Saturday, June 18, 2011

Feel The Burn

The next few weeks...well they pretty much sucked.  However, it wasn't necessarily just because of the stresses of the academy.  Due to the fact the we were running and marching around for 15-16 hours a day...I became a victim of athlete's feet.  The body normally hosts a variety of microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi. Some of these are useful to the body. Others may, under certain conditions, multiply rapidly and cause infections. Athlete's foot occurs when a particular type of fungus grows and multiplies in your feet, especially between your toes. The most common symptom is cracked, flaking, peeling skin between the toes. The affected area is usually red and itchy.    It can develop from wearing closed toed shoes for long periods of time, keeping your feet wet for prolonged periods of time and sweating a lot.  The academy creates the perfect environment for these things to occur.  You're in boots all day long, you're always running all over the place causing your feet to be sweaty.  Even when you shower, you have such little time that you end up putting your socks on before your feet completely dry.

My feet itched and burned all the time.  When I was home on the weekend I bought some cream and I used it for at least a week and a half and saw no results.  My feet kept itching and burning.  I brought multiple pairs of socks and tried to change socks during the day if I had time, but nothing worked.  I just couldn't get rid of it.  Finally, through some advise from a friend of mine I found a cure.  I simply started to pee on me feet!  Every time I showered, I peed on my feet.  I thought it was crazy at first and it was tough to mentally make myself pee on my own feet but I was out of options.  Sure enough, within a few days...my feet had cleared up. 

I decided to look into this a little more to find out how this would do the trick.  Apparently, there seems to be some controversy on the idea of urine curing athlete's feet.  The compound urea is sometimes used in anti-fungal creams and has shown to break down fungus in some studies.  However, some medical experts argue that the concentration found in urine would not be high enough to cure athlete's feet.  I'm no medical expert so you can do your own research, but it worked for me.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Attention To Detail

The next few weeks continued as I had described.  Everyone had a roommate and we lived in a small room similar to that of a college dorm.  In the rooms there were two twin beds with one small pine wood nightstand between them.  Each room had two wall lockers, which was sort of a closet/dresser with  couple drawers inside that was built into the wall.  There was a small sink and mirror between the wall lockers.  On the other side of the room were two desks. We woke up everyday at 5:15 am to get a head start at making the "racks" or the beds.  They had to be made military style, as tight as possible with the hospital corners at a perfect 45 degree angle.  The clothes hanging in the wall lockers had to be facing a certain direction, hung up in a certain order, and organized to mirror the wall locker of your roommate.  All the buttons had to be buttoned and zippers zipped.  The drawers inside the wall locker which were sort of a tiny dresser also had to be organized a certain way.  The top drawer was for toiletries, everything was organized neatly, smallest item to largest item with the labels facing up.  The other drawers were for your clothes.  They also needed to be organized a certain way and all of your clothes had to be neatly rolled in the drawer.  Not only did roommates need to make sure that their things were perfectly identical, but the entire class had to have everything organized identically.  If you were changing, the blinds had to be put down...if you were not or if you ever left the room, the blinds had to be exactly half way up and the door had to be open.  The rooms had to be perfectly clean, meaning no dust anywhere, no pieces of lint on the carpet, no water spots in the sink...perfect!  

If anything was not squared away in your rooms, they would be trashed!  Everything in the wall lockers would be thrown all over the rooms, beds would be flipped over with sheets and blankets all over the room.   One time we came back and our mattresses were in the middle of the room, leaning against one another to make a teepee. I'm sure  you're thinking that this doesn't sound too difficult.  I was thinking the same thing before experiencing it.  Follow instructions and you're good right?  You make mistakes because you have no time.  Everytime you are changing clothes, making the racks or cleaning, you are trying to do it as quickly as possible.  The stress that you are under causes you to miss little details.

Every morning at 6am, we have morning stretch.  We form up as a class and march down to the gym, run some laps, do some stretching, and some other light exercises for about 20 minutes just to get the blood flowing. We have class 8 hours a day and have an hour of PT, physical training, everyday as well.  After dinner at night, we have to lift weights, study/type notes from the classes you had that day, and then clean the academy until it's time to go to bed. 

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner were no time to let down your guard and take a break.  We marched in, you got your tray, (whatever happened to be on the plate was what you took) and sat down at the table.  You ate your food as fast as you could.  There was no talking and no looking around, no looking at anything other than the food that was sitting in front of you.  I'm a slow eater typically so this was challenging for me.  I would take a drink after every bite of food I took to help me swallow it faster.  One day I timed the amount of time it took us to eat at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  From the time we started eating to the time we were leaving the cafeteria, it averaged out to be a little more than 5 minutes.  I don't know why but the academy has some infatuation with peanut butter.  I love peanut butter but I've never been anyplace where there is a jar sitting on every table.  A lot of times we didn't get enough food or didn't have enough time to eat everything so we just grabbed a scoop of peanut butter out of the jar to help fill you up. 



One day at lunch, the instructors were yelling at people while they were eating.  "Stop looking around! You're eyes should only be on your plate!  Hey You!! What are you looking at!"  They singled out two or three different people for looking around.   A few minutes later I looked up from my plate to look at the people at my table to see if they were done eating.  When we finished eating, we had to wait for everyone at the table to finish eating because we all had to get up at the exact same time.  I didn't want to be the one to hold up the table so I was checking to see if everyone was done.  BAD IDEA!

"Towers!!  Can't you follow directions!? Couldn't you hear me yelling at Rodriguez!?"

I freaked out and an excuse just blurted out of my mouth.

"Sir, I was looking for the peanut butter, Sir."  This was not true at all of course but it just came out.  As soon as I said it, I realized that the cadet right across from me had the peanut butter in his hands.  I freaked out again because I knew the instructor would see that and know that I was lying, which was the #1 wrong thing to do at the academy.  I quickly tried to prepare to counter the yelling that was about to take place. 

"He's got the peanut butter Towers! Right in front of you!"

I knew he was going to say that and the only thing I could come up with in the seconds that this unfolded was, "Sir, I was looking for the crunchy peanut butter, Sir."

This turned out to be the perfect excuse because the crunchy jar was sitting on the other side of the napkin holder just beyond the direction I was originally looking. 

"For God sakes, would somebody get him the peanut butter!" he yelled! 

I about shit my pants. I had narrowly avoided a disaster.

The purpose of this environment that is created is to train you to pay to attention to details.  It trains your eyes and your brain to notice when the smallest things are out of place.  If you are running down the hallway and don't notice the tiny piece of lint on the carpet and pick it up, you wished you would have.  This environment trains you for real life on the streets.  In the academy, if you miss something or don't pick up on a tiny detail, it's only a button or a dust bunny or a piece of lint.  On the street, however, it could be something much more important.  What if you miss the subtle signs that the interaction you having with a violator are about to go south?  What if you miss that gun or a knife?   It's the buttons and lint in the academy now, that will ensure that you go home at the end of your shift when it's real and you're on the street.

We lost our second guy by week 3.  He was on crutches for most of the week from running we did the week before.  I'm not too sure of the details, but basically he was told he'd be on crutches for a while.  The academy determined that it would cause him to miss out on too much, so he was sent home.  Going into week 4 we were down to 20 people.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Wake Up Call

I apologize for the lack of entries in the past 7 weeks.  To put it simply, there has been absolutely no time to do anything not related to the academy.  We just finished week 7 of the 18 week long police academy, so we're not quite half way.  I have tried to make notes of things I have experienced along the way.  I will do my best to walk you through the first few weeks of the academy. 


