Hey guys, welcome back and thanks for coming back! We left off yesterday telling about the power hungry maintenance man and the mishap running the POPAT obstacle course.
I've been trying to think really hard about interesting things to write about that happened while also trying to keep them in chronological order and to be honest, it's giving my brain a workout. There were a lot of boring moments in rookie school... a lot. I enjoyed elements of law and arrest, search and seizure but I couldn't stand juvenile law, first aid, HAZMAT and a few others. So I'm going to skip over the parts of just sitting in the classroom when nothing really happened, other than maybe a little goofing off from the back row.
I bet at least one of you guys that has been paying close attention could see this coming from the hints that I've been dropping about her. We finally overthrew our class president! That's right, we had been discussing it amongst ourselves and also with the director behind closed doors to make sure it was appropriate. The director was 100% on board with the transition. We had already determined who would be replacing her and it was the man that automatically jumped up that one day from the front row to lead the class in reciting the code of ethics when the president wasn't there. As you could imagine, she took the news really hard and began crying... it was a bad day. At first she was upset and then angry because we had been talking about her and then stripped her of her title. But she had already been warned by the director about stepping up her game and being more of a role model to the class, so it's her own fault for not taking heed to the warning. The drama with this one is not over with by far...
BURNING RUBBER!
The first part of the program we did a lot of the boring stuff. We were issued a calendar that showed what classes we had on which days and I was like a little kid when I saw the pursuit driving and firearms block of instruction. As I mention before, I love adrenaline so put me in coach! The pursuit driving came first and you could just feel the energy in the class from everyone. The instructors were showing off their skills by chasing each other around the course, drifting and just having a ball. Yes, I said drifting. Back then we had a choice between two patrol cars, a Chevy Caprice with an LT1 350 (and absolutely no traction control) with a police package or a Ford Crown Vic Police Interceptor. The Chevy could literally burn the tires off of the rims and everybody wanted to drive that one. The track smelled like a drag strip on a Saturday night with all the rubber being burnt. Ahhh, I absolutely love the fresh smell of burnt rubber and gun powder, day or night, it doesn't matter.
After going through a bunch of safety mumbo jumbo from Safety Sally, we finally get to buckle in! Holy hell, is this really happening!? I will never forget the feeling I felt that night, it was so exciting! I chose to be the chase car while the instructor was the rabbit. It wasn't just a get in the car and go kind of thing. They made it as realistic as possible by having us follow the rabbit for a lap or two. If we observed the vehicle break the law, then we would radio in a traffic stop to dispatch accordingly and initiate a traffic stop. Then it was on like Donkey Kong, son! You were only allowed to hit so many cones before they would call the chase off and if the rabbit got so far ahead of you, then of course they would kill it as well. I can honestly say that I held my own against the instructor. It was so much fun and talk about an adrenaline dump! When those blue lights came on and the suspect vehicle began to run, it was just an amazing rush that I miss oh so, so badly. After chasing the instructor around the track, it was my turn to be the rabbit. I have to say that being the rabbit car was pretty awesome too! It wasn't as fun as being the chase car in my opinion but it was still a blast. And it was really difficult to shake the instructor off your ass, I couldn't do it! He pretty much stayed glued to my rear bumper the entire time. This is just a small part of the pursuit driving block of instruction. There's more things like high speed precision driving that I will get in to in the next chapter. To be continued
This post is part of a series of posts that will cover a large portion of my life beginning just before starting my law enforcement career. The content and pictures posted in said articles belong to @bluelightbandit. If you haven't read the prior posts, I highly recommend that you check those out to catch up to speed, thanks!
First post: https://steemit.com/story/@bluelightbandit/my-life-in-law-enforcement-a-true-life-story-1
Second post: https://steemit.com/story/@bluelightbandit/my-life-in-law-enforcement-a-true-life-story-2
Third post: https://steemit.com/story/@bluelightbandit/my-life-in-law-enforcement-a-true-life-story-3
Fourth post: https://steemit.com/story/@bluelightbandit/my-life-in-law-enforcement-a-true-life-story-4
Fifth post: https://steemit.com/story/@bluelightbandit/my-life-in-law-enforcement-a-true-life-story-5
Sixth post: https://steemit.com/story/@bluelightbandit/my-life-in-law-enforcement-a-true-life-story-6
