First call out of FTO rotations was a fire where I sat on a street corner for 3 hours. A good and fitting entry to the profession, even for a major US city.
First call ever (on FTO) was an overdose at a Burger King. Didn’t do much but watch the fire dept that was first on scene administer a couple narcans and the ambo haul the junkie off to the hospital.
First call solo was actually a BIP at a Arabic restaurant, went hot, pulled up to the owner and his son in their vehicle in the parking lot whispering “they’re still in there” they tell me there’s two guys, other units are still a ways out, my rookie ass decides to go in Instead waiting for the rest of my guys and covering all exits, open the door, yell “[redacted agency] POLICE IF YOURE IN HERE MAKE YOURSELF KN-“ before I can finish my sentence I hear commotion and a door burst open in the back where the kitchen is. I run after them out the back door, fail to get any kind of description, fail to radio out I’m in pursuit or a direction or anything useful. Lose the guys into a backyard and over a few fences and into the dark night. After a few mins of searching the area with the rest of my wheel I had to suffer the jokes about getting smoked on a foot chase in the after call powwow. Lots of jokes but they boys were cool. I was know as “wheels” for awhile after that.
I don’t remember if this was the first call, but I do remember very early in my career the entire swing and night shifts went to a fight call during a wedding at the local VFW banquet room. We got there and there was a complete melee. My FTO arrested the bride for assault. Her mother sees this, and starts running toward my FTO screaming. She gets to within arm’s length of him. He backhands her, and she falls into a mud puddle in the parking lot. We made several trips from the jail and back to the scene. Lots of arrests were made. I recall saying to myself, is this what I can expect for the next 30 years?
This was a very, very long time ago and I am not glorifying this style of training or interacting with the public but here’s how it went.
My FTO stopped a car for some reason or another. They pulled over and he looked at me and said in his very thick New Jersey accent, “well? Get out there and contact the driver.”
I wasn’t even sure what the PC for the stop was. I walked up to the driver’s window but he didn’t roll it down instead he opened the wing window. (Like I said, it was a very long time ago.) I did the whole, “I’m Officer tepid_fuzz with the Anytown Police Department, I need your license, registration and proof of insurance.” The driver straight up ignored me. We did this three more times before I hear my FTO walk up behind me. He says, dipping with sarcasm, “why don’t you ask him one more time… I’m sure it will work this time.”
He then leans over to the open wing window and shouts, “hey dingdong, give my rookie your fuckin’ license, registration and proof of insurance or I’ll reach in there and pull you out the car through the fuckin’ wing window.”
That was my first “call”. A lot has changed since 1996.
Fatal where the guy got ripped out his car driving like an idiot not wearing his seatbelt and proceeded to have his head run over by a dump truck after he hit the ground.
The coroner had me hold his ripped apart genitals and intestines spilling out of his body together while he took pictures. In hindsight I’m not sure that was my job, but my sergeant had a good laugh.
Footpost in the Bronx. Bitter cold morning at around 0800. Someone launched a cinder block off the roof at me. Missed me by at least 10 plus feet but it did scare the shit outta me.
Scene… the camera fades in to a room, full of men and women sitting there dreading when the supervisor comes in and starts talking about everything the prior shifts I have done in the last 16 hours. The sergeant begins to talk about important messages coming down from above like :
“make sure you wash your cars”. “ don’t drive so fast on X St. when you are leaving the office the old lady calls the Sheriff directly and complains”… or perhaps such gems as “ we keep getting traffic complaints about people running stop signs on X St. make sure you go by there because the citizens say that the minute we leave they start running the stop signs again”. If we get really lucky, Sarge will lecture us about how CID is complaining about the way we enter things in the tabs in our report and that he is tired of getting yelled at by the lieutenant for it.
Demotivation the camera fades back to black as everybody heads out of the room question why everyone’s IQ goes down as their rank goes up..,,
My first horror show was watching my FTO eat breakfast. That fat fuck piece of shit ate like a duck. I swear, he didn’t even chew, the food just slid in.
