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Hey guys, I am currently in the final phases of the police academy and applying for Ormond Beach PD. I have done a few ride alongs with my dad, a sergeant on the overnight shift over here. But we never got much into the thick of things because he plays a more supervisory role on his shift.
Anyways, I'm making this blog to maybe touch base with anybody that might be considering a job in law enforcement and is in the academy, or maybe didn't know about this program and may be interested in doing something like this.
Although kind of self explanatory, I'll explain what a ride along is. A police ride along is a strictly observational ride along with an officer either randomly picked or by your choosing during a shift. The ride along must be approved before anything. You must sign a waiver basically saying if the shit hits the fan and you are injured/killed provided it was not caused by the negligence of the officer, they are not liable. It is sent up the chain of command to the chief of police who approves it and then you can ride along. Some agencies have restrictions though. Some only allow ride alongs for potential applicants only, and others for those only in the academy, etc. But for the most part if you are sincerely interested you may be able to do one of these!
For me it was a strictly educational experience. I even brought an academy prescribed question sheet so if I were to go on a ride along with an agency I am interested in working for I can ask the officer decent questions that will help me make an informed decision.
10:00pm. Upon my arrival at the agency, I was waiting for the officer I was going to be riding with when he is dispatched to a signal 22, disturbance call. I was hastily given my visitor badge and had to be transported by a back up officer to the scene because my officer, officer warmington was already on scene. I waited anxiously at the front of the PD parking lot when the sergeant for the shift pulled up and greeted me with 'get in the back, kid' via a directional thumb motion.
Get in the back? Ah the front passenger is crammed with police stuff, lol. I squeeze in the back of the police car and they really aren't lieing when they tell you this shit uncomfortable. Didn't want to think about the feeling when you're handcuffed. It was like a plastic mold for a seat, easy to clean/search for prisoner dropped contraband but not comfortable in the slightest. It's unfortunate that police have to resort to using seats like these but it's the nature of the beast I suppose.
We come upon three other police vehicles when the sergeant calls in 10-97 on the radio, arrived on scene. Quickly I realize the calls nature, troubled children causing trouble in the neighborhood. There was a language barrier, the Spanish family's' house was tagged (Spray painted) reading "RAGS" in your stereotypical gang design/style. They must be under the impression this family is from the Middle East or something. These four children are being talked to by other officers and I stayed with them to determine what is going on.
A group of kids pulled up in a mustang and started threatening them, saying they know it was them who egged there house and that they better watch out. Turns out this tagging was an incident prior to this and was brought to the attention of the gang unit who assured them no connection to any known gangs in the area. We got their information and a description of the vehicle. With no sign of the suspects we couldn't really do anything but look out for them driving around. The officer gave them some advice and reassured them he will be on the look out.
That's when I was handed off to officer warmington, a real good guy and an excellent police officer. In his mid 40's, he is a retired officer from Wisconsin having been in everything from the SWAT team to the narcotics division, even homicide detective and back again. A great guy who knows his stuff. We started off the night responding to a 911 hang up call. Dispatch called back and was greeted with an answering machine. Upon arrival at the residence we find a man packing things into a book bag getting ready to leave. We exit the patrol vehicle and the look on the guys face just screams 'ah jeez what the hell did she do?'
We talked to the guy who told us that him and his girl were arguing and he was getting ready to leave. He wasn't just going to let him go though. After receiving his I.D. the officer did a check which yielded no results. After a back up officer arrived he knocked on the door to get the woman to come out. He need to check on her well being and make sure she wasn't hurt. Hell, for all we know she was killed during the 911 call and he was leaving the scene!
Turns out she is okay, explained that she is 'fed up' with him and they need a break. Alright, everything is verbal, he is leaving so no need to make a big deal of things. After staying to make sure he left the backup officer put me on the spot. "So in this call who was the contact and who was the cover officer?". An easy question, my officer was obviously the contact and he arrived during this incident so he was the cover. But it was cool to see the principles we are learning in the academy in action. It really sets in the idea that you aren't just learning these things to pass a test and move on, you are going to be applying these lessons learned everyday on the job.
