Growing up in Colorado in the 40s I was told by another older and bigger kid that the cops would pick me up and lock me away. This created some trauma for a 5 year old kid for some time.
Over the years I realized that the cops were not really going to lock me away unless I had done something wrong. During my 10 years of military service I had varying contact with the MPs and APs. Some contact was OK, like the night I became ill in Mannheim, Germany and went to the Polezei Revier and asked the desk officer to call the MPs. They took me to the clinic over by Ben Franklin Village and then back to my barracks when I was through seeing the doctor. Another time I witnessed a drunken GI in an American car do a hit and run on a tiny German Goggomobil vehicle. Two German cops brought me back to the barracks after I described the auto and plate number of the hit and run vehicle.
In the USAF I was seconded to the Air Police as an Auxiliary Air Cop during alerts and drills. I had Infantry training and knew which end of the carbine the bullets came out so I was qualified.
After my tour of RVN I looked around for work and eventually settled on a fed dot gov position that eventually turned into a police position. After several training schools and the basic police course at FLETC in Georgia and an NRA Firearms Course and a fed firearms course I had more training than many small town departments of the day.
Along the way I attended a PC 832 training course in San Francisco at the PD and qualified as a police reserve officer. In my class I got a 400/400 on the range with a borrowed Colt Revolver and the SFPDs less than great training ammo. When the scores were read off in the range house and my nama was read with the score and my organization, I heard some one say, "Yeah well, those US Treasury guys can really shoot"! No one was more surprised than I was!
The SFPD never did swear me in so I went to San Bruno PD as a reserve for more than a year. That is the town near the airport (SFO) and it was a reasonably lively place sometimes. When I applied for the position the sergeant asked me how I would feel working as a reserve with a younger regular officer who would be in charge of any situation we would face. (I was the chief of my own fed dot gov police force at the time and in my mid thirties) I replied that as a reserve I was there to back up the regular and support him. The sergeant seemed to be looking for something else so I said that I would reserve the right to disagree with the regular if he seemed to be getting us into something that could get us hurt. That seemed to satisfy him and I was sworn in.I occasionaly drove a patrol car alone and ran back up for the regulars. A regular officer and I had occasion to disperse 150 kids from a party in a residential area with dozens of cars parked all over people's lawns. Another time two of us went to the makings of a racial gang fight witha dozen participants. This was the real deal not like listening to my scanner previously. While on duty in San Bruno one of the most well-liked and respected officers committed suicide instead of reporting to work one evening. I was in the training room when we heard the news and it really put a damper on the whole shift.
When my wife saw that I was not about to give up being a reserve she passed me a job opening from the local paper in Napa Valley where we had moved. I applied at the St Helena Police Department where I have been working for the past 22 years as a reserve. During my reserve time I have logged many miles in four different counties taking adults and juveniles to the various lockups. We have made routine stops and felony stops and monitored gangs and motorcycle groups such as the Hell's Angels who were bringing drugs down from a county above ours.
During my federal time I occasionaly was a part time bodyguard for various US Treasury officials visiting the Bay Area and worked with the USSS on a few fraud cases. The SAIC of the USSS invited me out to the range at the SF County Jail in San Mateo County to fire Uzi SMGs. Later we got the Uzi for our office also. My office was in downtown SF near the Tenderloin, a noted criminal activity area. I had aquired 12 Remington 870 shotguns, two with folding stocks. One day the auditors from GAO came to see me and asked how many shotguns I had and what criteria I had for having so many. I told him I counted the number of doors and aquired two per door. He did not think that was a good enough answer so he contacted Dee Cee and we eventaully had to cut back about four of them I believe.
One job that was memorable was the transfer of 100 tons of gold bullion from SF to Denver. We had city police of three towns, county sheriffs of two counties airport police, CHP cars, bikes and choppers, the FBI, USSS, FEMA, our own officers, some really funny things happened during our preps and on the trip.
One of the Lieutenants I had working for me while in this agency committed suicide and it has always troubled me about that. He had just won a case against the gov dot org and the settlement was still pending. He was found dead with a plastic bag over his head and hand cuffed behind his back. I was not working in the same position at the time and was out of the loop.
There have been times that I have worked with nearly all the alphabet agencies or trained with them or trained some of their people. I have met good, bag and indifferent in all the fed agencies. Two of the nicest people were two IRS Investigators that happened to be Mormans from Idaho. Two of the worst were former USSS agents that were assigned over me in SF. Neither of them had a clue on how to deal with people and situations that came up. Oh well, you train people to jump in front of the POTUS and what do get?
On the civil side I have worked cover for CHP, sheriff deputies and other town police. One time I heard on my scanner at home that a hit and run car was coming my way, I grabbed my .45, cuffs, badge and jumped in my truck and went down to where I heard the car crash into a pole. I got out of my truck and stood and watched the two that were left while the CHP officer went after the driver that bailed out and ran.
After all these years I still get a momentary twinge when I see a CHP or town cop behind me on the road. The younger officers that are coming on will be less likely to care about your Constitutional rights then the older officers. In my opinion I believe that the older guys will be retired out and then we will see a whole new way of policing, one that we will not appreciate at all. I could tell you what I heard first hand about a National Police Force some years ago while attending the fed academy, but I have rambled on to long already.
