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I've worked four days this week, Mon-Thurs, and three of those days I spent doing ride alongs with Troopers. I was nervous on my first day but the Trooper I was assigned was the same one who did my background check. We drove around his zone which is the southern half of St. Louis County and had a grand old time.
I came away from all of the ride alongs with a greater sense of what the Troopers do daily and a small idea of how much stuff they have to know and pay attention to in order to their jobs both well and safely.
But what hit me the hardest was the fact that if I was in better shape and not quite so scared of the idea of getting shot I would fucking love to be a Trooper for the State Patrol. Their job just seems so fun to me in so many ways and honestly, I'm still baffled at how much fun I'm having on these ride alongs.
Not to say my job isn't fun as a dispatcher. Way fun! I'm loving it tons but I'm stuck in a little room all day in front of a computer while Troopers pretty much go wherever they want and do whatever they want. Take away the whole danger and prospect of getting killed by crazy people and it's pretty kick ass.
Anyway, here are some hopefully amusing anecdotes from my ride alongs this week...
A mustang filled with five teenagers went around a very twisty bend that had a 20 mph warning sign at 55 mph and down an embankment 10 feet steep, crashing into a sign and tree. No one was hurt. But how did we know the speed since we weren't on the scene? The driver told my Trooper! He also told my Trooper he wasn't allowed to search his vehicle and that he told the owner's of a nearby property, "Not to call the cops."
St. Louis County Trooper thought he had pot in his car and even though he was just sixteen and he would've usually given the driver a break because he was such a jerk he got a few tickets. Mother yells at my Trooper about how he was cold hearted for not having sympathy for a kid who made a mistake. Come to find out yelling mother isn't even the driver's mother.
St. Louis County Trooper arrives as backup for another Trooper. Dump truck broke down and couldn't start back up. Claims no tow truck would tow him with a full load. He decides to dump tons of dirt all over the road. We spend roughly forty minutes trying to get him to clean the situation up.
Franklin County Trooper who has ungodly good eyesite pulls over a car whizzing by for having fake tags on his plates. The driver and inside of the car is covered in a mysterious black substance that reeks. Driver tells Trooper not to touch him, he just got off his job and is covered with said stinky mystery substance. Trooper says, "I don't want to touch you." Driver gets off with a warning because Trooper felt bad for anyone who had to deal with that stink daily as part of their job.
Franklin County Trooper gets called to the scene of a serious accident. A Wonder Bread truck wasn't paying attention to traffic and slams into the back of a semi. The truck is completely totalled, front smashed in, steering column snapped in half, but somehow the driver isn't injured. The road isn't so lucky. Glass everywhere and Wonder Bread spread as far as the eye can see. Before we leave the scene we witness many birds flying off with several pieces of bread as their spoils and a raccoon taking an actual loaf in his greedy paws. We drive off as Modot arrives to clean up the bread and my Trooper laments he should have taken some for himself.
St. Charles Trooper gets called to one of their many bridges to respond to a potential "jumper" but said jumper turns out to be a jogger who lost his hat during a particularly bad wind and was being just a little fucking stupid in his attempt to retrieve it.
There's a few more stories but those are the ones I can recall off the top of my head. And I must reiterate again how much fun I had. Seriously. In another life I would've loved to be a Trooper.
I came away from all of the ride alongs with a greater sense of what the Troopers do daily and a small idea of how much stuff they have to know and pay attention to in order to their jobs both well and safely.
But what hit me the hardest was the fact that if I was in better shape and not quite so scared of the idea of getting shot I would fucking love to be a Trooper for the State Patrol. Their job just seems so fun to me in so many ways and honestly, I'm still baffled at how much fun I'm having on these ride alongs.
Not to say my job isn't fun as a dispatcher. Way fun! I'm loving it tons but I'm stuck in a little room all day in front of a computer while Troopers pretty much go wherever they want and do whatever they want. Take away the whole danger and prospect of getting killed by crazy people and it's pretty kick ass.
Anyway, here are some hopefully amusing anecdotes from my ride alongs this week...
A mustang filled with five teenagers went around a very twisty bend that had a 20 mph warning sign at 55 mph and down an embankment 10 feet steep, crashing into a sign and tree. No one was hurt. But how did we know the speed since we weren't on the scene? The driver told my Trooper! He also told my Trooper he wasn't allowed to search his vehicle and that he told the owner's of a nearby property, "Not to call the cops."
St. Louis County Trooper thought he had pot in his car and even though he was just sixteen and he would've usually given the driver a break because he was such a jerk he got a few tickets. Mother yells at my Trooper about how he was cold hearted for not having sympathy for a kid who made a mistake. Come to find out yelling mother isn't even the driver's mother.
St. Louis County Trooper arrives as backup for another Trooper. Dump truck broke down and couldn't start back up. Claims no tow truck would tow him with a full load. He decides to dump tons of dirt all over the road. We spend roughly forty minutes trying to get him to clean the situation up.
Franklin County Trooper who has ungodly good eyesite pulls over a car whizzing by for having fake tags on his plates. The driver and inside of the car is covered in a mysterious black substance that reeks. Driver tells Trooper not to touch him, he just got off his job and is covered with said stinky mystery substance. Trooper says, "I don't want to touch you." Driver gets off with a warning because Trooper felt bad for anyone who had to deal with that stink daily as part of their job.
Franklin County Trooper gets called to the scene of a serious accident. A Wonder Bread truck wasn't paying attention to traffic and slams into the back of a semi. The truck is completely totalled, front smashed in, steering column snapped in half, but somehow the driver isn't injured. The road isn't so lucky. Glass everywhere and Wonder Bread spread as far as the eye can see. Before we leave the scene we witness many birds flying off with several pieces of bread as their spoils and a raccoon taking an actual loaf in his greedy paws. We drive off as Modot arrives to clean up the bread and my Trooper laments he should have taken some for himself.
St. Charles Trooper gets called to one of their many bridges to respond to a potential "jumper" but said jumper turns out to be a jogger who lost his hat during a particularly bad wind and was being just a little fucking stupid in his attempt to retrieve it.
There's a few more stories but those are the ones I can recall off the top of my head. And I must reiterate again how much fun I had. Seriously. In another life I would've loved to be a Trooper.
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