After that we started driving to a place in town where the residents are complaining of a bunch of speeders. While we are driving there I bust out my handy dandy question sheet and asked a ton of questions, ranging from who supplies my uniforms to the basic questions like how often are over time details allowed. We arrived at the spot and we didn't get any good speeds on any drivers. He took this opportunity to explain to me how they tune the radar. It was quite interesting and was much more simple than I imagined.
He busted out two tuning forks. Each gave a frequency equaling a certain speed. He knocked one and the rader picked up 65 mph. The other, 35mph. Everything in working order! Haha, pretty simple stuff. He has to log that he performed this check at the beginning and end of every shift, but hey it's fun! After that we drive down the main road of his zone, South Atlantic Ave. We were having a conversation about how promotion opportunities work when he just goes silent and looks at oncoming traffic.
"Man this sucker is flying..... wait for it." You can do radar while moving? Wow didn't know that! The driver gets closer and suddenly you hear a tone from the radar as it locks on to the vehicle. It sounds like bombs dropping in a galaga arcade game. Some kind 8-bit tone that goes from noisy static to a clear signal upon sufficient lock on. The driver flew by us and the radar stopped at 55mph. 55mph in a 35mph! "Oooook, this guy's getting a ticket". As we pull a U-turn and activate the emergency lights. He FLOORS the gas to catch up the vehicle. There really is nothing like roaring engine of a crown victoria opening up pedal to the metal. It really gets the adrenaline flowing.
We pull the vehicle over and discover it has six occupants. I had to stay in the vehicle for this. Although you hear all the time on the news about 'routine' traffic stops, but the reality is no stop is routine. You have no idea who you are pulling over and their intentions. I had to stay in for safety and I understood completely. I kept thinking what ifs. What if the driver just learns out and shoots him in the face, driving off tires screeching. What if he smells the odor of marijuana and we need three other police officers to control the situation? What if everyone is drop dead wasted?
I felt confident that I could radio for back up in anything happened. I dedicated a special place in my memory for my officer's call sign and know enough radio protocol as to where I could at least call for back up if my officer was in trouble. Turns out the driver was a black female, taking her buddies out with her for a night on the town. My officer says to me once he returned to his vehicle, "Now I'm pretty laid back. I may pull someone over for ten over the limit and give them a little a finger wave and a tap on the wrist depending on their record. But 55 in a 35 is a blatant violation."
He scratched out the ticket and showed me the ticket amount, $280. Youch. But hey, they would really be saying ouch if they got wrapped around another car going as fast as they were right? They were very cooperative and everything went smoothly. Time passes by and we find ourselves doing what're called CORF cards. Crime Opportunity Report Forms. We skulked around the hotel/motel parking lots looking for things like GPS units, noticeably valuable items that are left out in plain view in the parked vehicle.
It's basically just a card that goes underneath the windshield wipers saying, "Hey we noticed that you got some nice stuff out in the open in your vehicle, it's just itching to be noticed and you could be a victim of a crime." A little food for thought card just to keep people in the know that things do happen and it's prudent to take measures to reduce the likely chances it happens to you.
After stopping some people without lights on their bikes at around 3am, determining they aren't really doing much, and two more traffic stops later, 5am rolls by and there is one hour left of my officer's shift. I'm pretty beat so I ask to call it a night.
Overall it was a great experience! I highly recommend anyone who is interested in law enforcement to see if a local agency offers this service because many do. Wow I've typed all of this already? These MX Blues are such a joy to use  . Didn't expect myself to go on such a tangent but if you took the time to read everything I hope I have given you a good read and informed people of the great opportunity that is a police ride along!
TL;DR : Police ride alongs are a good skill toi have.
 
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I'm majoring in Criminal Justice right now... sounds so exciting ^^
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Does anyone smell bacon?
User was temp banned for this post.
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BUT WAIT! What if he had *SMELLED MARIJAUNA* ??