I too have concerns about the BATF wannabees, met some did not like them, also SWAT types that are constantly talking about the green light and other characters that are too numerous to mention now.
Over the years I realized that the cops were not really going to lock me away unless I had done something wrong. During my 10 years of military service I had varying contact with the MPs and APs. Some contact was OK, like the night I became ill in Mannheim, Germany and went to the Polezei Revier and asked the desk officer to call the MPs. They took me to the clinic over by Ben Franklin Village and then back to my barracks when I was through seeing the doctor. Another time I witnessed a drunken GI in an American car do a hit and run on a tiny German Goggomobil vehicle. Two German cops brought me back to the barracks after I described the auto and plate number of the hit and run vehicle.
In the USAF I was seconded to the Air Police as an Auxiliary Air Cop during alerts and drills. I had Infantry training and knew which end of the carbine the bullets came out so I was qualified.
After my tour of RVN I looked around for work and eventually settled on a fed dot gov position that eventually turned into a police position. After several training schools and the basic police course at FLETC in Georgia and an NRA Firearms Course and a fed firearms course I had more training than many small town departments of the day.
Along the way I attended a PC 832 training course in San Francisco at the PD and qualified as a police reserve officer. In my class I got a 400/400 on the range with a borrowed Colt Revolver and the SFPDs less than great training ammo. When the scores were read off in the range house and my nama was read with the score and my organization, I heard some one say, "Yeah well, those US Treasury guys can really shoot"! No one was more surprised than I was!
The SFPD never did swear me in so I went to San Bruno PD as a reserve for more than a year. That is the town near the airport (SFO) and it was a reasonably lively place sometimes. When I applied for the position the sergeant asked me how I would feel working as a reserve with a younger regular officer who would be in charge of any situation we would face. (I was the chief of my own fed dot gov police force at the time and in my mid thirties) I replied that as a reserve I was there to back up the regular and support him. The sergeant seemed to be looking for something else so I said that I would reserve the right to disagree with the regular if he seemed to be getting us into something that could get us hurt. That seemed to satisfy him and I was sworn in.I occasionaly drove a patrol car alone and ran back up for the regulars. A regular officer and I had occasion to disperse 150 kids from a party in a residential area with dozens of cars parked all over people's lawns. Another time two of us went to the makings of a racial gang fight witha dozen participants. This was the real deal not like listening to my scanner previously. While on duty in San Bruno one of the most well-liked and respected officers committed suicide instead of reporting to work one evening. I was in the training room when we heard the news and it really put a damper on the whole shift.
When my wife saw that I was not about to give up being a reserve she passed me a job opening from the local paper in Napa Valley where we had moved. I applied at the St Helena Police Department where I have been working for the past 22 years as a reserve. During my reserve time I have logged many miles in four different counties taking adults and juveniles to the various lockups. We have made routine stops and felony stops and monitored gangs and motorcycle groups such as the Hell's Angels who were bringing drugs down from a county above ours.
During my federal time I occasionaly was a part time bodyguard for various US Treasury officials visiting the Bay Area and worked with the USSS on a few fraud cases. The SAIC of the USSS invited me out to the range at the SF County Jail in San Mateo County to fire Uzi SMGs. Later we got the Uzi for our office also. My office was in downtown SF near the Tenderloin, a noted criminal activity area. I had aquired 12 Remington 870 shotguns, two with folding stocks. One day the auditors from GAO came to see me and asked how many shotguns I had and what criteria I had for having so many. I told him I counted the number of doors and aquired two per door. He did not think that was a good enough answer so he contacted Dee Cee and we eventaully had to cut back about four of them I believe.
One job that was memorable was the transfer of 100 tons of gold bullion from SF to Denver. We had city police of three towns, county sheriffs of two counties airport police, CHP cars, bikes and choppers, the FBI, USSS, FEMA, our own officers, some really funny things happened during our preps and on the trip.
One of the Lieutenants I had working for me while in this agency committed suicide and it has always troubled me about that. He had just won a case against the gov dot org and the settlement was still pending. He was found dead with a plastic bag over his head and hand cuffed behind his back. I was not working in the same position at the time and was out of the loop.
There have been times that I have worked with nearly all the alphabet agencies or trained with them or trained some of their people. I have met good, bag and indifferent in all the fed agencies. Two of the nicest people were two IRS Investigators that happened to be Mormans from Idaho. Two of the worst were former USSS agents that were assigned over me in SF. Neither of them had a clue on how to deal with people and situations that came up. Oh well, you train people to jump in front of the POTUS and what do get?
On the civil side I have worked cover for CHP, sheriff deputies and other town police. One time I heard on my scanner at home that a hit and run car was coming my way, I grabbed my .45, cuffs, badge and jumped in my truck and went down to where I heard the car crash into a pole. I got out of my truck and stood and watched the two that were left while the CHP officer went after the driver that bailed out and ran.
After all these years I still get a momentary twinge when I see a CHP or town cop behind me on the road. The younger officers that are coming on will be less likely to care about your Constitutional rights then the older officers. In my opinion I believe that the older guys will be retired out and then we will see a whole new way of policing, one that we will not appreciate at all. I could tell you what I heard first hand about a National Police Force some years ago while attending the fed academy, but I have rambled on to long already.
I too have concerns about the BATF wannabees, met some did not like them, also SWAT types that are constantly talking about the green light and other characters that are too numerous to mention now.