Now rested and ready for action, Mitch picked us up outside the motel at 0630 sharp Friday morning. He thought it might be better if we entered the precinct separately on the first day, so as not to create too much interest from the other officers and parked the van round the side of the building. After all, five very young rookies arriving at the same time might cause a stir. Mitch said he would meet us in the chief’s office at 0815 after roll call, for formal introductions. We got out and entered the precinct one by one to report to the desk sergeant for duty.
‘Officer Scott Hunter reporting for duty sir,’ I said with pride as I looked down at my shiny new badge.
‘Welcome rookie. Put your things in the locker and report for roll call,’ said the desk sergeant as he handed me a locker key and pointed to its location.
I found my locker and put my personal items inside. Brandon was next to join me and the others arrived soon after.
‘Morning,’ said Josh as he opened his locker and we said good morning back like we’d not met before as there were other officers in the room.
This was all very grown up stuff and I started to doubt whether I could pull it off as the butterflies started to set in. What was I thinking? But Mitch knew what he was doing and I’m sure we were in capable hands. After roll call we slipped away upstairs for the meeting with the chief. Brandon knocked on the door first and a deep frightening voice said ‘ENTER.’
‘Good morning everyone I’m Garrett Kelly the Chief of Police for Washington. Welcome to my precinct,’ said the chief who was impeccably dressed.
He reminded me of Gordon Gecko the main character from the movie Wall Street but with crushing hands and piercing blue eyes. I thought to myself, now here’s another guy not to mess with. Mitch watched our reactions and smiled as the chief shook our hands, almost breaking them in the process. It was time for the first pep talk.
‘May I first congratulate you on your great success at the training academy, I realise what a culture shock this must have been. Joining the police force is a wonderful opportunity for you to wipe the slate clean and to get a second chance in life, but believe me the road ahead will be a tough one. Mitch may have already mentioned that you’ll be given full access to the department’s resources and please use them wisely. We want the teen cops division to make a real difference to the lives of teenagers in the local community and indeed across the United States. Good luck and now I’ll hand you back to Lieutenant Carter,’ said the chief.
‘Wow that was scary,’ Jordan whispered.
‘Spoken like a true politician,’ said Brandon sounding a little sceptical.
‘I’ll introduce you formally to the desk sergeant in a few minutes and hand you over to him to conduct the precinct walkabout, but first let me introduce you to the District Attorney, Ms Alexis Logan,’ said Mitch and, with that, a tall very striking woman opened the door and joined the meeting. She was a real head turner and I was already smitten.
‘OK focus please,’ said Mitch as the boy’s eyes fixed on the DA.
‘Hello,’ said the DA as she walked along the line and shook our hands.
I wasn’t sure whether to curtsey before this princess or give her a high five.
‘Ms Logan and I will be responsible for your case assignments,’ said Mitch.
‘And we hope to have you working on the first case as soon as possible,’ the DA added.
With those final few words the meeting was over and the chief dismissed us.
We followed Mitch from the office and headed over to meet Sergeant McGregor on the front desk. The sergeant would be accompanying us around the precinct to meet the rest of the officers.
‘I’ll see you in the operations room at 1030 for weapons briefing and after lunch you have a training session booked with the good sergeant on how to complete your case work files,’ Mitch said as he wandered off. Oh how I hate paperwork.
It was all sounding very military, 0600, 0815 and now 1030, but we had to get used to it.
‘Nice to meet you kid’ and, ‘Hey kid, welcome aboard,’ were the sort of welcome comments we got from the other officers. It made us feel more like school children on a precinct visit than qualified police officers. Hopefully this would change once we got a few successful cases under our belts. I was tired after walking around the precinct smiling and shaking hands with everyone. Trying to remember names was also proving difficult and I needed some coffee to recuperate. We got a well appreciated ten minute coffee break and sat in virtual silence while we gathered our strength. It was a lot for us to absorb on the first day.
After the coffee break we thanked the desk sergeant for his guided tour and he pointed us in the right direction for the operations room. When we entered the ops room, we were greeted by an array of weapons and all kinds of electronic gadgets scattered across a long boardroom table. The chief wasn’t kidding when he promised to provide the full resources of the law. Mitch had arranged for Sergeant Wright from the technical department to explain what each object was for. Now we had our very own weapons geek, so eat your heart out CSI. At the end of the weapons briefing our brains were totally frazzled and Mitch could see we were starting to fade fast. He suggested a coffee break before we turned into zombies.
‘Make mine a black coffee please,’ I requested as Mitch did the honours.
Mitch sat with us during the break and although he tried to sympathise with us about the amount of information that there was for us to take in, he really needed us to get on with it as it was going to get worse.
‘It’s only day one for Christ’s sake, I can’t cope,’ I said acting the fool. ‘One thing’s for sure, they need to improve the coffee around here and a good tin of Caravan Coffee might do the trick.’
The weapons briefing continued and Mitch explained some of the security issues, such as access to personal emails and phone calls. We weren’t allowed to call or email family or friends without supervision from either Mitch or Luis. A secure phone line had been installed in our new accommodation and calls would be kept to a minimum. Potential security leaks could jeopardise both us and our families, which made perfect sense.
Lunchtime finally arrived and we walked across the road to grab a taco from the food wagon. We sat outside with some of the other officers, but this mixing did raise a few questions, like ‘how come you guys look so young’ which we had to fend off without giving too much away. After lunch it was time for the dreaded paperwork briefing with Sergeant McGregor, who was a real stickler for detail. Dealing with a mountain of forms, sitting through weapons briefings, roll call and fending off questions about who we were had taken its toll. I for one was genuinely relieved when the first shift finished.
‘Man that was tough going and that paperwork was mind numbing,’ Brandon said as he sighed by his locker.
We got changed quickly and clocked off for the day.
Mitch was waiting outside to take us back to the motel so we could collapse on the beds and watch TV. Luis had been absent all day and finally showed up bringing gifts of pizza with him to the motel. He’s the best.
‘Good day at the office?’ he asked with a chuckle and we just groaned. ‘Suck it up. There’s more of the same on Monday and this time I’ll be joining you,’ he added with a cold shudder.
At least we can watch Luis suffer for once, so it wasn’t all bad. An early night was called for and I crashed out before 10pm or 2200 as I should say. Thankfully tomorrow was Saturday so I could get a reasonable lie in bed.