First scene during OJT was a one vehicle crash into a fence. Older guy driving a Volkswagen Beatle. Had a heart attack while driving. My training officer started chest compressions while we were waiting for paramedics to get there. I was holding the guys head to open his airway and I saw the life in his eyes disappear. First time I had ever seen someone die, much less in my hands.
First scene out on my own was a suicide. Guy was staying at his girlfriend’s apartment. They laid down in their bed to go to sleep and after a few minutes she felt him get up. She just assumed he was getting a glass of water or going to use the restroom. He laid back down next to her and said I love you, but I’m leaving you. He had gotten up to get the shotgun out of the closet, put it underneath his chin and shot himself while laying right next to her in bed. Blew the front of his face off, brain matter and teeth were in her hair. His nose and upper lip with a mustache were laying on the windowsill across the room. One of his eyes was stuck/splattered against the wall. It knocked him off the bed and was laying on the floor.
This was early 2009 and I still remember it like it was yesterday. She was understandably historical when we got there and I can only imagine what life has been like for her since then.
My first job was a 20-year-old kid who had committed suicide hung himself. He was a big boy, I had to help the OCME load him into the body bag. He was still warm. The thing they don’t tell you about when people hang themselves is the amount of bodily fluids that get released I threw out my boots that day.
First call was supposed to be a noise violation and then in the middle of responding we diverted for a kidnapping involving a knife. Victim told dispatch they were taken to our city by force from another state. Half the shift arrived on scene at the same exact time surrounding the vehicle. After things were under control, I realized a game warden even took a break from petting the deer and watching people through binoculars to assist.
After interviewing both of them it turned out the victim was not kidnapped. They just didn’t want to be around him anymore. They agreed to separate and just like that we were headed back to the noise complaint. Was the first of many calls that turned out to be extremely overblown.
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First call out of FTO rotations was a fire where I sat on a street corner for 3 hours. A good and fitting entry to the profession, even for a major US city.
First call ever (on FTO) was an overdose at a Burger King. Didn’t do much but watch the fire dept that was first on scene administer a couple narcans and the ambo haul the junkie off to the hospital.
First call solo was actually a BIP at a Arabic restaurant, went hot, pulled up to the owner and his son in their vehicle in the parking lot whispering “they’re still in there” they tell me there’s two guys, other units are still a ways out, my rookie ass decides to go in Instead waiting for the rest of my guys and covering all exits, open the door, yell “[redacted agency] POLICE IF YOURE IN HERE MAKE YOURSELF KN-“ before I can finish my sentence I hear commotion and a door burst open in the back where the kitchen is. I run after them out the back door, fail to get any kind of description, fail to radio out I’m in pursuit or a direction or anything useful. Lose the guys into a backyard and over a few fences and into the dark night. After a few mins of searching the area with the rest of my wheel I had to suffer the jokes about getting smoked on a foot chase in the after call powwow. Lots of jokes but they boys were cool. I was know as “wheels” for awhile after that.
I don’t remember if this was the first call, but I do remember very early in my career the entire swing and night shifts went to a fight call during a wedding at the local VFW banquet room. We got there and there was a complete melee. My FTO arrested the bride for assault. Her mother sees this, and starts running toward my FTO screaming. She gets to within arm’s length of him. He backhands her, and she falls into a mud puddle in the parking lot. We made several trips from the jail and back to the scene. Lots of arrests were made. I recall saying to myself, is this what I can expect for the next 30 years?
This was a very, very long time ago and I am not glorifying this style of training or interacting with the public but here’s how it went.
My FTO stopped a car for some reason or another. They pulled over and he looked at me and said in his very thick New Jersey accent, “well? Get out there and contact the driver.”
I wasn’t even sure what the PC for the stop was. I walked up to the driver’s window but he didn’t roll it down instead he opened the wing window. (Like I said, it was a very long time ago.) I did the whole, “I’m Officer tepid_fuzz with the Anytown Police Department, I need your license, registration and proof of insurance.” The driver straight up ignored me. We did this three more times before I hear my FTO walk up behind me. He says, dipping with sarcasm, “why don’t you ask him one more time… I’m sure it will work this time.”
