I was talking with some friends about the State of the World today (typical spoiled liberal arts college kid bull, really), and the topic of police came up. Various not-terribly-complimentary phrases were used. I know that the city where I live in has some major police problems - they keep lowering the requirements to join the police and there’s been one or two skeletons dragged out of the closet recently.
Then I got thinking, and came to the realization that I have no idea what in Og’s name a police officer does all day. The private security guards at my school spend their days opening doors for students who locked themselves out and drinking coffee (or so it seems). Police, in my experience, do the following:
*Keep a car parked at the Plaza downtown, which I’ve never seen any actual officers near.
*Respond to police-themed 911 calls.
*Whatever they do to respond to the dozen or so burglaries always listed in the police blotter in the paper.
So, when they’re not responding to the ten thefts in town per day, what do cops do? Just drive around looking for trouble? Write traffic tickets? Sit around a police station? I’m not trying to be sarcastic; it’s something I truly have no idea about and would like to remedy my ignorance.
In that case, you could contact your local police department and arrange a “ride along.” Most departments do them, and it’s a great way to see what police actually do. You’ll ride along with an officer all day, responding to calls and whatnot.
I did one and we … well, let’s see what I can remember … we responded to a fire call that turned out to be a meth lab gone wrong, busted up a beach party complete with underage drinkers and couches dragged onto the beach, looked around for a homeless guy supposedly wandering in traffic, and observed a gang vigil. Those were the biggies. We also ate lunch, interrupted a couple that were engaged in a heated (yelling) argument, took a few statements, joked around with other officers who responded to cover us, and ran a few plates to see if cars were stolen. Pretty neat experience, all in all.
You don’t watch Law and Order? I always thought the Law half of the show was pretty accurate (within the limits of television portrayals), though it is set in New York, which would presumably have a lot more crime than many other cities.
My brother in law is a cop. He has worked for several places, and the jobs have been very different. When he was a city cop, he rode around answering calls all day long. Some of the calls were serious, like shootings or a robbery. Other calls were like when an old woman kept dialing 911 because her husband wouldn’t give her sex. Cops meet interesting people…
He worked for the dept of natural resources, and spent most of his time just driving around. He occasionally chased teenagers out of the park and confiscated their illegal underage alcohol. He thought the job was too boring and quit.
He also worked in a more rural environment. He never just sat around the station, but it wasn’t the fast paced always on a call type of work that he did in the city. He got bored with this too, and went back to city work.
He also did a couple of years patrolling inside schools. He basically walked around the school hallways and playgrounds all day long. This was in the type of area where playground shootings were not unheard of.
Late at night in the rural job he would sometimes just park the car along the road and kinda doze until someone came by and tripped his radar gun. Other than that, he never really sat anywhere, and (unlike the stereotype) never spent much time in donut shops either.
What we do every day depends completely on the type of jurisdiction and department. In busy areas, the patrol officers just go from call to call all shift. I’ve talked to Tacoma officers who have 10-20 calls pending when they start their shift, and they just keep coming in all day. They don’t even respond to low priority calls.
I work in a small tourist town. For the most part I just patrol the streets, making traffic stops or checking out anything suspicious. During the summer the call volume goes way up, but this time of the year it’s pretty slow. On my 12-hour shift tonight, I’ve had three calls.
Then after a long day, they have tense conversations with their ex-wives about alimony and then take a blonde bar chippie back to the houseboat for some gin-soaked loving.