I arrived on the first morning at 0630, we were to report by 0700, so I was plenty early.  My car was loaded with everything we were required to bring.  I had a suitcase and a duffel bag full of enough underwear and pairs of socks for a week, a swimsuit, a robe, white t-shirts, sweatshirt, sweatpants, shower shoes, wrestling shoes, running shoes, boots, toiletries and shoe cleaning supplies, and my labtop in a labtop bag. I carried 6 hangers - 3 uniform shirts and 3 uniform pants.  I also had my duty belt, my gun, and almost 3,000 rounds of ammunition in the trunk of my car which I chose to leave there for the time being.  I walked into the lobby of the academy with Michelle and Scott, the other two that I was hired with in South Place who would be going through the academy with me.  Scott and I are both 22 but Michelle is a few years older than us at 26. 

There were several people already waiting in the lobby.  We would begin with a class of 22.  It was pretty quiet because everyone was so nervous for what was to come.  Inside the lobby there was a set of glass doors that led to another hallway.  On the other side of that hallway we could see the troopers walking back in forth in their stetsons, they would look through the doors at us and walk away, as if they were just waiting to pounce on us.  At exactly 0700, 3 troopers came busting through the doors screaming and yelling, "Pick up your trash and lets go!  Hurry Up!  Pick up your trash!  You're taking to long! Get your trash off the deck!"  I frantically hurried to try to round up all my stuff.  They led us down several dark hallways and back outside to the parking lot.  We walked so fast it was almost a jog, which was extremely difficult while trying to carry the suitcase, duffel bag, labtop bag, and uniforms.  The screaming and yelling continued.  By the time we got to the parking lot my legs were burning and I was already dripping in sweat.  We stopped in front of the entrance where we had gone in which made no sense because we literally just did a big circle around the building and came right back out to where we had started.  Two of the academy staff Sergeants introduced themselves.  "Get your trash off the deck!" they yelled.  Everyone had set down their bags on the pavement because they were tired from carrying them for so long.  We all struggled to pick up all of our crap.  Just as we got our bags hung on our arms, a Sgt. yelled again, "Get the trash out of your gun hand!  Carry everything in your left hand!  How are you supposed to reach for your weapon if you have trash in your gun hand!  We never carry anything in our gun hand!" 

After introductions by the academy staff, we followed them around to the barracks where we would put our belongings.  It was a long way to carry everything in just one arm.  I was soaked in sweat and every muscle in my body was burning.  When I got to my room I just dropped everything.  The next few days would consist of endless amounts of yelling!  We had a time limit for everything we did.  You got "x" amount of minutes to put your trash away and so on.  The stress level was through the roof and I don't recall a time in the first week where I wasn't drenched in sweat.  I later described the feeling to one of my buddies the best way I knew how.  You know when you wake up in the morning and realize, Oh crap! I'm late!  You run around the house on an adrenaline rush grabbing all of your things.  Well, that is how things are at the academy pretty much all of the time unless you are sleeping.  The stress causes you to lose fine motor skills.  I vividly remember trying to put my uniform on with instructors screaming at us from the hallway to hurry up!  I couldn't button buttons, put on socks, and couldn't even get my belt through the belt loops.  I was shaking because I was trying to work quickly and couldn't manage to do anything with my hands. 

We lost our first guy on the second night.  We were practicing marching in formation in the gym.  We had been marching for probably an hour and a half.  Despite being yelled at for everything throughout the duration of this, it really wasn't that hard and was a nice break, at least I thought so.  As it was called out for us to "column left", one guy "columned right" and went right out the gym door.  The Sgt. screamed from across the gym, "Where are you going!!"  "Oh shit, I thought, What just happened?"  Everyone was confused.  The Sgt. ran out after him and didn't come back so we just kept marching for at least another 30 minutes by ourselves in the gym until he came back in and told us that we would now be a class of 21.  You truly had to be there to appreciate the humor in the events because the guy who quit literally marched out! He pivoted and marched off to the right, in step and everything...right out the door.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Taser, Taser

This is the 10th installment in chronicling my journey into law enforcement.  If you'd like to read from the beginning, it is best to start at The Foundation.

We have been working 8 hour days since we got sworn in last week.  For the most part we have just been doing a whole lot of sitting around.  We were issued our duty weapon as well as our duty belt and uniforms for the academy that starts next week.  I have never really shot a hand gun in my life besides a .22 so this was pretty new to me.  We never had guns in the house when I was growing up so I was a little timid at first and took me a while before I started to feel comfortable just with loading and putting in the mags and practicing getting the gun out of the holster, and we were only practicing with dummy rounds!  Eventually we shot off live rounds at some targets just to familiarize ourselves with the weapons so that it isn't completely new to us when we shoot in the academy.  I didn't do too bad, but I definitely have a lot of room for improvement!  It is not as easy as they make it look in the movies.

They have been rotating us around so that we are able to meet different people and see different parts of the department in these two weeks before we head off to the academy.  I spent an afternoon in the dispatch center, watching them work and experiencing the things that they have to do on a regular basis.  As much as police officers like to complain about dispatchers, I could never do their job!  There are way too many computer screens, phone calls, and just tons of information coming from everywhere.

One day I spent the day with the detectives.  I sat in on an interview with one of the detectives.  We were interviewing this 16 year old male who was "sexting" with a 13 year old female.  The young man was straight forward and honest about everything, so the situation was used more to educate the teens than anything else. I'm sure they will be charged with unruly or something of the sorts, but its mostly just a thing to learn from. 

I also have spent several days riding along in the cruisers with patrol officers.  In those instances, I was on day shift so we didn't have anything too crazy happen.  We made some traffic stops, wrote some tickets, found a little marijuana once, found a couple different people driving under suspension, and stopped one guy for speeding who had a warrant and was then arrested.



Tonight we had Taser Training!  Tasers are used by police departments as a way to gain compliance from resisting individuals in a non-lethal way.  The photo to the right is actually the model we carry and used in our training.  Tasers use an electric current (50,000 volts) to stimulate the sensory and motor nerves to cause involuntary muscles contractions throughout the entire body.  The cartridge on the left end of the taser pictured holds two small dart like electrodes which are connected to the unit by a conductive wire.  There is a small barb on the end of this dart like probe, like what you would see on a fishing hook.  Those are fired out based on the propellant from a small nitrogen charge in the cartridge. When someone is shot, their brain's ability to control the muscles in the body is interupted, called neuromuscular incapacitation.  This is extremely painful and cannot be overcome. However, once the electricity stops flowing, the subject regains control of their body and pain ceases.  When you turn it on, pull the trigger and shoot someone, the cycle will last for 5 seconds.  The idea is that during these five seconds, your backup should be getting a hold of the suspect to gain control of his/her hands and get them cuffed.  Contrary to what some may think, the officers holding on to the suspect will not be shocked just because they are touching him/her...they are safe. 

We sat through a long slide show presentation and had to learn about all of this stuff and practice with empty cartidges.  It is the South Place PD's policy that all officers take at least a one second long shock.  Several of the officers I talked to took the full ride (5 seconds), so I decided that I would take the full ride as well.  You can do this one of two ways.  Either by being shot with the probes I described or they can clip alligator clips to you and you can do it that way.  The clips burn your skin and the probes is like being shot with fish hooks so it's your own preference.  I chose just to be shot with the probes.  When people are tased they fall to the ground, so two officers held on to me and helped lower me to the ground when my body lost control.  The instructor had two cartidges that had broken blast doors on the cartidge and he wanted to use those for the training.  I did not know this and there is a chance that the cartridges could malfunction without the blast doors, causing a "dud".  This happened to me of course, not just once, but twice!  I stood there in anticipation, scared to death as the officers hold on to me.  I told him I was ready,  he said "taser, taser", and then tried to fire.  Nothing happened.  I was like what the hell?  I breathed a sigh of relief, regained my composure and we tried this process again.  Nothing happened.  Ok I could not take this!  He grabbed a brand new cartridge and we repeated again. This time it worked. 

