Exciting ride-a-long

Yesterday I thought I was getting sick so I took it easy, ate spicy foods and drank lots of liquids including my medicine tea. I felt OK this morning so I was able to go on a ride-a-long with a sheriff's deputy. Officer Mejia was really nice. He explained so much about how he does his job. He said that this station was the "fastest" one in the county. He showed me how to use the patrol car radio in case he got into trouble and needed me to get him some help. That was reassuring! He kept pointing out law violations he saw but said that they get so many urgent calls that he doesn't spend much of his day in this way. He did almost constantly run plates to see if they were registered properly or stolen. It was pretty calm though till near the end of his shift.

He had just pulled over a car that was speeding through a residential neighborhood. The driver didn't have a license and there was the smell of pot. He got the driver out and searched him, found some pot and put him in the back of the patrol car. He got the passenger out and did the same. Then he got a call on his radio and suddenly he was telling the two to get out of the car now! They jumped out and we took off soooo fast. It was exciting and a bit scary to be blasting through the city driving around cars on the wrong side of the road. He'd slow down through the intersections then as soon as we were clear he'd step on it. I saw that he had a lot of driving skill so I was able to somewhat relax. I was thinking that this is one part of the job that em would like!

Anyway, there were some high school guys who had gotten into a fight on their way home. They had about 10 guys all lined up sitting against a wall. A whole shitload of other students were milling around. The officer's that showed up then all got out to disperse the crowd. There was this wild energy around there. Things seemed to have settled down so we left. Almost immediately another call came in and and off we were off again. Some of the students had walked down to a park and some girls were all heated up ready to fight. Kids were running all over, people were yelling, and it was hard to know what was happening and exactly where. We ended up driving through the park and Officer Mejia kept telling people to just go home. When we came around to the front again they were putting four girls into two campus security cars. They weren't too happy.

I'm grateful to be able to get an idea of what this job would be like. I really feel that I'd be good at it but also know that it wouldn't be my dream job. I have my dream job now or at least that part of my job that includes planning and teaching my classes. I guess I'll just leave all the cards on the table and see what comes up. I did enjoy this exciting day!