Jerry Springer

Last Saturday I had an observer riding with me. He was a local college student interested in being a cop. It was really slow for a Saturday. I told him that the job is interesting, that you get to meet all kinds of people and see and hear stories that you would not believe if you didn’t see it yourself.

Near the end of the shift we went out to the lake. The park at the lake closes at midnight and you can often find something good out there after it closes.

Another officer was out there and found a woman walking near the lake. He stopped to talk to her. The woman said that she was with some friends and pointed to three people about a hundred yards away.

I went to talk to them. It was a female and two males. I asked for identification from them and only one of the males had any. I separated the female from the males and asked for the name of the male without identification. She told me his name and that he was her fiancé. While talking with her I saw some bruises on her neck. I asked her what the bruises were and she told me hickies. She went on to say that she was going through a divorce. Her husband used to be best friends with her fiancé. Her husband ran off with her fiancé’s wife so they decided to get together.

I got back in the car with the observer and reminded him what I had said about hearing all kinds of stories.

Corporal's Test

The department I work for is a civil service department. That means a lot of things, one of which is that most promotions are based on promotional exams. Back in March all eligible officers were told there would be a Corporal’s test in July. These tests have a reputation of being difficult. Along with the notification was a list of six books that the test would be over. When I first got notification of the test I studied quite a bit. I have only been here two years and am still the rookie on the department. That is kind of frustrating because I have as much or more overall experience as most of the people I work with.

A lot of things within the department are based on rank and seniority. Besides a nice raise I saw making Corporal as a chance to advance ahead of the officer’s I work with. If I would make Corporal I would not have the seniority as a lot of people in the department, but I would have rank. That is a good thing for many reasons, for example when we bid on vacations the list starts with the senior Sergeant works its way to the junior Sergeant, then to the senior Corporal down to the junior Corporal and then to the senior patrol officer and down to the newest officer. Corporals at my department are kind of supervisors. Corporal’s run the shift on days the Sergeant’s are off. A new Corporal typically is not in charge often when they are first promoted. I eventually want to be a Sergeant and making Corporal is the next step from officer toward Sergeant.

Yesterday I took the Corporal’s test along with about 21 other officer’s from the department. The test was not what I expected it to be. When I walked out of the test I thought I had done all right. I talked to the officer that I considered the one to beat. He told me his score and I immediately thought I did not do as well as I thought. A few minutes later I learned my score, I beat him by a point. There were a few left taking the test but my score was the highest up to that point.

Once all the tests were graded I still had the high score. The officer I expected to come in first and I had the two highest scores. I think the next closest raw score was 7 points behind him. So we did a lot better than everyone else. With civil service rules everyone was given seniority points, that is a point for every year of service with the department up to 10 points. With seniority points added in I still was first followed by the other officer, but an officer with 7 years on the department leapfrogged over at least one other officer to place third 4 points behind me.

These results are not official yet. They should be posted when I go in to work tonight. Then anyone that took the test can challenge questions. Depending on challenges the results could change a little. I think I have enough cushion that at worst I would be tied for first or maybe drop to second, but I don’t anticipate that.

Needless to say I am very pleased. Now we just need to have an opening or two for Corporal’s.