No words will ever make you understand the pain that you feel.  It was definitely the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life.  You tense up, have no control, fall to the ground, and 5 seconds feels like an eternity!  It doesn't just hurt where the probes go into your skin...the pain shoots through your whole body from your head to your feet, if I remember correctly at around 19 pulses per second.  When the 5 seconds was up, it was done..no more pain.  For a few minutes I felt a little bit tingly and I laid there until the other recruits pulled the probes out of my back.  Your body is still sort of numb so you really don't feel them coming out, and even if you do...it is no comparison to the pain you just experienced so you don't even care.  In the minutes thereafter, my body felt extremely drained.  Imagine how you feel after runnning a 5K or working out really hard, that is the sort of sensation that my body was experiencing after I recovered and was back on my feet.

It was so painful, it sucked.  I can honestly say I hope I never have to experience it again.  If we have to do it in the academy,  I am only taking the minimum time and that is it.  I can't imagine having to do it again....once was enough for me. 


Thursday, March 10, 2011

Law Enforcement Officers, Get Your Federal Perkins Loans Cancelled

Attention Law Enforcement Officers Who Have Attended College:

This may be old news, but it is new to me and I thought I would share with anyone interested.  As a full-time law enforcement officer you qualify to have your Federal Perkins Loans cancelled.  A borrower may have all or part of his or her loan (including interest) cancelled for engaging in public service and a law enforcement career is one of the qualifiers.  The provisions vary based on the date that your loan was disbursed.  I would encourage anyone who accepted a Perkins Loan to look into this to see if you qualify.

A borrower may be entitled to receive cancellation benefits for full-time service as a qualifying law enforcement or corrections officer. To establish the eligibility of a borrower for this benefit, the school must determine a) the borrower's employing agency is eligible and b) the borrower's position is essentials to the agency's primary mission.
  • A local, state, or federal agency is an eligible employing agency if it is publicly funded and its activities pertain to crime prevention, control, or reduction or to the enforcement of the criminal law. Such activities include, but are not limited to, police efforts to prevent, control, or reduce crime or to apprehend criminals; activities of courts and related agencies having criminal jurisdiction; activities of corrections, probation, or parole authorities; and problems relating to the prevention, control, or reduction of juvenile delinquency or narcotic addiction. Agencies that are primarily responsible for enforcement of regulatory, civil, or administrative laws are ineligible.
  • For the borrower's position to be considered essential to the agency's primary mission, he or she must be a full-time employee of an eligible agency and a sworn officer or person whose principal responsibilities are unique to the criminal justice system and are essential in the performance of the agency's primary mission. The agency must be able to document the employee's functions.
Individuals whose official responsibilities are supportive, such as those that involve filing, typing, accounting, office procedures, purchasing, stock control, food service, transportation, or building, equipment or grounds maintenance are not eligible regardless of where these functions are performed. A borrower employed as a public defender also does not qualify for this benefit. Note: Borrowers serving as campus police or military police do qualify for this benefit. The cancellation rate is as follows:
  • 15% of the original principal loan amount and accrued interest for the first and second years of service.
  • 20% of the original principal loan amount and accrued interest for the third and fourth years of service.
  • 30% of the original principal loan amount and accrued interest for the fifth year of service.
Eligibility - Perkins loans made on or after November 29, 1990 or NDSL loans made before November 29, 1990 for service performed beginning October 7, 1998
Maximum Amount Canceled - Up to 100%


For more information - ACS-Education.com

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Oath Of Office

This is the 9th installment chronicling my journey into law enforcement.  If you would like to read from the beginning, it is best to start with The Foundation.

The goal was to be in bed by 23:00, I think I was there by 00:30, but I know I saw almost every hour there after.  I have never been so happy to be up at 5am.  The 90 minute car drive went surprisingly smooth, I plan to rotate between commuting, staying at a friend's, and splitting a hotel with another recruit because we still have two and a half weeks before the academy starts.

We were sworn in by taking the oath of office.  I was excited because my parents, youngest brother, and grandparents were going to be in attendance for the ceremony!  When I got downstairs to the first floor of the Municipal Building I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they also brought along a close friend and mentor of mine.  He has been in law enforcement for some time and has helped me out tremendously throughout all of these hiring processes, so it meant a lot to me that he was there.

The mayor said a few short words and then called us three recruits to come up separately to take our oaths. IDressed in a black suit with pin stripes, a light blue shirt, and a tie, I can't describe how I was feeling just before I was called up.  I was trembling just slightly in a state of nervousness, but it still didn't feel "complete" yet.  We hadn't gone through the academy yet and would still have to make it through 18 weeks of basic before our graduation date in July.  It is required that all recruits are sworn officers before they are sent to the academy so this explains why it may seem a little backwards to some of you.  I think I will finally feel that level of accomplishment that I've been longing for when I graduate from the academy and can finally say that I am a certified police officer.  However, the swearing in ceremony was still very exciting for me and there was definitely a sense of accomplishment in knowing that the hiring processes were over with!!

"I, Thomas S. Towers, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of this State, and the Ordinances of the City of South Place and will faithfully, honestly, and impartially discharge the duties of Police Officer for the City of South Place."

My Dad has been on the Fire Dept. back home for over 30 years.  The last 10 years or so he has been serving as Chief.  He was there to pin my police badge on me for the first time.  I felt that it was a pretty special moment for us both.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

End Of A Chapter - Lessons in Rhetoric and Life

This is the 8th installment chronicling my journey into law enforcement.  If you would like to read from the beginning, it is best to start with The Foundation.

I grabbed my jacket and made my last walk down the long wooden hallway and outside to cross the street to where the hospital security office was located.  It was still dark and pouring rain as it had all night long.  In fact, it had rained so much that I had to use a different exit because the main doors were lined with sandbags.  I took off my duty belt and radio and hung my keys up in the closet.  I ran out to my car to get the large white trash bag full of uniforms that I would no longer be needing.  It felt so good to be getting rid of all of that stuff.  The other officers on my shift shook my hand, congratulated me, and wished me luck.  I turned in my badge and ID card just after I clocked out for the last time.  It was the end of my last night of work at the hospital. 

I will start work for the South Place Police Department on Monday.  Since the police academy does not start for a few weeks, I am told we will be getting paid to do a whole lot of sitting around and hanging out.  I figure I can manage that.  It is likely that we will be taking care of some administrative things, meeting our Field Training Officers (FTO's), and we'll probably get out in the cruisers a little for some ride-alongs. 

I was employed as a security officer at the hospital for almost exactly 5 months, however, it seemed like a lot longer than that.  When I started, I figured I'd be gone by Thanksgiving.  Then I figured at least by Christmas I would definitely have an offer from one of the departments I had applied to.  I guess sometimes things don't always go as we plan. 

Before I start at the SPPD next week, I figured now would be a good time to reflect on my experience as a security officer at the hospital.  I was fortunate to become friends with a few officers that I think I will stay in contact with.  My schedule sucked.  I had Monday and Tuesdays off and only had 2 weekend nights off in the 5 months I was there.  My boss was known for his strict ways and there were times when I felt like he didn't believe that I would achieve my goal of becoming a police officer.  So many people start out there saying the same thing and then get stuck.  Despite being a difficult man to work for, however, I did get to know him well enough to know that he was a decent and good man.

