Patience and hiring

During the hiring process I have learned one thing.  Patience is a virtue.  Apparently, I am not very virtuous because the waiting is driving me batshit.

I have been applying with various departments since October of 2008.  My first few oral interviews I did not do that well with.  It had been a good 10 years since I had done any kind of interview and I was a bit rusty to say the least.  So the first two departments I applied to, I did not pass the oral interviews.

I started the police academy in January of 2009 and I knew that I would not really be able to focus on the hiring process while in the academy.  So I made the conscious decision to wait until July to apply anywhere else.

So I applied at a local department in July of 2009.  I actually applied with them months before, but they lost my application.

About a month later I had my oral interview which went very well.  They asked me some scenario questions and the basic, "Why do you want to be a police officer?"  They also asked me a few of the basics that everyone should know coming out of a police academy.  Sponsoring myself through the academy helped me quite a bit with the oral interview.  I did not have to think too much when it came to the scenario questions.  I knew what I was supposed to do.

A month or so later I finally called the Sergeant and he informed me that I had passed the oral interview and I should have received a letter in the mail.  I did not, but I was very happy to hear that I had passed.

In November, I had my background interview.  He gave me the paperwork and all the required nonsense he needed from me.  If you are planning on applying to an agency, see if you can get their background form ahead of time as it will take you a while to compile all this information.  I already had everything ready, as I had been through the same thing for the academy.

A few days later I had my polygraph.  People get really freaked out about the polygraph, but there really is no reason to unless you just snorted blow off a hooker before you came in to take it.  Let me explain.  You fill out this big old questionnaire beforehand that asks you questions about your drug past, gang past etc.  The interviewer then goes through everything you put on your form to make sure that he is clear on it.  This is your chance to say anything and EVERYTHING.  If you have ANY concerns about any of the questions, just ask.  The point of this part is to make sure that there is nothing nagging you in the back of your mind about any of the questions.  He then hooks you up to the poly and asks you 10 questions twice.  Something like, "Did you lie about anything in your drug background?"  The answer to every question is no.  Pretty simple and not worth getting stressed about if you have nothing to hide.  So, don't hide anything!

I went on a few ride a longs after the poly and had a good time.  I really liked the people that worked at the department and it made me want to work there more than ever.

At the beginning of February, the background investigator came out to interview my wife and do a neighborhood check.  He just knocks on your neighbors doors and asks them about you.  If you aren't a complete jack-hole to your neighbors, you should be fine.  This marked the end, or close to the end of the background.  He had already sent out and gotten back all the letters he sent to employers, references, family and the like.

Up until this point I have been pretty patient and it really has not bothered me that much, but the closer I get to the end, the worse it gets.  As far as I know, my paperwork is sitting on a supervisor's desk just waiting to be approved.  It has been on this same desk for over a month.  Their original estimate for completion of my hiring process was January.  So don't believe any estimates, it will be done when it is done.

So I am understandably impatient now.  I am just doing my best to keep busy and not think too much about it.  I have been told to give it one more month.  Not that I have a choice in the matter.  It has been almost 9 months in the hiring process.  Logically I know it could be worse and I am lucky that I am even this far.  Many people are applying right now and the competition is tough. 

None of this will matter once I get the badge pinned on.

Rainy night ride a long

I went on a ride along last night with a local PD that I am in backgrounds with. It was raining pretty much all night.

I got there at 1800 hours and the Sgt. brought me in to sit in briefing. I have been in a few different briefings with a few different departments. I really liked the overall feel of the people and supervisors working for the department. I really hope that I am able to make it through the process and work for them.

The first hour of the night was spent writing a narcotics sale report. I pretty much just sat there while the officer wrote out his narrative. The sergeant stuck his head in at one point, smiled at me and said, "Welcome to policework!"

After we finished his paperwork we got out on the streets. There really wasn't much happening as everyone was inside staying out of the rain.

We stopped a bicycle for an infraction at about 2200 hours. We had dispatch run him for warrants. It came back that he was on parole and he was wanted for some kind of misdemeanor parole violation. We arrested him, took him back to the station and then transported him to the county jail. That part was pretty interesting as I had never been in the intake center of the county jail before. I looked around for anyone I knew from the aademy, but I didn't recognize anyone. The Sheriff's Department is a huge agency.