Like, dude. I don't think you really considered this fully. Imagine the officer walks up the vehicle and he DETECTS THE ODOR OF MARIJUANA. That's a pretty fucking dangerous drug (with plenty of statistics to back it up, mind you). Are you sure only three extra officers would've been enough? I would call in a unit just to be sure I could control those criminals.
User was temp banned for this post.
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On December 19 2011 03:45 Romance_us wrote:
BUT WAIT! What if he had *SMELLED MARIJAUNA* ??
Like, dude. I don't think you really considered this fully. Imagine the officer walks up the vehicle and he DETECTS THE ODOR OF MARIJUANA. That's a pretty fucking dangerous drug (with plenty of statistics to back it up, mind you). Are you sure only three extra officers would've been enough? I would call in a unit just to be sure I could control those criminals.
Not saying it's dangerous, just the fact that there were 6 people in the car. Would need more than one person to handle 6 people!
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On December 19 2011 03:47 UisTehSux wrote:Show nested quote +On December 19 2011 03:45 Romance_us wrote:
BUT WAIT! What if he had *SMELLED MARIJAUNA* ??
Like, dude. I don't think you really considered this fully. Imagine the officer walks up the vehicle and he DETECTS THE ODOR OF MARIJUANA. That's a pretty fucking dangerous drug (with plenty of statistics to back it up, mind you). Are you sure only three extra officers would've been enough? I would call in a unit just to be sure I could control those criminals.
Not saying it's dangerous, just the fact that there were 6 people in the car. Would need more than one person to handle 6 people!
IT IS DANGEROUS DON'T DENY IT
edit: banned. How authoritarian of you 
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My dads been a beat cop for the past 33 years and hes been thinking of retiring really. A couple tips I would give you would be to commute an hour or more to work every day and get a post hopefully in a suburb. My dad says it keeps the job away from home and you won't ever have to worry about your home life being in danger or harassed for arresting one of your kids friends dads.
I find it funny that you would ask when overtime was available. My dad's precinct gets expected to have people on overtime almost nonstop due to a variety of factors. Life when 9/11 happened I didn't see my dad for months beacuse he had to be at the airport and on call. The political conventions are also something that they get called out from all over the place. seniority is a big thing in the cop world as my dad being the longest serving guy on the force (even more then the police chief which might be one of the reasons why hes retiring to avoid being asked to take the job) my dad works at a department that does 6-6 shifts so he gets a lot of days off along with a lot of work. They're not making the crown vics anymore so my dad's department at least is switching to chargers. they're also switching over to a completely computerized way of doing things in my state so they can have a huge cut down in the time for paperwork and just letting computers do it. like scanning his id and putting in the details will just put things though the system instantly instead of getting a ticket for it.
I don't know what you've heard about the changes to non lethal weapons that officers get now but instead of the shotgun's filled with ball bearings they're issuing out (first a bright yellow tazer on the other side of the gun belt that cops are expected to use to draw down with instead of their gun even if it doesn't work on drug users) but my dads getting a painball gun with tear gas balls (they release a puff of tear gas when they burst on someone).
I know you where probably expecting a bunch of trolls but the majority of people you will meet in real life are going to be extremely supportive of they're local cops. I'll make sure to keep an eye on the thread and report people for you.
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On December 19 2011 03:45 Romance_us wrote:
BUT WAIT! What if he had *SMELLED MARIJAUNA* ??
Like, dude. I don't think you really considered this fully. Imagine the officer walks up the vehicle and he DETECTS THE ODOR OF MARIJUANA. That's a pretty fucking dangerous drug (with plenty of statistics to back it up, mind you). Are you sure only three extra officers would've been enough? I would call in a unit just to be sure I could control those criminals.
User was temp banned for this post. Driving while high is dangerous. I've seen it first hand.
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If you want further information about the actual application process and the competitive nature of becoming one, send me a PM. I've gone on many ride alongs and done numerous R.I.D.E. programs as well. I can give a lot of pointers for when you do apply.