I was definitely put in a position to see many different types of families and how they function.  Unfortunately, we didn't come into any kind of extended contact with many 'ideal' families, because security is only called when there are problems.  There were two specific instances I can remember where a child came in, in a very critical condition, and most of the extended family would be down in the lobby all night.  They would be ordering take out, hooting and hollering, laughing and joking, and basically having a party sometimes until 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning.  When someone in my family is in serious condition in the hospital, it is a much more somber environment, but I guess everyone grieves differently. 

A lot of times after dealing with some of the parents, or hearing the stories that we heard, it made you wonder why people do not have to have a license to have children.  Like driving, for example, you learn about driving safely and all the laws, and then you get your license and you are able to drive.  Parents should have to be educated about how to raise children safely before becoming parents.  I don't really believe this will ever happen, but it's an interesting thought. 

One young child was brought in clinging to life because a family member had given them methadone to help relieve their upset tummy.  Methadone is essentially a synthetic opioid, most commonly used to help recovering heroine addicts! 

In another incident we had a couple who's baby was brought in for some sort of severe health complication,  I don't remember what exactly but likely a respiratory issue because I specifically remember that this was brought on because the parents smoke in the house around the baby.  This was the second time this baby was hospitalized for the same reason and the parents spent more time outside smoking and playing on the Internet in the media room than they did visiting their baby.  Then they decided to make best friends with a homeless couple, give them their old parent passes, and then we had a homeless couple living in the hospital!  It took several days before this was discovered because they always wore their passes and we came to know them by the last name on the pass. 

I've seen parents standing outside the ER, smoking a cigarette and holding their infant in their other arm while they are waiting to be seen.  Luckily smoking on property is prohibited so we can say something but it's never what you really want to say to them.

Many hospitals are partnered with a separate organization that provide housing for families to stay at for free when their child is in the hospital.  The rooms are free, food is free, Internet, cable, they really have a nice set up for the families.  This, however causes many problems for us that many people would find surprising.  So much goes on in the one where I worked that it would not be uncommon to find drugs, weapons, fights, and other scandals such as swinging couples!  I do not want to give the impression that all home away from homes are like this and do not want you to think that many of the families that stay there are involved in these things.  It is really only a few bad eggs, but they are always replaced by new bad eggs when they leave so it is something we deal with often.

I do believe I have taken my communication skills to a new level thanks to the situations that I encountered at the hospital.  Security was responsible for enforcing hospital visitation policies and at night those are very strict.  The last thing family members want to hear when they come to visit a relative is that they are not going to be able to go up to the patient floors.  This specific policy forces us to deal with angry parents all the time, which since it is something you deal with everyday, it can be easy to develop an attitude.  I was fortunate, for the development of my own communication skills, to be able to observe one senior officer on a daily basis, set the perfect example of how you should not talk to people.

 This guy just had a very intense personality.  He lacked the ability to be able to read people.  He saw things in black and white and to him it's all about policy and doing his job.  He is known throughout the entire hospital by all of the staff because of his attitude.  He would say that he is blunt, but I'll be honest...the only real way to describe it was rude and arrogant.  Whenever someone would begin to question why they were not allowed to go up to visit, he would automatically jump to intensity level number 7.  This only forces the person you are dealing with to match your level of intensity in communicating.  Some nights I just wanted to say, "Relax man, let's not forget where we are and why these people are here to begin with.  They are trying to visit a loved one in the hospital for crying out loud.  Try to be a little more sensitive." Observing this allowed me to perfect my own skills, such as being cognizant of word usage, tone of voice, and facial and body language you use when talking to someone.  I am a much stronger communicator and can de-escalate situations more effectively because I had to work with this guy and learn from his mistakes.

I know that I sound like a horrible person, describing only the negative in families at the hospital.  It is mostly just because we never have to deal with families who don't cause problems.  However, several weeks ago I was kind of caught off guard in my interaction with one family.  I was having somewhat of a bad night and not in the best of moods.  This young couple asked me to help them get access to a certain room.  They were a very young couple, couldn't be much older than 30 and they had the most adorable little blond haired girl with them.  She was maybe 4, definitely not older than 5 and had the brightest smile and was full of life.  I  noticed that when she was skipping along she would sort of lose her balance often but I didn't think twice about it.  I am very outgoing and love talking to people so I began to talk with the mom as we all walked down the hall, the father and little girl being a short ways a head of us.  I was not prepared for the conversation I was about to have.

"How are you guys doing tonight?" I questioned to make small talk.

"Oh, we haven't had the best of days" she said, but in a rather positive sort of way that seemed strange to me.

"Oh, I'm sorry" I replied "Have you guys been here very long?"

"No, we just got here earlier this evening.  We found out that she (their daughter) has a brain tumor."

"Oh my gosh, Did they find it early?" I questioned.

"We don't know, we are waiting for the test results to come back."

I looked at her not even knowing what to say, "I am so sorry, I can't imagine what you are going through."

Right then the young mother looked me in the eye with the biggest smile and said, "Oh! Don't you worry about us...we have so many people praying for us and God is good!"

I smiled, opened the door for them and walked back toward the lobby.

What is wrong with me I thought?  Here I am in a pissy mood because my dream job hasn't come along yet and this family has been dealt the worst situation imaginable and they can still hold their heads high and see the silver lining.  Needless to say, I felt so guilty.  It really makes you look at life in a different way and realize that your problems are so small. I don't know if I will ever forget that, and I hope for the sake of the lesson I learned that I never do.


Saturday, February 26, 2011

Physical and Stress Test

This is the 7th installment in chronicling my journey into law enforcement.  If you would like to read from the beginning, it is best to start with The Foundation.

Since last week I have made several trips back and forth to what I will call South Place, USA, to wrap up what is remaining in the South Place Police hiring process.  I have been told that I am to start working full time as a city employee  in 10 days!  Apparently we will be taking care of some administrative things for a few weeks before the academy starts.  Yesterday I had to go to the doctor for a physical and stress test.  This part of the process is new to me, as I had not gotten this far into the process yet with the other departments I had been applying to.  I had to make the 90 minute drive after working all night and to make things more difficult I had to fast for 12 hours before the physical.  This was challenging since I had to be up all night at work, so by morning I was exhausted and starving.

My appointment was at 10:00 am.  After arriving and filling out the packet of paperwork that was waiting for me, they drew my blood and tested my hearing and vision.  I think I have mentioned before that I am a pretty competitive person, so those hearing and vision tests are kind of fun because I always try to really focus so that I can hear the extremely quiet tones on the hearing test and see the smallest images on the vision test. 

I also had to take some sort of breathing test.  I can't remember what it was called for the life of me but I had this tube that I had to blow into that was about 4 inches long.  I was instructed to take in a very large breath of air and then blow into the tube as hard as I could for as long as I could.  Then when I was all out of air, and while keeping my mouth around the tube I was to take another large inhale.  The data from this was recorded on a computer screen.  It was more difficult than it sounds because when I thought that I had blown out all the air the I could, the nurse still urged me to "keep going, keeping going!"  Toward the end it felt like I was blowing and no air was even coming out.  I had to to three sets of this little exercise and she assured me that I did really well.

After that I had to have your standard physical done where they make sure you use all parts of your body without any pain or real discomfort.  The last thing they would do that day is have me take a stress test, but this was not before I had to drop my drawers down to my knees and have my man parts violated!  That was just pleasant (sarcasm). 

