In the late 1970's I served as a Police Dispatcher on a small-town police force in the middle of the Mojave Desert in California. This was before the days of the "911" universal emergency telephone number. It meant that I wore a uniform like a police officer, but with a smaller badge, and no more police powers than any other citizen; I couldn't arrest or cite anyone, except as a "Citizens' Arrest".
My job consisted of working at the front desk of our small police station, answering the phone, taking complaints and dispatching police officers or calling out the volunteer fire department. It meant raising the flag in the morning in front of City Hall (if I worked the graveyard shift) and taking it down after 17:00 (if I worked the swing shift). It meant that after City Hall was closed for the day (after 17:00), I was the city government, for any emergencies, complaints, or troubles which the Good Citizens of Adelanto, California, thought the city government was responsible for handling.
In our police department the dispatchers handled all citizens who called or came in the front door, mostly just like the receptionist in any corporate lobby. If their business required a form, we gave them the right form and hleped them fill it out. If it required a police officer, we grabbed one if he was in the station, or got on the radio and had him report to either the station or the scene of the incident (Our town had one full-time officer per shift, augmented by reserve officers, usually two a night for swing shifts and weekends, and we kept them patrolling around the town and along the main highway through the desert, unless on break or when filing a report or bringing in an arrestee). And we handled all of the clerical functions, such as typing up the arrest/action reports from the officers' notes, filing citations with the County Clerk at the county courthouse, keeping the administration files for licenses and permits and such.
Our most important function, however, was to keep track of the officers' status - where they were, what they were doing, and who they were dealing with; and making sure that if they needed help, that it was rustled up and sent their way. We acted as the police officers' "lifeline", getting info that they needed, coordinating "mutual aid" with the California Higway Patrol ("CHP") or the County Sheriff's Department, keeping tabs on the Sherrif's Deputies working around the edges of our town, and watehcing their backs, as necessary, too. We kept logs (and mental pictures) of where officers were when they made a traffic stop or a house call, and coordinated any medical or fire response needed.
Small Town Law Enforcement and Peacekeeping in the rural American West is not much different from in a big metropolitan city - but it's different enough. It made for an interesting experience, and some amazing and sometimes humorous stories.
I learned a lot about Police Officers, their lives and activities, what they did and how they did it...and what it does to them. I learned enough to realise that I didn't want to follow the path to becoming a Police Officer - I frankly doubted that I was up to it, and it didn't look like it would leave one with many pleasant memories at the end of a long and happy life.
Police work is Corrosive to the Spirit - It seems inherent in the nature of the job, unfortunately. It changes how you look at your Fellow Man, and not for the better. It leaves you with certain prejudices, which are reinfoced to the point where they seem like certainties, and this affects one's behaviour and approach to the job, in bad ways. In the USA, the number of Police Officers who make it to a normal retirement (rather than for a disability, or "removed from service for everyone's best interest") is distressingly low. I firmly believe that Policemen should be retired on full pensions after 10 years of service, with time to find another career or life path, while they are still sane and socially adaptable enough (that is, not too badly soured) to make the change. I'm convinced that Society owes it to them for what we require them to do in our names, and for what they lose in the process.
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Topic: [EF20] Police (or related) furries? (Read 35486 times)