I assume you are primarily talking about patrol officers. I work in a suburban area stuck between urban areas. Our number one priority is to respond to calls for service. Many of these are medical calls. Since we have a volunteer rescue squad a police officer will get there long before the ambulance. We render first aid and of course write the report. Some calls are to take reports, thefts which already occurred, damaged property, identity thefts…things we can’t do anything about but we take the initial report for the detectives to follow up on. Then there are inprogress calls, domestics, someone is breaking into my car, there is a fight in front of my house, runaways… we take the appropriate action and of course write the report. Part of the job consists of traffic enforcement. Some of the time we get assignments; someone complains to the mayor or chief about speeders on their street (or parking or running stopsigns) and we have to go and do traffic enforcement in that area for a time. And write the report. Other times we do traffic enforcement when we happen to see violations or if we choose to work on a street we know has problems. Then there are the other calls. Trees down in the roadway, fires, loose dogs, dead deer, shots fired (fireworks), loud parties…
In between you patrol. Part of it is a show of force. People in the neighborhoods see that you are there. Those that might want to do bad things also see that you actively patrol. Part of it is checking those places you know are problem areas, high crime areas. Checking businesses, especially at night. Just looking for things that are out of the ordinary. Part of the job is community caretaking. Calling in when you see a traffic light is burned out, a bad pothole in the road, debris… things that the DPW needs to come in and fix.
Oh and I forgot, lots of people come in to file reports. We get pulled off the road to come in and take the report.
Sometimes it is very busy. I go from call to call and have pending reports stacking up. I put very few miles on the car those days, a lot of my time is spent writing. Somethings take a long time to do. A criminal arrest may take two hours to complete. We do everything, there is no one at headquarters to process the prisoner. We do the reports, take the photo, fingerprint, write out the complaint and transport to the county if needed. Domestics with an arrest, restraining order, DV counselor calls to the judge…may take 3 hours and up.
Sometimes it is not so busy. Things tend to slow down in the winter. The thing is you never know. Your night can get real busy because of the next 911 call or that call may never come. On those slow nights you fall back on your patrol techniques, patrol the back streets, check the parks, check the schools check the businesses…
Forgot to add the traffic accidents. Sometimes we get a lot, sometimes not so much. We render first aid at the scene, try to keep traffic flowing, take the report, clear the roadway…
You forgot about the guy who is about to retire. He always gets shot before the end of the shift. Saves the government a lot of money, no retirement pay.
I went with a cop for ten years. He answered emergency calls and patroled around always watching for anything that looked suspicious. He also had to go to people’s houses and tell them someone they loved was dead. That was the absolute worst thing to do.
We had a fatal accident in town. One of the guys on the shift went to the house to make notification. The victim’s mother had Alzheimers. He told her that her son died in a motorcycle accident. She started to sob. Ten minutes later she would ask for her son. He then would tell her that he died in a motorcycle accident. She started to sob. Ten minutes later she would ask for her son…
Okay, I see how this is. I make a wise-assed post after the question had been seriously (and well) answered, only to have you post something like this while I’m composing.
Oh, man. Please tell me she had some other family who could come over and take care of her.
Thanks for the posts, all. It sounds (mostly from Loach) that absolutely everything you do gets documented - is that the case? I’m guessing it’s just an accountability thing?
Also, I’d like to point out that I showed excellent restraint in the OP by not asking about donut shops (if only because where I grew up the cops seemed to prefer 7-11 to Dunkin Donuts…).
I did three ride-alongs, about a decade ago - once in a regular zone car, another time in a high-priority response car, and finally in a police helicopter. All fascinating. For the first, most of the time we were driving around, ready to respond but also just “showing the flag” in neighborhoods where a nearby and highly visible police car might deter some crime. For the high-priority response car, we were on the go for the entire watch, including to a drug-related homicide which occurred probably less than two minutes before we arrived on the scene. (First time I’d ever seen a fresh corpse :eek: ). For the helicopter, it was all about traffic enforcement, although the pilot/cop told me that he often helps follow bad guys in backyard foot chases and highway car chases. He also - although it was a few minutes’ trip outside of his jurisdiction, and I insisted he didn’t have to - took us to my house and circled overhead! Pretty cool.
I’ve known a lot of cops, as a prosecutor and now as a magistrate. The great majority are smart, honest, hard-working and committed to their communities. As a society we ask them to do a lot, and IMHO aren’t nearly appreciative enough of the dangers they face and the hassles they put up with daily.