The stress test was kind of fun but extremely awkward.  I took my shirt off and they attached 12 electrodes to my body with cords running from each one back to an EKG machine to collect all kinds of data about myself.  Then I had to get on a treadmill and run with all this stuff hooked to me.  I also had a blood pressure cuff on my arm, which they used to take my blood pressure every 3 minutes while I was running.  It was very awkward to try to run with all these wires coming off of you and some lady turning your arm sideways to get your blood pressure.  I definitely looked like a robot!  To make things even more uncomfortable I had to run in khaki pants and dress shoes because I was not informed about this stress test at all.  They record all this information to make sure you have a healthy cardiovascular system and that your body can perform well under stress.

Before I could head home I had to stop by the South Place Police Station to give them the paperwork from the doctor.  On Monday I will drive up there again to get fitted for our uniforms and bullet proof vests.  I am told that the 4 of us that are being hired will be sworn in sometime during the second week of March.  Everything is moving so fast, it's crazy!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Conditional Offer

This is the 6th installment in chronicling my journey into law enforcement.  If you would like to read from the beginning, it is best to start with The Foundation.

The day after the interview it was back to work at the hospital for another day of training.  It was defensive tactics day and boy was it fun!  I have had defensive tactics training a couple different times, but it is one of those things that you need to continue to practice if you don't want lose it.  I'm sure you could handle yourself if you really needed to, but practice makes one smooth and I hope someday that is how I will conduct myself.  In most of the training I have had, the instructor shows everyone a technique and then you practice it one or two times before you go on to learning the next technique.  On this day the instructor put on the red man suit and created realistic scenarios that we might and probably will encounter in the hospital at some point.  Later in the day, he created more scenarios, only then we were to use everything we had learned that day and put it all together.  That is when things really started clicking and you started to feel a little more comfortable and confident with the tactics and techniques that we had learned that week.

On one of our breaks I went to check my cell phone to see if I had any text messages from anyone.  I didn't find any text messages but I did find that I had a missed call and a new voice mail.  Could it be one of the police departments I'm in the process for?  Hopefully, but clearly it couldn't have been about my interview the day before because it had only been 24 hours.  I still had a few minutes left of break so I listened to the message.

"Hi Thomas, This is Chief Smith.  I have good news...you did very well on your interview and we would like to make a conditional offer of employment to you. What will happen from here is that Lieutenant Jones will be getting in touch with you probably Monday or Tuesday.  You should be getting a letter here on Saturday or at least by Monday that you will need to sign it and send it back to us with either your acceptance or denial of the offer, which I'm assuming you will accept based on the fantastic job you did on the interview and all the lengths you took to get to us that you will accept.  Then they will schedule you for a physical and a psychological evaluation and they will do a background investigation on you, which I'm sure will come back stellar.  After that they will schedule you for an academy and we can get the ball rolling.  Anyways, Congratulations, we really hope you accept it and let us know."

Wow!! Needless to say I threw my hand up in the air in excitement.  I don't know if I had ever been so excited.  This had been one crazy week with so many extreme emotions.  I immediately called the secretary and verbally accepted the offer on the phone.  Over the weekend the paperwork came in the mail and I signed the offer and mailed it back almost as soon as I opened it.

I am currently waiting for the Lt. to contact me to schedule those last few things in the process.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Rollercoaster of Emotions - Part #2

This is the 5th installment in chronicling my journey into law enforcement.  If you would like to read from the beginning, it is best to start with The Foundation.

Despite being a professional procrastinator, I actually started preparing for the interview as soon as they called to schedule it with me.  This saved me because since I was so busy trying to sort everything out at work, I had little time left to devote to actually preparing and practicing in those last few days before the interview.  I would be willing to bet that few people put as much time into preparing for interviews as I do.  A lot of people at least practice some questions they think they might be asked, but I would say that few, especially young people, actually put enough time into doing the research. 

When you interview for a new job, no matter what the career field may be, you need to devote some time to research and learning as much about the agency or company as you can.  I was always told to spend at least an hour just learning about the agency, but I spend a lot more than that!  When you are applying for police departments there are a number of places you can look to gather information about that department.  Obviously a good starting place is to visit the department's website.  I always make sure I have a basic understanding of the structure of the department,  and the different units or task forces they may have.  For this particular interview I wrote all of that information out on note cards and then I studied it as if it was a test for school or something.  Another good way to learn about the department is to read the annual reports.  These are often found right on the website, but these will give you more details about some of the most important happenings for the department in that year.  You will really have a good idea of what kinds of calls they deal with because a lot of the crime statistics are listed or at least summarized.  Make sure you visit the city website and learn a little bit about the community as well!  I like to search the local newspaper archives.  That is the nice thing about police departments, they are always in the media so you should be able to gain a lot of useful information from newspapers online.

I also like to know the players, that is, who I think may be interviewing me.  A lot of times you won't know who will be waiting for you in that room, but the websites usually list the different command staff leaders and some will even have short biographies included.  I am not sure how much this will help you, but it helps me feel like I know who I am talking to so I feel a little more relaxed.  It also can give you some clues as to what kinds of things may be important to them.  If all the command staff leaders have college degrees, advanced degrees and a bunch of continued schooling listed...then I would make sure that you really highlight your educational credentials.  Maybe you will be able to tell that they are all former military guys or something so you can highlight your military experience if you have any as well.  Also, don't forget to pre-write some Thank You cards!  In all honesty I have no idea how common this is in the world of law enforcement but in the business world people will send thank you cards after interviews to their interviewers.  Go ahead and call it kissing ass but when I get the job because somebody remembered me over someone else who blended in with the rest of the applicants, I will happily accept that label.  In the case of this interview I learned from online biographies that I shared the same college Alma mater with one of the Lieutenants, who then happened to be one of my interviewers. 

Be sure to practice some common interview questions and review the different experiences you have had in the work place, but make sure you do some research.  Once you have all those weapons in your arsenal then use them.  I will give you some examples later.

It is about a 90 minute drive to get to the city where my interview was.  I left about three hours before my interview time, which means I got into town extremely early and found myself bored out of my mind sitting in the Arby's parking lot.  I just went through hell to get to go to this interview though so I wanted to make sure if my car broke down or something, that I would still have time to hitchhike the rest of the way.

When I was called in the room, I was greeted by a panel of 5 interviewers.  The chief, the city's safety director, and three lieutenants.  With the exception of the safety director, I knew the names and faces of everyone else in the room including what units they each oversaw and each one's career background. (Do your research)  I will admit that I was nervous as all get out.  I had interviewed at a couple different departments already, but it still is nerve racking. 

I started out sort of slow, meaning I felt my answers for the first two questions were just OK.  If I was interviewing me I don't think I would have remembered the responses to my first two questions.  After that I started to get comfortable.  The applicants that were called in for their interviews before me seemed to take about 20 minutes to go through the interview.  I had to jump through multiple hoops to get here, not to mention I was sure that I had the farthest drive to the interview so I decided I was going to take as long as I needed to sell myself no matter how long it took.  I know I was in that room for at least 45 minutes, maybe even an hour.

I thought I did a pretty good job and they even told me so before I left.  One of the questions was "Have you ever had a disagreement with a supervisor?"  I was sure to tell them in detail the disagreement I had just had with my supervisor and all of the lengths I went to in order to make the interview.  I knew this was a good example because even though I was ticked off at my boss, I was still respectful in everything I did and I followed the chain of command.  It also help them see how committed I was to their department.  There were 13 of us who interviewed and they would be hiring 4.  They told me that I would be getting a letter in the mail sometime soon letting me know the outcome of everything.  I was able to drive back home feeling good about the interview.  It had been a long week full of ups and downs and now all I had to do was wait.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Rollercoaster of Emotions - Part #1

This is the 4th installment in chronicling my journey into law enforcement.  If you would like to read from the beginning, it is best to start with The Foundation.


