Life As A Patrol Officer

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These statements and views do not reflect the police department I work for.

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On March 21st, 2019 I walked across the stage, held my right hand in the air and was sworn in a peace officer in the state of Arizona.

On April 22nd, 2019 I started my first day at the South Mountain Precinct on patrol as an Officer In Training (OIT).

On August 15th, 2019 I finished the Field Training Program and got assigned to my permanent squad.

It is now October 8th, 2019. To say this has been a journey, is a gross understatement. I knew going into this, that this would test me physically and emotionally. I knew that it was going to be hard, that it wasn't going to be like the movies or the television shows.

This is something that I've wanted to do since college. If anyone knows me, I am determined. Once I put my mind to something, I make it happen. If I didn't have a middle name already, it would have been "stubborn" (my mom would agree with that).

Now, I've gotten this question asked of me since I started the process of becoming a police officer: Why do you want to be a police officer? What made you decide to do that?

For me, there isn't one answer. Also, I'm not sure I have fully formulated my answer, even today. A year ago, I was still in the process of applying for the department and my answer was: well I went to school, got a master's degree in criminology and the rest is history.

My classmates asked me the same question in the academy and my answer was the same: Well I went to school for this and set my mind to it and here I am.

My FTO's asked me the question and my answer was the same.

If you would ask me now, it's a little different.

I think that is a natural path and if your reasoning for staying in this job or loving this job doesn't slightly change, I would be a little apprehensive.

You see, the academy prepares you to know the laws, it trains you to be in the militaristic mindset that you need in order to do this job to an extent.

What it doesn't teach you, is how to interact with people. How the public is going to interact with you. How you de-escalate real situations. How to deal with horrific things you will see on the job.

Yeah, it tries to simulate it, but that's not how life or the job works.

When I first got onto patrol, everything was new, everything was exciting and frankly I had no idea what I was doing. That's okay. You aren't supposed to have everything figured out. One of the memories I have during first phase of Field Training (FTO), there was a car accident with injuries and the cars were blocking the road. The fire department was already there and everything was chaos.  I needed to request tow trucks so that the vehicles could be moved from the road. The female driver was injured so I needed to get the fire department's information as well as find out if she was going to be transported. I needed to get the vehicle's information with driver's ID, registration, insurance, as well as any passengers in the vehicles. As you can maybe try and imagine, it was chaos. I remember my FTO looking at me and saying, "Where are you at, are you almost done?" and I was wide eyed and stressed. I look back and realize that my FTO was trying to put that pressure and stress on me to see how I would react.

Everything still is new, everything is still exciting. I'm loving the job. I write A LOT of reports. I usually get held over my normal shift hours because I am writing.  I still love it. I can see how people get burnt out and I'm trying my best to not fall into that pit as well.

What I think people don't realize is, what our job actually is. Which is why I'm writing this because maybe if people understood, then we can try and bridge that gap with the community.

Everyday that I work, I arrive at the station an hour before so that I can change into my uniform, gather all my supplies, catch up on emails, and catch up on online training, or sometimes just eat and socialize before shift.

We have briefing almost every single day (unless it's busy, then we skip it), and then I head outside and load up my vehicle for my shift.

I log onto the computer and my shift has begun and I begin to take calls for service. The calls for service vary every single day.  If you would ask me what my typical day looks like, I couldn't tell you because it's something new every day. Yeah, I run into the same people a lot, yeah I go on similar calls a lot, but it's never the exact same. That's one of the things I really enjoy about patrol, it's like it's own puzzle every call I go on.

Some days we have major scenes where I am out there for 5 to 6 hours because that is just what it calls for. Other days, I'm shagging calls and taking a ton of reports. That's just how this job goes.

Some days, this job is fucking hard. Some days, you respond to an emergency call where a child has to be transported to the hospital because they drowned at the bottom of the pool and there is nothing medically that can be done to save this poor child. Some days, you have to be the one that watches the body of this child so that detectives can come out and interview the family.

Some days, you have to be the one that jumps out of your car and comforts a pedestrian who has been hit by a vehicle and are now laying out in the middle of the road, and hoping that the fire department can get there soon.

Some days you have to deal with husbands and wives who beat the crap out of each other, and scared little children who know that violence is just a daily occurrence in their household.

Some days you have to stand by for the department of child safety to come take children to a safe place because their mother is hitting them with a hammer because she is angry and that is her way of punishing them.

We all deal with tragedy, we all deal with things that break our hearts and crush our souls.

But it's our job to help others through these difficult times. Whether that be a loved one has overdosed on drugs, or their vehicle has been burglarized outside of the fry's. The severity has no bearing on how I do my job.

Most of the time, my job is to be there to listen to people, to educate people, to provide comforting words.

Some days I get to tell a manager at a store that we have finally caught some guy who has been habitually shoplifting from her store.

Some days I get to tell a mom that we found her child safe.

Some days I get to help a woman who had her vehicle burglarized by calling AAA and then checking on her wheelchair bound husband at her home to make sure he was okay.

Some days I get to transport a hurt animal to a hospital so that they can get the proper medical care.

Some days I give long life talks to teenagers and children, in the hopes that when they grow up they try and make the right choices.

Through all the ups and downs, I realize the environment that I patrol in today and the political and social environment that faces our country.

It's troubling for sure. It's sad. I feel the ripple effects in South Phoenix, stuff that has happened on the other side of the country in a different police department. I get judged and ridiculed every single day by community members that believe that since I wear a badge on my chest that I am a racist and that I abuse people's civil rights.

I go to calls where people dismiss me because they state that the police have never done anything in the past so why would I do anything now.  I constantly have to tell people that I am there to help them in any way that I can, but that I cannot help them if they've decided they don't want my help. Sometimes people think I can act above the law and they get frustrated when I explain to them that it is not within my scope as a police officer. I get called a bitch because I don't let someone walk through my taped off crime scene after I explained to them that if they left the scene they would not be able to return until we untapped it.

This is the job that I signed up for. I want to be a part of the solution and not the problem. I believe that if people have positive police encounters, whether that be them being arrested, or simply having a report be taken since they are a victim of a crime, that we can change this environment.

I've had many people in my custody, thank me for treating them with respect. I tell them, if you treat me with respect, I will treat you with respect. Who am I to judge your actions? I am simply enforcing the law, which is what my job is.

In conclusion, I love my job. I love patrol. Yes, I am finding that I do have other interests in this department and possibly the federal government. But right now, I am loving where I am at. Patrol is the fundamentals to any police department around the entire country. Patrol officers are on the ground and interacting with the community every single day. What we do, does matter. The decisions that patrol officers make, does make an impact on society. From my short time on, I see how people forget that. A little bit of patience and empathy go a long way.

I would love to have an open conversation about anything and I invite anyone who wants more information about my experience to reach out. I am always willing to listen and to provide information that I know of first hand. I cannot speak to actions of others, but I can tell you how I approach doing my job and experiences that I have had.