Went on my first ride-a-long tonight. Officer Slivers. They said they'd pair up genders together. But noo.. I was with a male officer. Awkward. And apparently its really weird to just be curious about the police and request a ride along. Apparently its not normal to not have a reason to want to ride along. (Slivers)"So...why did you request this?" "Because I felt like it. Because I'm curious." (another officer) "Because she's curious? Have you ever dealt with that before?" (Slivers) "This is my first...curious.. ride along I've had." Apparently most ride alongs are forced by Dispatch people or curious dispatch, or in training. Me, I was just a curious civilian. I was definitely....uh... nervous. I don't really like cops. But by the end of the night (and finding out that Slivers actually has a personality and humor) I was loosening up. He gave me the run down on, well, everything as if I was being trained. He honestly didn't know what to do with a curious civilian. He showed me where all the homeless people set up camp by the railroad tracks. Its funny how he stumbled on words trying to make his job sound exciting. He introduced me to all his 'buddies' as "the ride along". I don't think he ever learned my name. Anyways... first we went to a house like a couple blocks from Mindys house (we stayed in the Glendale area) on a dispute about a guy that just got out of jail and wanted to see his gf and baby girl, but she didn't..wait for him in jail and moved on and wouldn't let him see his kid. Mothers rights in Utah. woowoo. There was a lady officer on scene (why couldn't I be paired up with her?) and she was basically saying that's a civil matter and she doesn't deal with those, she does criminal. So as far as custody, court, family issues and stuff - the police dont do. It was then that I realized that all I do is civil. Custodys, divorces, adoption, etc. I don't know anything about criminal! That would be a huge change if I changed fields. Then we...got bored (which was most of the night) and went on calls that ..basically the rest of the police unit was on just to watch and be..entertained. So there was like 5 cars in one parking lot watching two guys do the work just cuz they were all bored. We just love the police and what they do, don't we? After that was over we wandered around some more. He showed me common drug houses, back alleys and grafiti from the Avenues gang. Woo. Then we got a "molestion investigation". We showed up first on scene and this furious mother and father were a ranting while their eight year old girl was in a car in the driveway. The first thing I heard the mother say is "Oh look hunny, theres a girl cop you can talk to her". Gah! Slivers just tried to get the parents informations names, numbers, SS# etc. The police can't exactly interview the victim on these kinds of cases. They have professionals for that at the hospital. The police just try to find the suspect. The mother basically directed the story to me. So I just sat there and listened while Slivers was trying to tell this lady that I was 'just in training' (he didn't know how else to explain curious citizen to her). But hey, I got the story firsthand. The 8 yr old was bleeding since Friday (today is Tuesday) and she claimed she fell off her bike. Mother thought it was period cuz it kept bleeding (at 8 yrs old?!?!) but she took her to the clinic. The clinic said to take her to Primary childrens to check it more thoroughly b/c it seemed evidence of ...uh tampering with? Mother asked girl if anyone had 'touched' her or anything. Girl confessed that a grandfather (a relative about 60 yrs old) had 'touched' her several times. (Somehow out of that Slivers had gotten that grandfather dude raped her. Touch? Penetrate? Same thing? Yeah. Whatever.) And apparently they had known that this old guy was a registered sex offender. Do you know how many kids live in that house? What are the parents thinking? Mother then called father at home (with relative) and told him the accusations. Father got pissed and threatened 60 yr old dude and then dude got in his truck and took off. What a bunch of thinkers. Run him off and THEN call the cops and see if they can find him. Of course the ol' man isn't coming back! Anyways, we spent the rest of the night at the house. While the others were out looking for the suspect, his job was just to watch the Crime Lab come in and collect evidence (bedsheets, clothes, etc). Crime Lab took, well, FOREVER. Meanwhile, the cop and I were stuck with all the little children asking us questions. One of the girls asks almost disgusted like while pointing at me "Why do you have a giiirrl?" It was kinda funny and cute. It was like 10pm and these kids were still up and screaming. Slivers and I discussed how if they were our kids they would be asleep by this time. The rest of the time Slivers spent making fun of the ghetto house with the crime lab and chatting up a storm. I thought it was...stupid they were talking so rudely while in the house, but I guess they find their entertainment where ever they go? About 10pm Slivers had called to get a guy to come take his place of watching three other people take pictures so he could start his paperwork on the situation (and get me home). Eventually this black cop came, complaining up a storm, he doesn't want to do his job and everyone is so slow and this isn't how the nightshift does things etc. Blah blah. Whatever. Stand here. Watch those people. Then leave when they do. Got it black guy with gun? Good. Simple really. I started the ride at about 6 or 6:30pm. We were at the house about 7:30 - 8pm. So we had been at that house for like three hours. I couldn't stand anymore. My feet hurt. I was getting hungry. And it was freezing for the majority of it. So we finally got to take off. We were only like 5 minutes away from the station. Kinda funny. He assumed I had drove. I didn't. I told him where my sister lived and he dropped me off. Earlier he gave me a key to his car and said if I wasn't comfortable I could go sit in his car. So at the end of the night I traded the key for my purse in his trunk. He fergot about the key tho. I had to wave it in his face a couple of times. I shoulda kept it. He said "Next time you should come on a Friday or Saturday when the shootings happen" I don't know if thats...an encouraging invitation... thanks? Anyways, Mindy took me home. I recanted some of my story. Mainly my observation that I was right about how bored cops are. Although he did confess that cops don't usually like to do traffic stops when they wander around bored. Now if someone blatantly runs a stop light in front of them or something obvious like that then they will. But they don't want to be stuck on a traffic stop in case something 'cooler' happens, such as a shooting or a chase and they aren't available to take the call. They don't want to be tied up with a measly, boring traffic stop if they could be apart of a shooting. Such great priorities I think. But I'm sure they still pull ppl over to give them something to do when they know things are going slow. And he also proved my hunch that they like to pile charges on someone. They literally get out their ordinance/law reference and look for the tiny insignficant laws that the citizens will never know about (so they can't contest) and charge them with as many as they can. So you get pulled over for speeding. By the end of the night you get a ticket for speeding, a fix it ticket, an improper lane change ticket, a not yeilding to traffic ticket (all this happening while you pulled the car over) and then a failure to cooperate in some way. All started with speeding. But they just can't get you for ONE thing. What a waste of time. Anyways... Then I had nice warm ramen soup and went to bed. Mmm food. Twas a good day.