The rest of Saturday would prove to be agonizingly long.  I didn't get much sleep and Sunday didn't prove to be any better.  Both nights at the hospital were extremely slow.  This gave me more time for me to think about my situation, which wasn't exactly what I needed at the time.  I spoke about it with a couple of the other security officers who had quite a bit of seniority and whom I have come to have a  lot of respect for.  It became apparent to me that if I skipped the training to go to the interview I would most certainly be suspended for a couple days and there was probably even a chance that I would be fired. 

What would that do to my future or to my career path?  Would I be able to explain to an oral board someday why I had been suspended?  If I got fired it would be game over!  There is no way a police department is going to hire you if you get fired from another job.  At least not a job so recent in your work history, and in my case, there is no way I would be hired by a department if I was fired from a security job. 

I had one last chance, I could call the department I was scheduled to interview with on Monday morning to explore any options of rescheduling the interview.  Of course I already knew what their answer was going to be.  Hundreds of people apply for these positions and every step in the process is designed to weed people out.  They give you a time and place for everything, so if you can't make it there when they tell you to be, then you become another wannabe that gets washed out of the process.  It wasn't like I could just switch times or even request the next day.  I had training all week.

I called on Monday morning and talked to the secretary.  "I'm sorry sir, but the Lieutenant that is handling the scheduling of these interviews is out of town until tomorrow.  I can transfer you to his voice mail and you can leave a message if you like."

Well that really sucked!  That meant I wasn't going to find out until the day before my scheduled interview.  I didn't have a choice though, that would have to do.

"Good Morning Lt...this is Thomas Towers.  I am scheduled for an interview Wednesday afternoon but I have ran into a little bit of a problem.  I normally work nights so making the interview would never be an issue normally, however this week I am on days because we have this mandatory training that we have to attend.  I tried to get the day off, but I have been told that is not going to be possible and it looks like if I miss the training that day, I could be suspended or fired.  I wanted to talk to you to explore the possibilities of rescheduling my interview.  If you could give me a call back I would really appreciate it. Thanks!"

Now I just had to go back into class and wait until tomorrow to find out what was going to happen.  The training was actually really great training.  This father and son who both used to work for the Secret Service started this company that goes all over the world and trains security professionals.  They teach some of the material, but they have current and retired federal and local law enforcement officers to come in and teach some of the material as well.  It really was top notch training.  We learned about the laws of arrest from a security standpoint, public relations, interview techniques, patrol tactics, self defense tactics, crime scene photography, active shooter training, to name a few.

My mind was still doing flips.  I would be dead set on skipping work and going to the interview if that's what it came down to, then 12 hours later I would change my mind.  I started thinking about how long a person's career is and telling myself that I couldn't risk my long term career goals on one agency.  One of my coworkers told me I needed to take emotions out of the situation and make a good choice that would ensure my long term success.  I thought that was good advice and I knew he was right.  I knew I had to go to be at the training.  

I ran scenarios in the my head all night Monday and into Tuesday morning.  I also talked to a number of close friends and family to get there advice.  It wasn't until I talked on the phone with a close friend of mine that my strategy changed.  I have a very close friend, and a life long mentor of mine really, who is a state trooper close to where I am from.  I call him from time to time for advice on all kinds of things. 

He delivered wisdom when I needed it the most and offered a suggestion I had not considered, "If it was me, I would go in one more time and talk to my supervisor and do everything I could to try to get out of that training.  Offer to compromise in some way...anything.  If I didn't get anywhere with that, then I would resign on the spot."

Woah! OK I didn't see that one coming and for the first few seconds I thought he was crazy.  Then I was thinking, I wonder how bad not giving a two weeks noticed would be.  Certainly I would be able to explain that to an oral board easier than a suspension or firing.  I took this idea to several family members and friends and a police captain that I come to know really well while working for the PD in college.  It was unanimous...this was my best option.  I couldn't risk calling off and letting my supervisor decide my fate and I had to make that interview.  I'm sure I fell asleep praying that night. 

Tuesday came, the Lieutenant called me while I was in training and I had to step out of the room to take the call.  Rude or not, I didn't care, I had more important things on my mind than how to write a report.  I was right about the interview, it couldn't be rescheduled.  The Lt. was very understanding of my situation though, and showed empathy which doesn't happen in these hiring processes very often.

The verdict was in. I would be quitting my job later that night because I knew there would be no negotiating.  I felt like the rest of my day was pointless since I wouldn't be there anymore anyways, but I figured if I'm going to be losing my job I might as well stay and get a full days pay out of it before I walk out.

My supervisor was still working nights all week so I would have to wait until at least 2200 before I could talk to him.  After work that afternoon, I went home and rounded up all my work uniforms, my badge, and ID cards and put them in a large garbage bag to take with me that night in my car.  I sat down and typed up a resignation letter.  For quitting my job without any notice, it was a damn good resignation letter.  I still wanted to be professional.  I thanked them for the opportunity to work for them and said I was blessed to have had the position.  It was the truth, a lot of people in this country would have loved to have my job.  No chance of being laid off, full time work, with an excellent full benefits package.  I was blessed.

It was 2200, I loaded up my car and grabbed my letter and off to work I drove.  I was blessed to have my job but that doesn't mean that I liked it.  By this time I just wanted to quit without even trying to negotiate one last time to make up the training.  I just wanted the weight off my chest and I wanted to make sure that I was in control of the situation and I felt like that only way I could do that was if I quit that very night.

I explained my situation again.  "Sir, I have to make it to this interview.  I really have a good feeling about this and I think I can beat out the other applicants, I really do.  It's simple.  If I do not go to this interview, I will not be able to wake up and live with myself next week knowing that I had such a great opportunity and I didn't even try."

It didn't matter to him it seemed.  My resignation letter was in my pocket and the bag of uniforms was in my car.  He didn't really give me any options.  "Well, I think I am going to have to part ways tonight then." I said timidly.  "What?" he questioned.  I repeated myself again and then I started to get a response out of him.  "You are quitting? You aren't even going to give a two weeks notice?  Do you realize what you are doing ?  You know that agency is going to call us for a reference and ask about you, as is every other agency you are in the process for.  You are going to throw away a job, a job you already have, on something that is not guaranteed?" 

It continued, but as you can see it sure made me second guess myself.  Was I making the right choice here.  I sure sounded young and dumb.  Screw that! I had made up my mind and had support of those closest to me.  Just then he gave me another option.  You can come in tomorrow morning (the morning of the interview) and talk to the director.  The director of our department has had a very successful law enforcement career.  He retired from one of the most reputable agencies in the state and held the rank of Major just before retiring.  How intimidating!  I didn't want to come in the next morning.  I just wanted to be done with this!  I wanted to quit right then and never look back!

"If you don't at least come in tomorrow morning and talk to the director, you are shooting yourself in the foot!!"  I caved under the pressure and I agreed to be there the next morning to talk to the director.  I went home, walked in my girlfriend's apartment, still employed.  I know I fell asleep praying again that night.  Make something happen.  Anything.  I'm tired of trying to figure things out.  I'm just going to go with it and hope that I am taken care of.

The next morning, this Wednesday, I went in to talk to the director.  "Sir I am in a position to have to make one of the hardest decisions I have ever made." I explained.  I told him the situation again to make sure he knew the details of how many positions were going to be filled and how many people were left in the process.  "I understand how important this training is and I know you guys have gone to great lengths to pull this off.  I am willing to meet you in the middle, make up any training that I were to miss, unpaid even."

