Police Ride-Along

So a couple weeks ago I had the unique opportunity to do a ride-along with the Cedar Rapids Police Department. I had this opportunity because I am part of the Youth Five Seasons Leadership program. It is a program conducted by the adult leadership program of Cedar Rapids. We travel around town learning about social, economic, and political aspects of Cedar Rapids. Leutentient Fitzpatrick has given all 40 Youth Leadership participants an opportunity to go for in a police ride-along. I was leery of going on one because I thought that 1) it would be boring 2) it would be awkward 3) it would take too much time out of my day (6 hours). I decided to just do it. I did it on a half day, so that at least gave me some time to work on homework.

My ride along officer was Officer Douglas Doyle. My initial impression was that he was a soft-spoken, laid back police officer. As I found out later, he is strict and sticks to the rules. I admire this because without people like Doug, then we were have a great problem on our hands, for this I respect him.

I will now take you through a event by event basis of what happened that night:

The night started off with a a tour of the Police Station. I found this very interesting as we were able to see all parts of station. This included the 911 headquarters, SWAT headquarters, SWAT truck, crime labs, gyms, and much more. Everything seemed surpirsingly new, either that or everything was extremly well kept, which isn't hard to believe.

After we left the station we just drove around downtown until our first call over on the NE side. It was at the apartment complex on Blairs Ferry Rd. by Interstate-380. There was a call that came in reporting a suspicious vehicle. When we got on the scene there was a white sedan with the hood open, windows partially down, and running. Officer Doyle instructed me to stay in the car while he went and searched the area. After a few minutes of walking around, a teenager came up and spoke to Officer Doyle. He explained that he had just been putting in radio equipment and had left the car running. 

Word Count: 382