A little side story, the officer I was with went to thank another officer for letting him into this gate we were going through. So he walks up to him and says, "Thanks dude!" As the "officer" turns around he notices the double bars on his shirt and says, "Uhhh...captain." The captain just laughed. The officer turned to me and mouths, "Oops!"

At about midnight we did a patrol check of a neighborhood known for its drug activity. As we rounded the corner a guy in dark clothing took off from us. By the time we pulled around the corner he was nowhere in sight and a few people were just standing there staring at us. He told me that unless you went out on foot, you have no chance of catching those guys.

Later, we did a bar check on a local pub. As we were leaving one of the bouncers walked up to us and told us there was a girl driving away who had been drinking. So the other unit we were with pulled her over for a traffic violation and proceeded to do a field sobriety test. The officer who was conducting the FST was a rookie and I felt really bad for him as the girl was really beligerent and was having none of it. She refused the FST and he was forced to arrest her after he gave kind of a panicked look to his training officer. She was yelling at him the whole time. "You know this is wrong. How do you sleep knowing what you do to people?" Finally the experienced officer stepped in and told her that she was the one who chose to drive drunk and that she should just keep her mouth shut. I can imagine it is hard being a rookie. You want to be nice to people and be professional like you are trained to do and you are not sure quite yet how to handle people like this. I am not as young as he is, so maybe I will have an easier time, maybe not. We will see.

That was it. I am guessing this will be my last ride along before I actually get hired. The background investigator told me he was hoping to get me hired in January. I am crossing my fingers.

Fond memories: OC Spray

I was organizing some of my pictures today and I came across the pictures that were taken of me during our OC or pepper spray training. These pictures make me laugh every time I look at them.

So first let me set up the first picture. We were standing in a two by two line in what I can only describe as the closest I will ever come to being a lemming. I saw that people were getting hit in the face with some kind of liquid, they all had similar reactions of extreme pain and yet I continued to move forward. Had I known what I know now, I would have been much more nervous. As first I was bound and determined to take it like a man. Go ahead and give me your worst you sons of bitches!

Now, the first blast of liquid hit me in the eyes and all I felt was pressure. So I opened my eyes wide and blinked. It was kind of a reflex reaction. So both my eyeballs were coated with this liquid. This was one of those slow motion moments of my life and I remember it vividly. It seemed like it wasn't going to be that bad. About one second later I felt it. I can only describe it as sanding your eyeballs with 100 grit sandpaper and then squirting lemon juice over the abrasions. Here is the picture of my first reaction...
 

Hey!  Don't laugh you bitches!  Haha, no it is ok, it makes me laugh too. The instuctors told us very specifically NOT to touch your face with your hand, but I lost complete control over my hand and I came very close to doing just that. I pulled my hand away at the last second, thankfully. I will tell you why this is good later.

The deputy that sprayed me got me for about 5 seconds of steady stream. We are friends now, but at that moment I was not his biggest fan.

The instructors told us to try and blink to slowly clear your eyes of the OC. So being the good recruit I attempted to open my eyes and blink every 30 seconds or so. Each time I even cracked my eyes open a little of that vile liquid seeped into my eyeballs and the pain started all over again. They handed us paper towels to blot the spray out of our eyes, but that didn't help much. I used my hand and my pants to wipe off the copious amounts of snot streaming out of my nose. I just didn't care about cleanliness at this point. This went on for about 20 minutes. That was a very long 20 minutes.

So after 20 minutes I was finally able to pry my eyes open and look around. It was maybe a little before this that I realized it felt like I had the worst sunburn of my life on my face and head. It was not really a hot day out, but we were all cowering from the sun like a bunch of weeping, snotting vampires. I would have killed for some rain. They told us there was a breeze out and that we should face the breeze, but damned if I felt it. Everywhere the spray touched burned, this is why I am glad I did not contaminate my hand. I actually wiped the sweat off my brow with my wrist at one point and when I went to put on my watch later, it hurt.

So the sunburn thing lasted for about another hour. After I got home I knew I needed to get decontaminated. The pain had pretty much subsided, but I needed to get it off of me and doing so would not be pleasant. So I took a shower, making sure that the water did not run down my body into more sensitive areas. I scrubbed and scrubbed everywhere doing my best to get it all off. Of course, once I got out of the water, I felt the sunburn feeling kick in. So I stood in front of my industrial sized fan in the garage for about 30 minutes until it subsided.

The moral of the story is this kids. Do not resist the police. You do NOT want to get sprayed! Really, I am not kidding! I would rather get kicked in the nuts than go through this again.