Let's just say...my prayers were answered.  He was allowing me to take time off to attend the interview under the agreement that I would have to make up the training next month when the next group goes through it in March.  I was only trying to get out of the afternoon.  Instead, he gave me the entire day and told me to go home and get my head right and be prepared for that interview. 

I was going to the interview and still had my job! What a change of events!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Decisions, Decisions

This is the 3rd installment in chronicling my journey into law enforcement.  If you would like to read from the beginning, it is best to start with The Foundation.

A few days ago I was telling you all how difficult it has been just waiting around while going through these slow moving police hiring processes.  Some recent happenings have taken place in my life, creating a substantial dilemma which has sort of brought me to a crossroads on my pursuit for a law enforcement career.  Remember that interview I was telling you about last week?  This interview is for a department that I really want to work for...definitely one of my favorite prospects for several reasons.  For starters it is a nice sized city at about 38,000 people, with the surrounding area having around 45,000.  The department itself has about 65 officers which is pretty good sized.  It is much closer to my hometown and my family in comparison to the other prospects.  It also presents the best opportunity to get hired. 

The chief wants to hire a total of 6 officers.  However, they are planning on staggering the hiring so that they do not overwhelm their FTO's.  It is unclear how the 6 will be split up but they have funds budgeted to send 4 applicants to a state ran academy that starts next month, so this will be a very speedy process. (what a change!)  They are initially going to interview the top 13 applicants.  (I am sitting at #12) My interview was scheduled for this Wednesday afternoon. Herein lies the problem.

I normally work nights so I almost never have scheduling conflicts when it comes to tests and interviews.  Except for this week!  I have to go through this security training for work that has been scheduled since November, and it will run Monday-Friday 0800-1600.  It is a mandatory training that all of the officers have to go through.  When I took this job I was very honest with them and let them know up front what my career goals were and that I was actively pursuing them and they were more than supportive of this.  My boss has always said as long as you are honest I will do my best to work with you. 

Since I am a man of integrity, or so I believe at least, I was honest and told my boss the situation that I was in.  I told him how important the interview was to me and that was the only day and time that I could interview and that it was smack dab in the middle of Wednesday's training.

"I wasn't sure if I could leave early Wednesday or miss Wednesday completely and attend the Wednesday portion when the next group goes through the training in March." I reasoned.

He replied, "That is quite the dilemma, and unfortunately no you cannot miss any portion of the course because all parts of the training are required and your spot is already paid for and it is a little too late to make any changes to that." "I will let you know."

I said OK and walked out of the office.  That was not how I was hoping the conversation would go but at least he was going to look into some options for me.  That took place a few days ago and I hadn't gotten any word yet on what was to come of this, until today.

No, I cannot leave early.  It is mandatory training and I must be there.  Of course I can call off, I planned to anyways, and more than likely will do so.  All of the guys at work said I shouldn't have said anything and just called in sick that day.  I was determined to take the honest route and in the end I pretty much screwed myself.  Now, when I call off they will know that it is because I decided the interview was more important. 

Let's play a game of scenarios now.  I have never called off before and the policy states that you get 3 unscheduled call offs in a year.  This would be the first so normally nothing would happen to me.  However, since I am missing a mandatory training I am sure it will end in some disciplinary action.  I could be written up, suspended a few days, or I could just be terminated.

Or...since I told him about it he could consider that a previous request for time off.  Policy states that if you call off for a time that you previous requested time off for but were denied...this could be considered insubordination and could result in discipline up to and including termination. 
I have never been disciplined at work in my life!  This has always looked really good in all of my background investigations because all of my employers come back to them with positive feedback.  I don't want to burn any bridges with my employer because I need to count on them for a good reference in the future.  If I destroy that I am putting all of the other hiring processes that I am in at risk.

However, the opportunity to get hired at the agency I am interviewing  for is the best odds I have seen anywhere.  Historically, I have been told that I am a good interviewer and I have already spent numerous hours researching this agency and preparing myself for this interview.  I am confident in saying that few would ever prepare as much as I do. The odds are promising but still does not guarantee that I land the job. 

Do I take a chance on a dream job with a favorite agency based only on good odds and possibly harm relations with a current employer?  Or do I throw away the best opportunity I have been given and skip the interview to go to work?

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Patience is a Virtue

This is the 2nd installment in chronicling my journey into law enforcement.  If you would like to read from beginning, it is best to start with The Foundation.


The hiring process to be a police officer consists of many steps, varying in levels of difficulty depending on who you are.  For some applicants, simply filling out the 20 page application can seem challenging.  You have the easy part where you write in your contact information etc.  Then you have to fill out your work history, which depending on the department, may require you to list all the jobs you have held in the past 10 years or even every job you have ever held since you entered the work force.  That includes the ones where you hated your boss or vice-versa. Maybe you got fed up one day and just walked off the job without giving them any notice that you were quitting. You can bet they will be talking to every employer that you list.  Suddenly you start to think, "Geez, maybe I shouldn't have told my boss  to shove it before I walked out on my last day!"  Some of the more lengthier applications will even ask you to list not only your supervisor's contact information, but also the contact information of another coworker from each job you have held. I am fortunate to be going through this at such a young age because I don't have quite as many employers to list.  My advice to anyone who knows they want to pursue a career in law enforcement is to keep all of this information written down somewhere with everything in the same place so that every time you fill out an application you don't have to dig out the phone book to look up addresses, phone numbers, etc. 

Then you have to list every place of residency you have held in the last ten years, or ever...I feel for those of you who have moved around a lot!  List your references, and all the schools you have ever attended...and oh yeah, don't forget to leave yourself enough time to order a transcript from every school you have attended (some are free, others are not), make a copy of those diplomas too because they are required most of the time.  Some places require you to submit a copy of your license, ss card, birth certificate, or a passport if you have one.  If you are applying to a big city you can just head down to the post office and mail it or just type it in on your computer and click send...if it's a smaller city or a suburb you are going to have to stop at the bank and get your application notarized.  Also, don't forget your check book because sometimes you also have to send in an application fee with your packet.  Usually between $15-20, but I have seen up to $60 before. Mail it in and you are done! Unless you are like me...then do that 20 more times, once for every department you apply to.  You can bet that just the hassle that this requires weeds out at least a couple people.

For some people the written test is the most challenging.  Maybe they barely passed high school or haven't had to take a test in 20 years.  I usually score fairly well on them depending on the format of the test.  If there is a personality section involved I have learned I am pretty much screwed.

1. I prefer to watch cinderella over Sleeping Beauty. - strongly disagree, disagree, not sure, agree, strongly agree

2. I prefer Abraham Lincoln over George Washington. - strong disagree, disagree, not sure, agree, strongly agree

Yeah, go ahead and laugh but that screws me over every time!

For other people the physical fitness is the most challenging.  In most cases you only have to do some pushups, situps and then 1.5 mile run.  It is usually the run that weeds people out.  The time that you have to do it in varies by department. On most occasions I have been required to run it in less than 11:58, but in others you can have as long as 15:30...or if you apply to a department in the South, even as long at 17:30.  OK! At that point you might as well not even test physical fitness because it cannot be that important of a quality to your department if you have 17 minutes to run 1.5 miles! If you haven't ran lately, that is an incredibly long time! On a track you can pretty much speed walk the straight aways...walk the turns...stop for lemonade and take a nap and still finish with time to spare. The physical fitness is usually my bread and butter so I like them to be as hard as possible to weed out others who aren't dedicated enough to stay in shape on a regular basis.

