Today started out on a very somber note. A Dekalb County officer was shot and killed last night. When an officer from a county so close is murdered, it really forces the reality of the dangers of the job to sink in. We lowered the flags to half-mast today in his honor.

This week seemed to fly by, but each day seemed to last a lifetime. We spent all week in the padded room known as the “Thunder Dome” doing defensive tactics (DT). Last week we learned what it takes to Constitutionally detain a person to perform a pat down or a frisk; on Monday, we learned how to actually do a pat down. After frisks, we learned how to handcuff a compliant person. Next came handcuffing a non-compliant person. Handcuffing seems simple enough, but it’s actually a seven step process. It isn’t very difficult to handcuff a person, but it hurts like hell to be handcuffed over and over again. When I got home Monday night my wrists were cut, swollen, and bruised.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent learning different holds and take downs. The greatest aspect of the moves that we learned is that they don’t require a lot of strength. The holds and take downs allow me to defend myself against a much larger and stronger person. On Wednesday I was repeatedly thrown on my right thigh resulting in a huge bruise. I was going to put a picture of it on here, but decided against it.

I had more fun yesterday than I’ve had in the past eight weeks. Up until lunch we worked on different kinds of strikes. After lunch we fine tuned our skills and then held boxing matches. I’ve never been in a fight, so boxing was pretty intimidating until I got hit the first time. We were only fighting at 25% strength, but it was still pretty shocking to get hit in the head. What was more shocking was that I was pretty good. I actually gave one of the guys I boxed a bloody nose (it wasn’t bad, just a little blood). I went home Thursday very sore, but full of energy and hope.

I had been dreading today all week. It started out OK; we learned how to escape and overtake someone when we are pinned to the ground. But after lunch we had to take on the instructors while they are dressed in the red man suit (see picture). Any person who puts on the red man suit is pretty intimidating, but when the person inside the suit is six feet tall and 230 pounds of pure muscle, it’s terrifying. The instructor wasn’t trying to take us down or hurt us, but they weren’t above hitting and charging. When we would get a couple of good hits on them they would take a knee, but then the fight was on again. The whole thing only lasted one minute, but it was the longest minute of my life. Even with an ASP baton in hand, I felt defenseless against the giant who wasn’t even trying to hurt me.

Overall, the week was painful but incredibly important. I feel confident now knowing that I don’t have to be the California governor to defend myself on the street. Unfortunately, we only received 40 hours of training in something that will take months to perfect.

I haven’t been writing about anything other than police academy, and haven’t had time to write about much else, but it is important that I write about this movie. The movie is about global warming, and a little bit about Al Gore. The Al Gore part wasn’t that interesting or important, but the message that he tells in this movie is too important to pass up. Global warming exists, and it is going to destroy the planet as we know it. Within the decade, the snows of Kilimanjaro will be gone. If the glaciers of Greenland continue to melt the way they presently are, the sea level world wide will raise 20 feet. This will displace hundreds of million of people.

We don’t have to let it come to this, we can make a change. You can start by seeing “An Inconvenient Truth” or by visiting their website, http://www.climatecrisis.net.

Wow, these past couple of weeks have flown by. Each day lasts forever, but the week itself flies by. This week was all about firearms. Monday was spent mostly in the classroom. We learned the safety rules of the range, the basics of shooting a Glock, how to take apart a Glock, and several other things I can’t remember at the moment. It’s been in the 90s all week long, and our range is outdoors. I drank about two gallons of water a day, and only had to go to the bathroom one or two times. I sweat more this week than I have my entire life.

Having never really shot a gun before, I was surprised by the power of such a small machine. I was also surprised that I was an all right shot to begin with. As the week progressed I got much better, as was expected. Our entire class qualified by Thursday morning, which is a first for the academy. Normally there are one or two people who are still trying to qualify on Friday afternoon.

This week wasn’t very physically demanding — though we did run and do a lot of push ups — but being out in the sun all day really puts a beating on your body. I still haven’t recuperated. We’re back on the range tomorrow, and I’m not sure what the rest of the week holds for us.

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Week 3 of police academy was all about traffic law. It was incredibly boring, but Officer Elledge made it as interesting and as fun as possible. Luckily, he had plenty of great stories to tell to break up the 2,200 PowerPoint slides.

Week 4:
We had Monday off for Memorial Day (my first paid holiday). Michelle and I went to Hiawassee on Saturday to visit with family, and swim and canoe in the lake. Tuesday was taken up completely in the classroom. We talked about driving emergency vehicles. Wednesday was the most fun I’ve had yet. We all hopped in the Emergency Vehicle Operation Course (EVOC) cars and drove to the course that we set up last week. The EVOC cars are old police cars that were in accidents and weren’t worth fixing, or just older cars with a lot of miles on them. The department tries to replace the cars every 150,000 miles or so since they are driven 24/7.

While half of the class practiced on the precision driving course, the other half practiced on the skid pad. The driving course (shown on the left) was a little difficult for me considering that I don’t have power steering in my truck. It took me a little while to get used to the car, but once I did I was fine. If you click on the picture you can see it in more detail. Start in the upper right hand corner and follow it through. Note the areas that are driven backwards. (By the way, all of the diagrams are drawn to scale.) We weren’t allowed to hit any cones, and we had to finish between 2 minutes 45 seconds and 3 minutes 15 seconds. The Major was there filming again (just like he was during the OC test). On the first long reverse I floored it and peeled out, it should make for a good video clip for graduation night.

The skid pad was probably the most fun. There was a huge parking lot with water canons around it to soak it down. We had ten practice runs with the instructor and two other recruits in the back. The cars used on the skid pad were altered so that the instructor, riding shotgun, could press a button to lock down the brakes. We would drive at 35 MPH towards a set of cones, at that point the instructor would tell us which way to go around the obstacle. When we drove around the obstacle, the brakes would lock down sending us into a tail spin. Our goal was to come out of the spin before we did a 360, drive across the rest of the skid pad and park in a designated area to show that we had full control of the car. I only lost control once during my ten practice runs.

Thursday was taken up completely by the controlled braking maneuver. It was by far the most difficult of the three exercises. Once we reached 35 MPH we would swerve around an obstacle. In the middle of the swerve the light would turn red, and we would hit the brakes as hard as possible in order to keep control of the car and park it on the other side of the obstacle. When one of the instructors demonstrated it for us, one of the other recruits said, “As long as I’m riding with Smith I’ll be safe.” That made me feel good, especially since they all know about my four accidents. Now that I am a certified emergency vehicle operator, I have proof that I’m a good driver.

One of the recruits was unable to successfully complete the braking maneuver, and another recruit injured his lower back in an unrelated event, so we’re down to 12 now. I think we started with 20. The two that left this week will more than likely be given another chance in January when the next academy starts.