Good evening friends. As I dive into my initial writing for the blog, its 2000 hours and raining
with a beautiful double rainbow behind my house. Maybe that’s a good omen for things to come
with our foray into the online blog world. Let’s hope anyway. When Officer J asked me to start
a blog with him, I was hesitant to say the least. He seemed so upbeat and positive about it, I just
couldn’t tell him no. He must have used his Jedi mind trick on me (again). The reason for my
initial negative reaction is the way that police officers are shown in the media nowadays- it’s a
play on the old adage, “if it bleeds, it leads.” If there’s something police related that could be
spun and shown in a negative light on my brothers and sisters, it will be front page above the fold
(showing my age). With all the bad publicity being unfairly given to the majority of police
officers, my current outlook is grim to say the least. I personally believe that is one of the goals
for the media and others on their side- dishearten the police and make us feel useless and
unwanted. But this isn’t the time or place yet for complaining- there will be plenty of time to
bitch and moan down the road. As I said earlier, Officer J is a powerful motivator and I hate to
let one of my best friends down so here we go.

My path to my current position differed some from Officer J. I lived in another run down town
in the sticks not far from him, but we did not know each other. Growing up, I really didn’t have
any desire to be a police officer, or anything else for that matter. I was just a typical kid that
didn’t have a plan for the future. When I graduated high school, I worked several different jobs
doing everything from paper pusher to intensive manual laborer. I pretty much just floundered
around.

Then, one of my friends got out of the military and got hired as a police officer for a small city.
One night, over a few (too many) beers, he regaled me with stories of his new and exciting job.
Listening to him, I knew I wanted in. The problem came when I applied for several agencies. I
had zero redeeming qualities- no college, no military, no real life experience. At the time, I
looked like a bad choice and I knew it. So, I did what any self-respecting dumbass would do: I
joined the US Air Force as Security Forces member (the Air Force’s fancy name for military
police). After six years of active duty, I took my long awaited exit and entered the civilian job
market again.

About a year and a half after leaving the military, I found myself back in a basic training style
program which was called the police academy. It sucked ass just as bad, or worse than my first
stint in basic. I persevered though and made it through.

Getting on the road as a real, live police officer was great: I really liked my FTO and coworkers
and the job was as exciting as my friend had led me to believe (that bastard never mentioned
anything about paperwork though). Even now, 12 years later, I don’t think I could have started
out with a better group of people than the ones I got to work with then. I had a great time even
when I wasn’t getting paid for all the hours I was out.

It wasn’t long before my total love for the job began to develop cracks. Not only did I have to
deal with the scourge of society on a nightly basis, I had to navigate the justice system through
the courthouse during the day. If the good people of this country knew the truth about the way

our courts work, I firmly believe there would be an uptick in purchases of pitchforks. How
we’ve managed to keep this ship right-side-up for this long is a mystery to me. That’s a topic for
another article though.

During all that time, I developed a keen sense of awareness that the number one issue for me and
my friends was self-induced stress coming from the inside of my agency. It seemed there was no
end to it- training cycles and locations that seemed designed to piss off as many people as
possible; micromanaging brass, questionable promotions, endless policy changes dependent
upon the current news from around the county, etc. To quote Doc Holiday in Tombstone, my
agency’s hypocrisy, “knows no bounds.” Through it all though, me and ol’ Officer J were sure
we could weather the storm and didn’t really see what was coming down the pike- reality has a
very matter-of-fact way of slapping a man in the face.

The news media began to push stories of “police misconduct” at an ever increasing rate. What
started out as a trickle has now turned into a river as every day, there’s breaking news of a cop
supposedly doing something heinous to an innocent, unarmed, peace loving, future doctor (that
cures cancer), upstanding member of society that had just turned their life around or was right in
the middle of the transition. It seems the main angle of the media is making the cops look bad in
any way possible. Facts and real statistics mean nothing to the majority of the news media in
this country. I could go on and on and on about it but why point out the obvious?

As I said in the beginning, I was reluctant to write anything about the current state of policing
but Officer J said something along the lines of it could be good for the soul. While I’ll refrain
from saying these 1000 words have done me any good, I will say I can see his point. Writing
about our issues and agendas could be beneficial to us and others as long as we let it. Officer J
and I don’t work for a huge department with thousands of officers nor do we work for a
Mayberry style agency with two people. I’m positive our experiences are the same as other
police officers in large cities or small towns. In my spare time, I keep up with a certain cop blog
of a huge metropolis in the Midwest, and, while there are many things different between their
department and ours, a number of trials and tribulations are almost exactly the same. They get
through it and so shall we. Be safe and take care of each other.