busiest intersections in town is drawing quite the crowd of rubber neckers. Traffic is crawling as the citizens hope to see something juicy. I am thinking to myself, hey maybe for once they will see a show, just as the Officer pulls out a smooshed Big Mac and holds it up high in the air for all to see. "I've got him folks, I have got the Hamburglar!!!!!!!!!!" I think I am going to like these guys!

Can I go Home Now? My Brain is Full....

So I started at Close to Home PD yesterday (CPD) and I feel like I am going insane. Per dieming at Evil and Wonderful PD at the same time is very easy because the phones, codes, computers, pretty much everything besides the unit call signs are identical. Now at CPD the only thing the same as EPD/WPD is the Vesta phone system. Get this; the officers use 8 and 9 codes on the air, the computers take 5 and six codes to enter the call, but when the dispatcher says the call we use the penal codes...but no, wait sometimes we use 9 codes and the officers use penal codes...Huh????????????? It is so overwhelming. On top of feeling like I am listening to a foreign language, they use a beat system that is like liquid; it changes from hour to hour depending on how many officers are available. So for each call, even if you have worked there for years you, pick up a 5 page beat grid, look up the thomas guide # from the CAD screen, check the grid, then go to the line that has shows how many beats there are and scan across....blah blah blah blah, who cares. The point is: it is very time consuming and bizarre to me. Then there are the cool things. Every call's disposition is cleared with Y or N (report or no report.) That is awesome because you don't have to wade through a gazillion dispo choices. I love that officers here make their own call backs for RPs instead of calling me on the phone and having me call for them, which always leads to me tying up the air with, "caller needs to know....." questions. And fianlly my personal favorite so far; no constant tedious logging; what I mean is like prisoner milage and stuff, the officer says it on the air and my trainer said 10-4 but then she didn't type anything. I said, "Don't you have to log that?" She said, nope it is all recorded and I was like, SWEET! Now back to the negative, and sorry I am dumping so much, especially since I am really enjoying myself and am thankful for this opportunity, but if I can't vent to you guys, what is the point of this blog, right? Cool, alright, continuing on.... I am used to 10 codes, so it is really hard to listen to units doing common things and not understanding what they mean. It feels like they are talking gibberish (I can't even say what is you 20! ) So far the absolute hardest thing is all the different codes and the seemingly radomn/unrelated-ness of them. For example, if it is a burglary, why can't I say, "459" and then punch into the computer "459"? Nope I tell them it is a 933, knowing it is a 459 but put 581 into the computer. Isn't that crazy? And finally the all time WORST new thing about learning their "language": the keyboard is different! The keyboard! Just a few examples being, the enter key and the shift key are reversed, there are no scroll up/down keys and there is no delete key. It is so awkward. I mean it's kind of like a telling a baseball player that from now on he has to hit with his bat upside down---Sure if he is good, he can adapt but it will always feel wrong. It is really, really frustrating. I am really looking forward to knowing my shiznit again; I don't like the feeling of being lost and unconfident. What was cool was, within hours of starting, my trainer told a room full of people that I was, "ridiculously adept" and catching on really fast. Nice to get praise so soon, especially in front of cops. Well that is pretty much it for now. Next post I will tell you about my hilarious ride along. Goodnight!

PS: Amazing how one thing never changes, from agency to agency. I have gone from one end of the state of California to the other in my short illustrious dispatching career, and what was my first call? "I didn't call 911!" (Smile) Yup, I can do this.

The Life of Riley

It is time for me to tell Riley's tale (tail?). HotRodHanna's found kitten story inspired it.

