Sunday, October 02, 2011

Saturday night, Alaska.

Uuuuugghhhhh....Kids.

Woke up early this AM after spending most of the night out with Tom, riding along with him for a shift as an Alaska State Trooper.
I was definitely impressed with his gig up here. He has a nice new take-home cruiser with more high-tech toys than Batman, and his squadmates at the post impressed me as the sort of cops that my old agency used to hire back when it actually did police work. These cops are motivated and squared away and I'd think twice about doing wrong up here. But apparently they've done the job too well, because we could not find any significant crime going on to suppress.
Seriously, I was kind of hoping for a couple of high-speed pursuits, maybe a shoot-out, or at least a decent bar fight to break up...but all we got despite putting 200 miles on his car were a couple of calls to the homes of people unable to manage their own lives without calling 911 to handle their minor dramas, a homeless guy who claimed to be a former Navy SEAL, and one idiot driving an unregistered, unlicensed SUV stupidly who tried to claim that it didn't need to be registered or insured because it was his "ATV". He got stroked with a $500 ticket that put six points on his license. We were treated to an excellent display of the Aurora Borealis around midnight and drove up into the hills to watch the light show for a bit, and then we tried to dip into a pursuit that North Pole P.D. had going on but North Pole lost the guy before the real cops (the Troopers) could get there to catch the guy for them. Maybe next time.
We finally ended the shift without a single shot being fired or even a simple arrest, so now I'm skeptical of his claims that bad things actually happen in Alaska. We would up back at his place at 3AM eating frozen White Castles, and after a few hours of sleep, his kids were thoughtful enough to wake us up because kids just have to make noise in the morning, bless their little souls.

This is already feeling like it's going to be a long day. But hey--I'm here so it's all good.

PS--Everyone please visit Misty's blog here and post comments telling her to blog about this visit and all the other interesting stuff that goes on up here. She keeps forgetting to update her otherwise wonderful blog about Alaskan life from the newbie point of view. Maybe if enough people prod her...

8 comments:

  1. I'm glad you're getting a realistic taste of life here - too many myths & "reality" shows out there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You know as well as I, it was a typical day in Law Enforcement. Besides, you know about the Ride Along Jynx. I did get the guy to thank me for the $500/6 point ticket, that was funny at least.

    It was fun having you hang out.

    ReplyDelete
  3. White Castles? You get White Castles for being a LEO? Where do I sign?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes Tom, I know. Nothing good EVER happens when you have a ride-along. But still...the readers have only you to blame for this post being so short--you didn't get us anything really blog-worthy and you had the whole Fairbanks North Star Borough (which is the size of New Jersey) to fish in.

    Now how about logging off and let's see about those donuts? That cop-food stereotype isn't going to validate itself, you know.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sounds like a good time anyway! Beat my Saturday night hands down.

    ReplyDelete
  6. LOL, figures doesn't it... Glad you're having fun (too bad about the kids, but they ARE kids)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I only had a couple of ride along observers that I really got into some fun stuff with but they were the exception. My wife has job applications submitted in AK in the Sustainability/Environmental Sector time of course will tell. I’ll have to research to see if there’s a market for soon to be retired LEO in mediations or perhaps probations.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sounds like you are having a good time. And northern lights would be plenty of excitement!

    ReplyDelete