First Ride Along > Brothers Of The Shield

Posted: 10/30/2007 3:33:43 AM EDT

Wow, just had my first ride along Friday night, 9pm to 7am stayed the whole time too. It was truly amazing and id go again everyday if i could. This has assured me that police work is what i wanna do for the rest of my life. We did like 5 car stops and a few calls.
Car stops:

No Headlights
Ran a red light, we were sitting behind this dumb ass as she pulled through the light seconds b4 it was green, she ended up going to jail for having a different cars tags on hers and then driving on suspended.
Driving with Brights on
Some car turned off trying to get away from us when we were trying to get behind them, raised the suspicion level on them and then they made an illegal turn so we lite em up but they were clean and just got an illegal turn violation.

Calls:

Disturbing the peace, just some stupid party in an apartment we told em to turn it down and didnt get any more calls.

Hit and run, guys took his sports car and took a turn at 50 and had been drinking a little bit, went into his neighbors yard over the curb and broke the fuck outta his car ending up leading an oil trail to his house 3 houses down. We go into his house, check out his car in the garage and hes getting his insurance for the female cop we went to the all with when she see the handle of a gun in his floor board. She yells at him to stop moving but he tries to tell her its fake and goes to grab it anyway and got throw down on his ass and the officer i was riding with had his gun drawn. Guy almost gets shot for not listening.

Domestic Violence, Guy calls the cops because girlfriend and him have been fighting, we get there and the guy is drunk as shit and had slapped his girlfriend so he basically called the cops on himself.

Walk in Stabbing, Kid gets stabbed at a party at 4am, his friends drive him to the hospital but dont remember were the party was or how to get there, kid gets 19 Staples and almost dies. its a gang related stabbing so no one is talking, kid that got stabbed has already been shot b4 and is prolly gonna die the next time.

Hit and run #2, Guy hits an ambulance and runs away, we go shooting across the city in the last known direction, odds of them catching him are slim to none.

Sorry for the long post, i just wanted to show everyone how much fun i had, ive always envied what you guys did and have the utmost respect for police officers and hope to join your ranks in the next few years.

Posted: 10/30/2007 3:55:34 AM EDT

[#1]

Sounds like you had a lot of fun..

I am meeting with a professor at college to go over procedures to start one next January.

Posted: 10/30/2007 2:10:59 PM EDT

[#2]

When you become a LEO you won't think that riders are all that fun when you get one

.

Posted: 10/30/2007 3:05:39 PM EDT

[#3]

Quoted:
When you become a LEO you won't think that riders are all that fun when you get one

.

Why do you say that?

Posted: 10/31/2007 5:34:15 AM EDT

[#4]

I've had a few that I didn't mind on nights we were slow, but I've had too many that were only there to "have fun." Sorry, but I'm not a designated entertainer while I'll try to do my job. Now, the prospective recruits & interns aren't much trouble at all. They usually get involved & are genuinely interested in learning from my partners & I. It's the ones that want to talk on their cells while telling their friends how cool it was that someone just received a ticket or ones that want to talk about everything other than what my job entails.

And the females that ride from the citizens academy because they heard they could hook up with an ofc, married or single. Those folks are wasted space & I hate having to move my gear bag to the trunk to make room for them. If I don't have a recruit with me for the pay period, which can be many months a year sometimes when we've had a hiring binge, I'll pass on riders & they go to the less senior guys on the shift.

Posted: 10/31/2007 5:52:01 AM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
When you become a LEO you won't think that riders are all that fun when you get one

.

+1

Posted: 10/31/2007 6:37:53 AM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
I've had a few that I didn't mind on nights we were slow, but I've had too many that were only there to "have fun." Sorry, but I'm not a designated entertainer while I'll try to do my job. Now, the prospective recruits & interns aren't much trouble at all. They usually get involved & are genuinely interested in learning from my partners & I. It's the ones that want to talk on their cells while telling their friends how cool it was that someone just received a ticket or ones that want to talk about everything other than what my job entails.

And the females that ride from the citizens academy because they heard they could hook up with an ofc, married or single. Those folks are wasted space & I hate having to move my gear bag to the trunk to make room for them. If I don't have a recruit with me for the pay period, which can be many months a year sometimes when we've had a hiring binge, I'll pass on riders & they go to the less senior guys on the shift.

Other than making sure I don't brag about how 'cool' it is to see people being pulled over...

What else should I be doing?