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@OP,
I am in the same boat as you. I am 22 years old and have worked 3 years as a Corrections Officer gaining experience in the Law Enforcement field while I attend college. I recently started working just part-time so that I could focus on my studies and get my degree (BA in Psychology and AA in Justice Studies). I have also been on Ride-Alongs with various State, County, and Municipal agencies around the state, and in my home state as well. It's definitely a career of a lifetime (literally) but you have to definitly put the time into getting involved and also have to work hard to stay on the top of your game day in and day out. Being dedicated to the lifestyle is just the first step in the right direction.
~Jitsu
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Very good read, I enjoyed it. What makes this especially interesting is that it's real first hand experience not some TV-bullshit.
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Great read! My friend is very interested in becoming a cop and then working his way up to an intel officer. He is in college right now, any tips on where he should be applying himself? I feel like he doesn't know that next "step" to take. Thanks!
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having always had negative experiences with police, I do not share the same enthusiasm. Being pulled over and asked repeatedly if I've been taking drugs and forced to wait 30 minutes while trying to take a friend back to his house late at night, being pulled over and having police finger their guns while talking to me to try to intimidate me, and then not in my personal experience, watching homeless people being beat to death on camera like rodney king style, and watching 4 police tackle and beat an individual before one of them (white) gets up, pulls away, and takes out his gun and shoots the person on the ground (black) who had his hands behind his back already via the other police on him, and really, police and anyone who likes them have to have the mentality that people who don't have shiny badges are there to be abused as they feel like. in other words, sociopathy.
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On December 19 2011 03:51 sermokala wrote:My dads been a beat cop for the past 33 years and hes been thinking of retiring really. A couple tips I would give you would be to commute an hour or more to work every day and get a post hopefully in a suburb. My dad says it keeps the job away from home and you won't ever have to worry about your home life being in danger or harassed for arresting one of your kids friends dads. I find it funny that you would ask when overtime was available. My dad's precinct gets expected to have people on overtime almost nonstop due to a variety of factors. Life when 9/11 happened I didn't see my dad for months beacuse he had to be at the airport and on call. The political conventions are also something that they get called out from all over the place. seniority is a big thing in the cop world as my dad being the longest serving guy on the force (even more then the police chief which might be one of the reasons why hes retiring to avoid being asked to take the job) my dad works at a department that does 6-6 shifts so he gets a lot of days off along with a lot of work. They're not making the crown vics anymore so my dad's department at least is switching to chargers. they're also switching over to a completely computerized way of doing things in my state so they can have a huge cut down in the time for paperwork and just letting computers do it. like scanning his id and putting in the details will just put things though the system instantly instead of getting a ticket for it. I don't know what you've heard about the changes to non lethal weapons that officers get now but instead of the shotgun's filled with ball bearings they're issuing out (first a bright yellow tazer on the other side of the gun belt that cops are expected to use to draw down with instead of their gun even if it doesn't work on drug users) but my dads getting a painball gun with tear gas balls (they release a puff of tear gas when they burst on someone). I know you where probably expecting a bunch of trolls but the majority of people you will meet in real life are going to be extremely supportive of they're local cops. I'll make sure to keep an eye on the thread and report people for you.
regarding the "work away from home" thing: here you aren't even allowed to work close to your hometown
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I hate cops. I was arrested for DUI when I was completely sober because of an utterly subjective sobriety test. I was arrested and taken back to the station where I blew .0000 into their breathalyzer twice, gave blood and was released. They still tried to prosecute based on the completely subjective sobriety test, ignoring the hard scientific evidence that they themselves collected from me. I hired a former prosecutor as my lawyer who got my case dismissed after one hearing and helped me to sue the officer for harassment. After realizing his life and career was over because of his abusive treatment of honest citizens, he committed suicide to get out of the problems he'd created for himself. Absolutely pathetic. At least in the United States, many (NOT ALL) but many officers have absolutely no care for the actual citizens and care only about their numbers, harassing and arresting honest people who are doing absolutely nothing wrong.
The LEO who arrested me was Officer Kevin Weeks of the Tempe Police Department. Jim Tinker, former Phoenix Prosecutor helped to shut him down and called his case against me "An embarrassment, devoid of any merit or logic".
Don't be one of these guys. After experiences like these, can you really blame honest citizens for not wanting these bullies around?
