Police academy week 1 (no, I didn't fire a taser)

So, I didn't get to fire a taser...but I did see a police officer discharge one!

Yes, I'm just back from my first week of police academy.

Tonight was more of an orientation, hearing from the captains from the different sections of the city, getting an overview of the program, etc. However, there were a few great nuggets. For example, I learned from the captain for my quadrant of the city that it is the "busiest" (polite term for the most calls to the police). Luckily, while we are the busiest, we do not have the most serious crimes - the homicide capital is another quadrant of the city. Makes sense, we have the drugs, the breaking and enterings, larceny, etc. You know, normal crime.

I also learned there are 11,000 people in my city of 200,000 with outstanding warrants out for their arrest. Wow. Beware on match.com, ladies. Just saying - the odds are good that if you go on enough first dates in this city that you are going to date a criminal.

Additionally, I learned about the topics for the next nine weeks. Next week we're going to learn about traffic stops and procedures AND will get to "drive" a police car. OK, "drive" will probably mean just in the parking lot but hey, how fun will that be? Week eight will be about Vice Squad (drugs and hos - oh yeah) and week nine, according to Gerri (who, by the way, was the super star of the class because all the cops know her. This is because it is her second time in the class and she was chosen to participate again even though they only took 30 of the 150+ applicants. She's a rock star.), will be the highlight of the program because we get to go in a simulator and shoot people. I know Gerri is counting down the days until Tuesday of week nine. She also advised me to request to do my ride along in the homicide section of the city because that's where I'll see the most action.

Now, if I can just get my hands on a taser...

Accepted!

My instinct was correct. Guess who has been accepted to Citizen Police Academy (CPA)? You guessed it!

The training starts TONIGHT.

I'm totally pumped. Sure, I'm actually totally exhausted because I'm training for a marathon (which is taking up crucial blogging time, sorry, readers!) and work is busy as always but this is going to be a goldmine of blog topics - at least I hope it will!

First class is tonight from 6:30 - 10 PM (talk about hard core). I'm looking forward to seeing Gerri and my fellow wannabe vigilantes in just an hour or so.

I'll be sure to keep you posted on "CPA!"