Page 31 - NIXBOOK

I also had to deal with - virtually every day - too-polite drivers who felt like abdicating their legal turn at intersections to let the
police car go through first, even when I was in no rush at all and they got there first. My response was to stay put and insist they
follow the rules of the road and continue the legal rotation protocol; thank you but no need to confuse things just because a
police car rolls up to a stop sign.

I hosted a lot of civilian ride alongs in my patrol cars and I trained a lot of reserve officers, citizen volunteers, new officers, and
new police dispatchers. My favorite ride along partners were cops from other states or other countries. A lot (probably most) of
my civilian riders found the experience much more boring than they had anticipated, even though I warned them it would not
be like a TV show. Of the dozens of riders I hosted, only 2 got the lucky chance to be with me when I took a bad guy to the jail.

I gave a lot of tours of the police station to youth groups of every kind and age range, and did a lot of presentations to community
groups. I gave a lot of rides to stranded people, refueled some empty gas tanks and changed a lot of flat tires. I unlocked literally
hundreds of cars when people locked their keys inside; it was much easier in the old days before cars had electric locks and
instead there were mechanical linkages inside the doors that I could snag with a slim jim tool. And I helped more than a few
folks get back into locked their locked houses.