He then leans over to the open wing window and shouts, “hey dingdong, give my rookie your fuckin’ license, registration and proof of insurance or I’ll reach in there and pull you out the car through the fuckin’ wing window.”
That was my first “call”. A lot has changed since 1996.
But first breakfast tacos
Fatal where the guy got ripped out his car driving like an idiot not wearing his seatbelt and proceeded to have his head run over by a dump truck after he hit the ground.
The coroner had me hold his ripped apart genitals and intestines spilling out of his body together while he took pictures. In hindsight I’m not sure that was my job, but my sergeant had a good laugh.
Footpost in the Bronx. Bitter cold morning at around 0800. Someone launched a cinder block off the roof at me. Missed me by at least 10 plus feet but it did scare the shit outta me.
Scene… the camera fades in to a room, full of men and women sitting there dreading when the supervisor comes in and starts talking about everything the prior shifts I have done in the last 16 hours. The sergeant begins to talk about important messages coming down from above like :
“make sure you wash your cars”. “ don’t drive so fast on X St. when you are leaving the office the old lady calls the Sheriff directly and complains”… or perhaps such gems as “ we keep getting traffic complaints about people running stop signs on X St. make sure you go by there because the citizens say that the minute we leave they start running the stop signs again”. If we get really lucky, Sarge will lecture us about how CID is complaining about the way we enter things in the tabs in our report and that he is tired of getting yelled at by the lieutenant for it.
Demotivation the camera fades back to black as everybody heads out of the room question why everyone’s IQ goes down as their rank goes up..,,
And scene!
My first horror show was watching my FTO eat breakfast. That fat fuck piece of shit ate like a duck. I swear, he didn’t even chew, the food just slid in.
First scene during OJT was a one vehicle crash into a fence. Older guy driving a Volkswagen Beatle. Had a heart attack while driving. My training officer started chest compressions while we were waiting for paramedics to get there. I was holding the guys head to open his airway and I saw the life in his eyes disappear. First time I had ever seen someone die, much less in my hands.
First scene out on my own was a suicide. Guy was staying at his girlfriend’s apartment. They laid down in their bed to go to sleep and after a few minutes she felt him get up. She just assumed he was getting a glass of water or going to use the restroom. He laid back down next to her and said I love you, but I’m leaving you. He had gotten up to get the shotgun out of the closet, put it underneath his chin and shot himself while laying right next to her in bed. Blew the front of his face off, brain matter and teeth were in her hair. His nose and upper lip with a mustache were laying on the windowsill across the room. One of his eyes was stuck/splattered against the wall. It knocked him off the bed and was laying on the floor.
This was early 2009 and I still remember it like it was yesterday. She was understandably historical when we got there and I can only imagine what life has been like for her since then.
My first job was a 20-year-old kid who had committed suicide hung himself. He was a big boy, I had to help the OCME load him into the body bag. He was still warm. The thing they don’t tell you about when people hang themselves is the amount of bodily fluids that get released I threw out my boots that day.
Shit I don’t remember man. Probably my first natural death. She’d been dead a week and a half. Rotting.
My first ever call on FTO was a medical, elderly female fell and broke her hand.
First solo call was a false burglary alarm for a business opening in the early morning.
Not quite as crazy as others here…
First call was supposed to be a noise violation and then in the middle of responding we diverted for a kidnapping involving a knife. Victim told dispatch they were taken to our city by force from another state. Half the shift arrived on scene at the same exact time surrounding the vehicle. After things were under control, I realized a game warden even took a break from petting the deer and watching people through binoculars to assist.
After interviewing both of them it turned out the victim was not kidnapped. They just didn’t want to be around him anymore. They agreed to separate and just like that we were headed back to the noise complaint. Was the first of many calls that turned out to be extremely overblown.