Then comes the background investigation...they are going to talk to your employers, your coworkers, the references you listed and then they are going to ask each of those people to name a couple other people that know you.  Was he a good neighbor?  Do you know about how many times he was late to work when he worked for you?  Have you ever had any disagreements with him? Hell, they might even talk to your kindergarden teacher...so hopefully she doesn't tell them that you used to eat your boogers and you shit your britches a couple times.

After they get all kinds of dirt on you, then they bring you in for the polygraph examination.  Let me just share with you that you will never go through anything like this at any other time in your life.  You are hooked up to all kinds of crap that monitors everything you can imagine. Then they ask you questions for about an hour or so about anything and everything.  Financial history, drug and alcohol use, and you guessed it - your sex life too! I was once asked what kind of porn I like to watch!  I am sitting there wondering what in the world is he looking for? I'm respond.."I don't know, naked chicks sir?"  I wanted to joke back by asking what kind of porn he watched but I refrained.  You can bet that this weeds out a decent number of people too.  Here's a word of advice - don't lie!  In most cases they don't care what kinds of things you have done.  They just want to see if you will lie about it.

If you make it this far you are doing pretty good.  The process starts to wind down with a stress test, medical eval, and then they usually bring in a shrink to administer a psychological test to find out if you are crazy.  This part humors me. "umm...sir, I am signing up to be responsible for wearing a gun on my person every day for the next 30 years, patrolling the ghetto, pulling over cars and walking up and bothering them in the dark in the middle of the night, all while earning a police officers salary...Of course I am crazy!"  This reminds me of a short commentary by Paul Harvey, be sure to check it out!




My problem is that the part this entire process that is the challenging for me is not the written, physical, background, or polygraph exams.  It is the waiting game.  It will test your patience like no other so I hope you are in no hurry to get a job.  Best case scenario, it will take you anywhere from 6 months up to 2 years.  I am waiting to schedule for an interview for one major Midwestern city that I applied for on Easter weekend of last year.  The next academy class doesn't start until summer, so even if I was fortunate enough to make it in that class, it will have been a year long process.  In another major city I had my written test in August 2010.  They have not even sent out their results yet.

Here is my dilemma and I welcome any thoughts or feedback.  In the meantime, I have been working as a security officer at a hospital in a major city (it's boring as hell, don't ever do it).  I got myself registered to start the police academy at a local community college here in March.  This is something I have been trying to avoid because for starters, it is expensive ($5,100 is what I am paying).  Major cities usually have their own academy that they want you to go through, so it doesn't matter if you already went through an academy or even if you have been a police officer for the last ten years...you are going to go through it again at their academy. Also in many cases, medium sized to smaller departments will pay to put you through the academy and even pay you for your time, however since the city budgets are strained, it is becoming more difficult for them to be able to do this. (if you fail the academy or decide it's not for you, they are out that money)  I have decided to bite the bullet and put myself through to make myself more marketable to the medium sized departments who may be balancing budgets.

 I am in the final 8 for one department and should know more on the outcome of this in the coming weeks.  This is a smaller department (around 20 officers) so they will be looking for me to go through an academy at a local community college like I have described.  They could say, "You're hired and we will pay for your academy...you put yourself through the academy and let us know when you are done...or maybe even we want you but you are going to have to pay for your academy and then we will bring you on initially as a part time officer."  I am also in the final 12 at another department that is a little bigger (about 60 officers).  They send all of their recruits through an academy ran by the state which also starts in March and everything is paid for by them and they pay you for your time as well.  I have an interview with them next week so wish me luck.  As you can see, I could be headed down several different paths and only time will tell what in the world is going to happen.  This uncertainty has proven to be challenging for me because I am a planner.  As ironic as it seems, I have no idea what I am doing in 4 hours, but as for the larger events in my life I have always had a plan.  Not having a plan for something that is so important has been stressful, or rather, I have plans set in place and even backup plans, but not knowing which plan I will follow is what has been stressful.  I'll keep you updated with what happens with all of this!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The Foundation


                                                (I do not own rights to this video)



September 11, 2001.  Where were you when the world stopped?  Do you remember?  I do.  I was sitting in a junior high school classroom 600 miles away when we got the news.  I wasn't even in high school yet and like students all around the nation, we watched the news footage in disbelief on classroom televisions.  We were so young and looking back now I am not too sure if everyone could fully grasp what was happening.  Some watched while others talked amongst themselves about things non-related.  I couldn't take my eyes off the t.v.  In the hours, days, and weeks after the events I continued to be glued to TV coverage of the site, developing in what I felt like was some sort of obsession with what had happened.  I soaked in every bit of information I could, and on some days, that was the only thing I wanted to watch.  Nine years later, on some days it is still the only thing I want to watch.

This marks the beginning for me; the first time I felt it.  This deep desire that I have rarely spoken of to anyone.  It is hard for me to describe the feeling because in some ways it makes me feel guilty, foolish, or naive. The feeling of..."I wish I would have been there." Was there something wrong with me?  I have felt like if anyone who might have experienced those tragic events first hand were to hear me say that they might even be offended.  Now before you begin to think that I am insane, I must continue to explain.  I have long had this wish, a desire to have been in the middle of such a disastrous and horrifying moment because I have always thought, "What if I could have helped someone?"  There were over 2,700 people who died at ground zero that day, so would it have even mattered?  I wish I could have been there to save one, and if only one, then to me it would be worth it. This would not be the only time I had these feelings.  I felt the same way when Katrina happened and again throughout the Virginia Tech incident.  I wished I could have been there to do something, anything, help someone or perhaps even stop something bad from happening.  This is why I want to be a police officer.  I want to have to run in when everyone else is running out.

Welcome to my blog and thanks for stopping by.  I am Thomas Towers, or Tom.  I am a recent college grad in pursuit of a career in law enforcement.  I have a Bachelor's Degree in Criminology, a minor in National Security & Intelligence with a strong focus on domestic and international terrorism. While attending one of the largest universities in the United States, I also held a student position with a local police department and in the summer I interned with a homeland security agency at the state level.  I went to college more or less for personal reasons I guess you could say, but I think it really came down to the fact you can't be a police officer until you are 21 years of age and I didn't really have anything else to do with myself until then.  Plus I figured going to school and getting a degree that was related to my profession might give me an advantaged at some point, however, some days I feel like I couldn't have been anymore wrong.  I happened to graduate and begin a pursuit of this career at pretty much the worst possible time.  I don't have to tell you that the economy sucks and everyone on the planet applies to the few police departments that can afford to hire anybody.

I am in the hiring process for several police departments throughout the Midwest.  If you are new to law enforcement I can tell you that they are long and extensive and depending where you are it can anywhere from 6 months to 2 years to get a conditional offer after you have applied.  I don't like to get too excited because the hiring process is a long road of ups and downs, but I am getting close and if you check in here periodically, I will take you on my journey.

"Shades of Blue" is my blog, and it is your blog.  Blue represents me because it is my favorite color.  Those who know me well enough to have seen my closet are the first to tell me, "hey do you think maybe you could mix up your color scheme a little bit more."  :)  Blue also represents the profession that I, that we all have a passion for, or at least I am assuming you are at least a little interested in because you seemed to have found your way here.  Personally, the shades of blue represent the many dimensions of my identity.  My dreams, thoughts, feelings, experiences, and opinions.  For everyone else the shades of blue represents the many dimensions of the life, of the profession.  Expect me to post something new at least weekly but I am sure some weeks I will have more than one entry.  I invite you to become a part of this community.  Share your thoughts, feelings, triumphs, and losses.