DUI Patrol Shift

I had my first patrol shift the other night. It was an 8 hour shift and our mandate for the night was to arrest DUI drivers.

My partner asked me what I was comfortable with doing and I told her I wanted to do as much as she was comfortable with me doing. I really wanted to jump in and learn as much as possible. So I ended up running the radio and doing 90% of the paperwork.

I did not really have a problem with the radio and the area we were patrolling I grew up in, so I pretty much knew where I was the whole night. The paperwork was about what I expected, there was quite a bit to remember and there are so many unwritten rules that I am going to have to create cheat sheets to keep it all straight in the future.

So here is what I took from my experience the other night. I don't know shit. People have told me that your academy training is necessary, but your training does not really begin until you are out on the street. This became very clear to me as I was struggling to keep up with my partner during the night. She kept a fast and furious pace that kept my head spinning.

Now, I have been on many ride-a-longs as a civilian where some pretty crazy shit happened, but with the uniform on I have responsibilities and I was at high alert for over eight hours. To say that I was exhausted after eight hours of patrol would be an understatement.

In the academy they teach you how to properly exit a vehicle and do everything you need to do to keep you and your partner safe. It goes something like this for the passenger seat. Take off your seatbelt, turn on the spotlight and point it at one of the mirrors of the vehicle in front of you...etc. Now twice I went to get out of the vehicle and was jerked back because I still had my seatbelt on. I don't think my partner noticed, but I felt like a moron both times. I quickly realized that when you are sitting in a seat with a vest on you can't feel the seatbelt. So you don't realize you still have your seatbelt on. It is the little things.

We nabbed two drunk drivers, wrote 4 citations, did 6 traffic stops and one pedestrian stop. It was a full night when you consider that each DUI arrest lasted 3+ hours to write all the paper, tow the cars and conduct the investigation.

The good news is that I learned quite a bit and did not make any big mistakes. I pretty much just followed my partners lead and stayed hyper aware.

This weekend I have my first patrol shift where I will be working an area and responding to calls of service, domestic violence, loud music, fights...etc. So any comfort level I procured doing traffic stops will not apply. To say that I am looking forward to it would be the understatement of the year. It will be a long week.