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Interesting read, thank you!
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This isn't really the thread to tell your story about how you don't like cops. you can take your propaganda about it to the ows thread.
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This is very good article. Im happy to hear an actual account of how it actually is in the force.
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On December 19 2011 06:59 Mr. Nefarious wrote:
I hate cops. I was arrested for DUI when I was completely sober because of an utterly subjective sobriety test. I was arrested and taken back to the station where I blew .0000 into their breathalyzer twice, gave blood and was released. They still tried to prosecute based on the completely subjective sobriety test, ignoring the hard scientific evidence that they themselves collected from me. I hired a former prosecutor as my lawyer who got my case dismissed after one hearing and helped me to sue the officer for harassment. After realizing his life and career was over because of his abusive treatment of honest citizens, he committed suicide to get out of the problems he'd created for himself. Absolutely pathetic. At least in the United States, many (NOT ALL) but many officers have absolutely no care for the actual citizens and care only about their numbers, harassing and arresting honest people who are doing absolutely nothing wrong.
The LEO who arrested me was Officer Kevin Weeks of the Tempe Police Department. Jim Tinker, former Phoenix Prosecutor helped to shut him down and called his case against me "An embarrassment, devoid of any merit or logic".
Don't be one of these guys. After experiences like these, can you really blame honest citizens for not wanting these bullies around?
If find your glorying in the fact that he committed suicide pretty disgusting. I don't think you've promoted your view at all by posting in this thread.
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On December 19 2011 09:28 UniversalSnip wrote:Show nested quote +On December 19 2011 06:59 Mr. Nefarious wrote:
I hate cops. I was arrested for DUI when I was completely sober because of an utterly subjective sobriety test. I was arrested and taken back to the station where I blew .0000 into their breathalyzer twice, gave blood and was released. They still tried to prosecute based on the completely subjective sobriety test, ignoring the hard scientific evidence that they themselves collected from me. I hired a former prosecutor as my lawyer who got my case dismissed after one hearing and helped me to sue the officer for harassment. After realizing his life and career was over because of his abusive treatment of honest citizens, he committed suicide to get out of the problems he'd created for himself. Absolutely pathetic. At least in the United States, many (NOT ALL) but many officers have absolutely no care for the actual citizens and care only about their numbers, harassing and arresting honest people who are doing absolutely nothing wrong.
The LEO who arrested me was Officer Kevin Weeks of the Tempe Police Department. Jim Tinker, former Phoenix Prosecutor helped to shut him down and called his case against me "An embarrassment, devoid of any merit or logic".
Don't be one of these guys. After experiences like these, can you really blame honest citizens for not wanting these bullies around? If find your glorying in the fact that he committed suicide pretty disgusting. I don't think you've promoted your view at all by posting in this thread.
I agree completely. It's not his decision whether or not to prosecute you, you know that right? Also, he doesn't design the sobriety tests and it's not his fault you failed it. The situation probably could have been handled in a better way (by both of you, judging from the tone in your post) but it doesn't mean it's right to gloat about some guy killing himself.
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On December 19 2011 06:59 Mr. Nefarious wrote:
I hate cops. I was arrested for DUI when I was completely sober because of an utterly subjective sobriety test. I was arrested and taken back to the station where I blew .0000 into their breathalyzer twice, gave blood and was released. They still tried to prosecute based on the completely subjective sobriety test, ignoring the hard scientific evidence that they themselves collected from me. I hired a former prosecutor as my lawyer who got my case dismissed after one hearing and helped me to sue the officer for harassment. After realizing his life and career was over because of his abusive treatment of honest citizens, he committed suicide to get out of the problems he'd created for himself. Absolutely pathetic. At least in the United States, many (NOT ALL) but many officers have absolutely no care for the actual citizens and care only about their numbers, harassing and arresting honest people who are doing absolutely nothing wrong.
The LEO who arrested me was Officer Kevin Weeks of the Tempe Police Department. Jim Tinker, former Phoenix Prosecutor helped to shut him down and called his case against me "An embarrassment, devoid of any merit or logic".