Once upon a time in a land far far away there was a Princess/Dispatcher who felt like she lived way up on the sixth floor of the communications "tower." The fair dispatcher was called Rebecca. One night, very late, a young gang banger OD'd and died in his apartment. The young gang banger was not alone in his room, he had his new puppy in there too. An AKC red nosed pitt bull that he was going to use for breeding and intimidation. The young banger lived in an area where dog fighting and tying bricks around your Pitt's neck to bulk it up were common practices. What was to become of this poor puppy? Finally a hero arrived. The police were called in by a family member and a kind hearted officer rescued the puppy. The kind police officer could not keep her so he did a very wise thing; he sent a message via MDT to all the dispatchers in the whole tower that read, "Anyone want a 2 month old female puppy?" Now, the second I, er Rebecca saw this message her heart began to race. Rebecca thought, surely in a room full of 20+ dispatchers someone else will ante up......but just in case she wrote back, "If no one else takes her, I will." And held her breath as she hit the "send" key. Rebecca thought to herself, well even if I bring her home, I can find a home for her, I have found homes for nine other foster/rescue dogs so far, I can certainly place one more! After some time had passed Rebecca breathed a sigh, mixed with disappointment and relief, hardly missing a beat as she brought up the blinking message on the bottom of her screen that read, "She is all yours." Rebecca blinked in surprise. Oh my gosh what have I done? She thought, staring at the message. Slowly Rebecca got up for her break and called her husband, oh I mean, Prince. Rebecca was not worried about her Prince's reaction, after all five years ago, he had been the one to rescue and bring home 2 of their other dogs. Problem was; 1 planned dog (Xena) + one puppy abandoned at Walmart (Gabby) + one puppy abandoned in a Church bathroom (Bailey) + "a two month old female foster puppy yet to be named" = a Prince and a Princess who are out numbered 2 to 1! Oh well Rebecca thought, bring it on! Thus a 3 dog household became a 4 dog household and now 4 years later, they all live HAPPILY EVER AFTER!

Good Week or Bad Week?????

Chris has been shot at THREE times this week! Can you believe that. So last night after the second time, the Sgt. calls a critical debriefing and tells everyone to be real careful, the city is going to crap, etc.,(homicides last year at this time were at 57 this year there are already over 100), and not 5 minutes after Chris and his partner leave the station they get shot at again! I am thinking now is a good time to play the lottery! Tonight is his friday. One more night and I can relax for 2 days. Just one more night, one more night, one more night, onemorenightonemorenightonemorenight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yikes...That IS Pretty Bad....

So my husband was grumbling about being forced to partner up all next month with this guy we will call "J."

Me: Come on Chris, he can't be that bad, can he?

Chris: He pulled his asp out during the last code 3 cover call.

Me: Well that's good, shows he is not afraid to use it....

Chris: IT WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF A SHOOT OUT!!!!!

Me: Holy crap!......So how much sick time do you have saved up?

Tell Me, You Did NOT Just Say That !

When Chris got out of the police academy, I had already been a dispatcher for almost 2 years, so I found some of his early snafus and mishaps quite funny and endearing. One day while Chris was still on "break in", he came home from a long day and told me the following story. He and his FTO were on the freeway running out plates, so he could practice his phonetics and get used to giving information to the dispatchers over the radio. He called in a plate, that had the above image in the center of it. (Note: when calling out a plate like this, you ignore the images, and read them out like they aren't even there.) Well, Chris not knowing how to read it, said: "Sam, Adam, Mary......(Huge open mic'd pause)....Kid's tiny hand......One, two, three." While he told me about the massive ammount of radio clicks he got and how his Training Officer's jaw dropped, I about wet myself laughing.
Hmmm.....Maybe you have to be a California dispatcher/cop to find this funny.... [Bet you "got" why this was so funny, huh Hotrodhanna?] Shoot, howdy I'd a paid a lot to have seen his dispatcher's reaction!

The Ideal Place to Send Some of my RPs......

Finally, I can send some of those, seemingly un-help-able citizens to a place, where they can get the help the truly deserve, er, need.....

Please Hold While I Transfer You To.....Anyone But Me

A caller today said, "I have a general question that is quite specific...." I just didn't have the patience and immediately transfered her to the records clerk. Does that make me an ass, since that poor lady is overworked/underpaid. Yeah, but I'd do it again in a heart beat! Mwoooha ha ha ha!!!!!! (Evil laughter)

SWAT (Sit, Wait, and Talk)

Oldie but goodie from HPD: If you are going to call out a full SWAT assignment and yell out commands for hours and hours on your mega-phone-thingy to an armed and dangerous suspect, holed up inside his home.......MAKE SURE HE IS ACTUALLY THERE!!!!! 16 hour stand off ended when they raided the house, only to find it empty. The suspect didn't slip out un-noticed; he was never there! Whoops.