Posted: 10/31/2007 7:32:53 AM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
I've had a few that I didn't mind on nights we were slow, but I've had too many that were only there to "have fun." Sorry, but I'm not a designated entertainer while I'll try to do my job. Now, the prospective recruits & interns aren't much trouble at all. They usually get involved & are genuinely interested in learning from my partners & I. It's the ones that want to talk on their cells while telling their friends how cool it was that someone just received a ticket or ones that want to talk about everything other than what my job entails.

And the females that ride from the citizens academy because they heard they could hook up with an ofc, married or single. Those folks are wasted space & I hate having to move my gear bag to the trunk to make room for them. If I don't have a recruit with me for the pay period, which can be many months a year sometimes when we've had a hiring binge, I'll pass on riders & they go to the less senior guys on the shift.

I had my internship about a year ago, and I had a few officers that just hated riders...and I know why, because we had a few interns that were IMO idiots. I tried to mainly not get in the way and ask serious questions about the job...but yeah, I can see why some officers wouldn't like riders, because some are morons. I just hope that most thought I was OK, some of the officers seemed to like me alright.

Posted: 10/31/2007 2:55:05 PM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I've had a few that I didn't mind on nights we were slow, but I've had too many that were only there to "have fun." Sorry, but I'm not a designated entertainer while I'll try to do my job. Now, the prospective recruits & interns aren't much trouble at all. They usually get involved & are genuinely interested in learning from my partners & I. It's the ones that want to talk on their cells while telling their friends how cool it was that someone just received a ticket or ones that want to talk about everything other than what my job entails.

And the females that ride from the citizens academy because they heard they could hook up with an ofc, married or single. Those folks are wasted space & I hate having to move my gear bag to the trunk to make room for them. If I don't have a recruit with me for the pay period, which can be many months a year sometimes when we've had a hiring binge, I'll pass on riders & they go to the less senior guys on the shift.

Other than making sure I don't brag about how 'cool' it is to see people being pulled over...

What else should I be doing?

It's not bragging if you're legitimately interested in the job, etc. The best ride-along, IMHO, comes with an open mind and tries to learn and ask questions. I think what most guys dislike is having someone who a) doesn't have a personality and just sits there staring out the window and b) the annoying guys who gets in the way.

Posted: 10/31/2007 3:15:41 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
It's not bragging if you're legitimately interested in the job, etc. The best ride-along, IMHO, comes with an open mind and tries to learn and ask questions. I think what most guys dislike is having someone who a) doesn't have a personality and just sits there staring out the window and b) the annoying guys who gets in the way.

I tend to ask questions.. and have a open mind.

However, I tend to be pretty quiet unless I know the person pretty well. When talking about my personal life... but I tend to ask a good amount of questions about the profession in general.

I did a internship (not a ride along however) with the NJSP this past summer. I asked ton of questions, and they wanted me back (might be doing it again in the Spring). However, because I tend to shy away from talking about my personal life in a work type setting, I might have seemed to 'lack' a personality, where as I really don't.

But the best piece of advice I was given when in a ride along is;

"Ask how to work and use the radio".

Posted: 10/31/2007 3:29:43 PM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:

Quoted:
It's not bragging if you're legitimately interested in the job, etc. The best ride-along, IMHO, comes with an open mind and tries to learn and ask questions. I think what most guys dislike is having someone who a) doesn't have a personality and just sits there staring out the window and b) the annoying guys who gets in the way.

I tend to ask questions.. and have a open mind.

However, I tend to be pretty quiet unless I know the person pretty well. When talking about my personal life... but I tend to ask a good amount of questions about the profession in general.

I did a internship (not a ride along however) with the NJSP this past summer. I asked ton of questions, and they wanted me back (might be doing it again in the Spring). However, because I tend to shy away from talking about my personal life in a work type setting, I might have seemed to 'lack' a personality, where as I really don't.

But the best piece of advice I was given when in a ride along is;

"Ask how to work and use the radio".

There is absolutely nothing wrong with not talking about your personal life... If anything, IMO, that is a beneficial trait, as 99% of LEO's will tell you to keep your home life home and your work life at work...

Back before I became a LEO myself, I rode with the guys probably 75% of my nights off, because I couldn't get enough. The guys all knew me from dispatch, b/c when I worked dispatch, they'd come in on their down time and hang out with us, play cards, surf the web, etc. I got 2 pretty good friends from ride alongs. In fact, if I wanted to get one of them to drive 6.5 hours, I would've had one of them pin my badge. Still regret that one.

Get out there, have fun, be safe, make sure you take as much away from it as you possibly can, and learn the job if it's what you want to do.

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