Don't be one of these guys. After experiences like these, can you really blame honest citizens for not wanting these bullies around?
http://www.odmp.org/officer/18527-officer-kevin-louis-weeks
Officer Kevin Weeks died from a motorcycle accident after crashing from railroad construction debris. Unless you'd like to explain otherwise?
Frankly, I never gave you much credit to begin with from your post opening with "I hate cops."
You were arrested because he had reason to pull you over. Something you did caught his eye. And then you failed a sobriety test, which I guess you claim was pass-proof. I'm not dismissing your story, nor am I generalizing you in this category; It's just amazing how all the shitheads somehow run into the most corrupt and evil officers out there.
I don't believe you're this innocent victim you play it out to be, but I'd love to hear more of your story.
Edit: Ah, I guess I can just read your account, although different this time, again here (roughly half-way down): http://arizonashooting.com/v3/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=111737&start=15
I was arrested for drunk driving after blowing .0000 TWICE into a breathalyzer. The machine at the station showed the same result. A blood sample was taken which ended up coming back with the same result. I was charged with "DUI - Impaired to the slightest degree" based solely on my field sobriety test. My case made it to one hearing before it was tossed out. My lawyer (Jim Tinker, very highly recommended) stated that he had previously had clients with similar cases with this single officer. Officer Kevin Weeks was the LEO. He is no longer with the Tempe PD, he flipped his motorcycle at high speed on the University offramp when it was closed for lightrail construction. There was never any reason found for him to be driving at high speed at night on the closed offramp.
** I have nothing against LEOs. This was a single officer who for some reason did not like me despite getting all "Yes sir's" and "No sir's". This was right after Arizona started the "Expect the Max" program and my location of University and McClintock did not help the situation. I still do not feel as though he made the right choice however. Please don't turn this into an LEO bashing thread. This is not what this is. This is a single event that took place. All of the LEO's I have come into contact with before and since have been professional, courteous and kind.
And pertaining to the bold text, the offramp was open at the time (although it had periods of closures). Taken from here, an article covering the accident:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0929officer0929.html
..."Who put these (railroad ties) there? When were they there? That's what we will be looking at," he said. The investigation could last up to eight weeks, DPS Sgt. Harold Sanders said. ...
..Since January, crews have been building a replacement and systematically dismantling the old bridge, which has resulted in periodic road closures...
Note: there is no mention of speed being a factor. There IS mention of time of accident (4:15am) from a witness and low visibility. Nothing pertaining to high speeds.
BUT LOOK! from the same article: According to the U.S. Department of Labor's worker safety database, Phoenix-based Sundt Construction Inc. has been cited for 12 violations, nine serious, and slapped with $7,700 in proposed fines. Its light-rail partner, California-based Stacey-Witbeck Inc., was imposed $900 for four violations, of which only one was serious.
This is the construction company that was responsible for the light rail project. A tad sloppy from their cleanup don't you think from their past records?
It is assumed it would of been mentioned in the article if the road was closed at the time of the accident. So along with that presumption and the implication of the Sgt's quote that it was infact not closed, I'm wondering why you lied about offramp closure and high speeds, much less a suicide. Also, can you describe the events leading up to how you got pulled over in the first place?
Since you're pretty accustomed to telling it online in other forums as well (albeit told 4 years after he died, let alone when your DUI occurred, and different from your original TL post on the matter), I'm wondering how you got suicide from all this. And if you openly admit why you lied about the suicide, why would you make that up?
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On December 19 2011 09:28 UniversalSnip wrote:Show nested quote +On December 19 2011 06:59 Mr. Nefarious wrote:
I hate cops. I was arrested for DUI when I was completely sober because of an utterly subjective sobriety test. I was arrested and taken back to the station where I blew .0000 into their breathalyzer twice, gave blood and was released. They still tried to prosecute based on the completely subjective sobriety test, ignoring the hard scientific evidence that they themselves collected from me. I hired a former prosecutor as my lawyer who got my case dismissed after one hearing and helped me to sue the officer for harassment. After realizing his life and career was over because of his abusive treatment of honest citizens, he committed suicide to get out of the problems he'd created for himself. Absolutely pathetic. At least in the United States, many (NOT ALL) but many officers have absolutely no care for the actual citizens and care only about their numbers, harassing and arresting honest people who are doing absolutely nothing wrong.
