Strange days at work

I am a field trainer/evaluator at work. That means I teach probationary officers how to do the job and I evaluate them after their training to see if they can do the job. If I am training, I have the trainee in the car with me for three weeks. If I am evaluating, I have the trainee for one week. Our academy has been pumping out classes of probationary officers at a brisk pace. The city is trying to increase the number of officers, but is actually barely keeping up with attrition. The fact that five to six academy classes is just keeping us even should scare the citizens since the city has plans for only two classes this fiscal year. Since we have had lots of probationary officers in need of training and evaluating I am rarely riding by myself at work. This has it positives and its minuses. One of the pluses is I have a little free time at work while the probationary officer writes reports. I do my required documentation while they write, but I still have a little free time. Some trainers use the free time to beat/complete iPhone games. I typically use the time to browse the Internet or even write this blog. Yesterday evening, my father asked me why I did not write the night before. He said that I had been writing almost nightly, so he wondered what kept me from it last night. Work actually.

It seems that Patrick, the last probationary that I recently evaluated has decided to ride with a friend in 2 district. I was finished evaluating him, and my next probationary has not come to night shift yet from evening shift. I completely understand. Two district tends to be a little more exciting than 1 district, and the officer that he is riding with is a lot closer to him in age. You see, Patrick is the first probationary that I have trained or evaluated that I was old enough to have been his father. Patrick turned 21 with 2 weeks left in the academy. His mother actually purchased his pistol for him, because in Texas you have to be 21 to purchase a firearm. His mother is an officer as well. Come to find out, she is my age.

So, with Patrick in 2 district and my next probationary still on evening shift, I am riding by myself. I actually get to drive. That also means that I have to do all of the paperwork and report writing as well. And last night, I was busy. We had 10 units in 1 district and it was a Thursday, so you would think that I would not be real busy. Wrong. It seems that my shift commander has decided to leave the comfy confines of his office and try to be the po po again out on the streets. He thinks that the fourth ward, which is in my beat, needs to be cleaned up. So, the commander gets our sergeant and 5 units, 4 from 1 district, and puts them all out on a special assignment at 1:30 AM. That takes those units out of the calls for service loop. Meaning they can not be dispatched to calls for service, the primary duty of the patrol officer. Two other 1 district units are busy on calls in 2 district and 2 other units are busy with report calls. That left two units to cover 1 district during the busiest time of the night. The two hours around when the bars and clubs close. I was one of those units. So, I was a little busy. Luckily, my commander is off on Friday and Saturday nights, so he can not take half of the units in the district and put them out of service to play on the real busy nights. I asked my sergeant what arrests the 5 units, 1 sergeant, and 1 lieutenant made while cleaning up the ward that night, none. Outstanding.