The LEO who arrested me was Officer Kevin Weeks of the Tempe Police Department. Jim Tinker, former Phoenix Prosecutor helped to shut him down and called his case against me "An embarrassment, devoid of any merit or logic".
Don't be one of these guys. After experiences like these, can you really blame honest citizens for not wanting these bullies around? If find your glorying in the fact that he committed suicide pretty disgusting. I don't think you've promoted your view at all by posting in this thread.
He's clearly venting because he's been a victim of corrupt cops. He probably posted this as a warning to the OP as to the dangers of corruption in uniform. If I was in his shoes I probably wouldn't feel too bad for the poor schmuck either.
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On December 20 2011 00:46 PassiveAce wrote:
He's clearly venting because he's been a victim of corrupt cops. He probably posted this as a warning to the OP as to the dangers of corruption in uniform. If I was in his shoes I probably wouldn't feel too bad for the poor schmuck either.
Policemen join the force for all sorts of reason, some good, some bad. Some wish to protect the innocent, other do it for the want of authority and sense of power. And then are 100 reasons in between.
It sounds like the OP is in it for the right reasons! Kudos! As long as you keep that immortal motto: "To Serve and Protect" close to your heart, you'll be fine.
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Hello, I'd like to respond to Horrde here as he seems to think I'm lying or making stuff up, despite my knowledge of exact names, dates and situations of the parties involved. I also still have my copy of the pink arrest sheet, showing the exact details of my arrest, the conditions I was arrested under and the accusations levied against me. I should note, I was not charged with "DUI", I was charged with the very rarely used: "DUI: Impaired to the slightest degree". You can read the details of this interesting charge here:
"IMPAIRMENT TO THE SLIGHTEST DEGREE
ARS 28-1381(A)(1)
If you are driving and under the influence, even to the slightest degree, you can be charged and convicted of DUI in Arizona regardless of your actual body alcohol content, or the amount of active drugs in your system.
In theory, the prosecution can charge you with an Arizona DUI even if your BAC is under the legal limit. However, for adults, you will rarely be charged if your BAC is under 0.050."
Now that we've cleared up the actual crime I was charged with, let's continue.
Officer Kevin Weeks was fatally injured in a motorcycle accident on the University on-ramp, no one disputes that. During September of 2006, this on-ramp WAS closed due to light-rail construction in the area. I would know, as during 2006 I was attending ASU which guess what, is located on University only a few miles away from where his accident occurred as well as where my arrest occurred. His initial obituary which you quoted even clearly states this:
"Officer Weeks entered the freeway at the University ramp, where he ran into some railroad ties in the roadway and flipped his motorcycle at about 4:15 am. The railroad ties were part of construction debris from an adjoining light rail project. The accident occurred under a bridge where visibility was very limited."
Visibility was limited because the lights under the bridge were off due to light rail construction and the on-ramp being closed due to the aforementioned construction. I must admit my assertion that Officer Weeks committed suicide is only a hypothesis. It certainly could have been an innocent accident, however the circumstances surrounding the accident were never clearly answered. Why was he on a closed on-ramp at 4:15am which was out of his patrol area, while not on a call or chasing a subject? Notice how not a single report addresses this. The debris were not in the middle of the 101 freeway as some reports seem to suggest, many cars would've come into contact with them long before Officer Weeks ever did. The accident was at the end of the on-ramp. I was unfortunate enough to see the aftermath with my own eyes traveling to school the next day however I did not find out it was Officer Weeks until several weeks later. The only reason I ever found out it was Officer Weeks was because I was pursuing legal action against him because of how I was treated by him. In fact, I was not alone in pursuing legal action against Officer Weeks. My lawyer, former Phoenix Prosecutor Jim Tinker who specializes in DUI, knew him well. He told me he had handled and successfully defended many cases brought fourth by Officer Weeks. Successfully defended is interesting, you basically cannot get out of a DUI unless you're innocent. Lets look at some numbers as they can be quite revealing:
Mentioned in this obituary here: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/eastvalleytribune/obituary.aspx?n=kevin-weeks&pid=19403555
"Mothers Against Drunk Driving honored Weeks in April as the organization’s 2005 outstanding police officer.
Sgt. John Butler, head of Tempe’s DUI task force, nominated Weeks for the honor, giving Weeks credit for 282 arrests and 2,100 citations related to alcohol and drug impairment."
During my time with Mr. Tinker, he mentioned that such numbers were staggering. With only 365 days in a year, 282 arrests is mind bending. The sheer paper work required through such volume would be tremendous, not to mention the fact that nearly everyone he came in contact with was miraculously a criminal and driving drunk. Being a former Prosecutor, Mr. Tinker is acutely aware of these types of details. Given my case information and the curious history of Officer Weeks arrest records, we've started to get an idea of what was going on here.
The final point I'd like to address is something you mentioned early on in your post. You stated I must have done something wrong in order to get his attention in the first place. You are correct, I'll give you a quick synopsis of what happened. I was pulled over for making a wide right turn. This is when you make a right turn into the middle lane instead of the farthest right lane. Listed speed on my pink arrest slip is 15mph in a 35mph zone (I had barely completed the turn was I was pulled over). Many people (including myself at the time), do not even know this is illegal. Police Officers actually use this to tell if someone is drunk... however I would argue 90% of the time people do this is because they don't actually know its illegal; ever since I was arrested over it I've been watching others and I've seen countless Police Officers guilty of making wide rights as well as average people. After I was pulled over I was immediately pulled out of my vehicle and told to take the sobriety test. Being 18 and not knowing my rights, I complied. After completing the tests, I was told I failed because I swayed 1" side to side and back to back after 39 seconds on 1 foot, as well as estimating 30 seconds at 30.5 seconds. I was too slow on the 30 second test and slow means you're drunk. These are clearly stated as reasons for my arrest on my pink arrest form along with the charge, DUI - Impaired to the slightest degree.
In my opinion, Officer Weeks was a very smart police officer. He knew how to do his job and he knew how to do it well. Because of this, I simply do not believe he thought I was drunk. His extensive 7 year history on the force and endless training clearly showed he had the knowledge and skill to determine who was actually intoxicated and who was not. All signs pointed to me being completely sober, including his own sobriety test, breathalyzer and blood test. Instead, I simply became a number, another notch on his belt to boost his arrest count and possible awards. You are free to come to your own conclusion, however I hope I've cleared up any concerns or confusion about my statement earlier.
A little insight on my earlier post to clarify the last issue: No, I don't actually hate LEOs, there are a lot of good ones out there as well. I got fired up earlier because it makes me really angry to think about this. I was a young kid who had his life nearly destroyed for no reason. I was innocent and a good kid trying to get through college. I blew straight .0000's into a breathalyzer and on top of that he said I failed a sobriety test over those reasons? His definition of drunk driving is pretty off if you ask me, or there's something else going on. Take your pick.
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Great write-up. I've often thought about becoming a police officer as a back up career if things don't work out too well in post secondary, and I always enjoy reading about such things. I was very fortunate to take a class in my last year of high school where we had our local police show up several times for Q/A, and thanks to our teacher being a good sport it was basically a no holds barred story of how to become a police officer in Canada.
Thanks
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Yep, I've done a ride along with my best friend. Hrm.. can't believe he made you sit in the back. I wanted to sit there for a bit just to see how it was and he said you don't wanna know what they do back there sometimes. Same stuff happened during my ride along except my friend is way too nice and gave warnings to all the speeders. We got a domestic disturbance call which a jealous ex (female) beat on her ex-husband then was telling her sob story to me while my buddy was questioning the dude. Got some weird stuff too around his area like some middle easterners play baseball at like 2-3 AM in a parking lot frequently. It's a pretty fun and interesting job, but lots of paperwork involved.
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EPT
