I have uploaded all the pictures I have from the academy.  They are organized into the following sub-albums:

So I somehow volunteered to do a slideshow for our class.  Well actually my friend volunteered, but seeing as I do this stuff professionally I volunteered to help him.  And while he did come over and sit with me during the 30 hours I spent on this thing, I made the entire slideshow.  He pretty much watched TV.

The problem with this thing is that our class never got us content.  All session long we asked our classmates to take pictures.  We asked them to record videos.  And they rarely did.  We even brought in cameras and camcorders and offered them up for anyone to use at anytime.  They rarely did.

So you’ll notice some of the early parts of the video are cut short (the video sections are in order by what we did when).  This is due to lack of content.  And also, I asked for weeks for everyone to give me the content they did have.  And three days before the captain said we had to have this thing completed, they finally got me the pictures.  Luckily the captain gave us one more day (which fell on a weekend, so we had until Monday).  So at 8:30pm on a Wed night, I received the photos.  By Monday I had to rip all the videos to a format I could use.  I had to sift through all the videos and try to find something that we needed.  Then clip out that part and recompress it.  I had to sift through all the photos.  To make a long story short, this thing took me 30 hours of labor.  Not nearly as much as one of my professional slideshows.  So please, bear with me.  I know it is sub par.  But it’s all I had to work with.

The good news is, ultimately, everyone loved it.  There were lots of smiles, lots of clapping, and tons of laughter as it played. 

So please click the image above to view our slideshow.

    This week started off with Interviews and Interrogations.  Unfortunately we didn’t get to interrogate Sharon Stone.  Either way, we picked up some good tips and tricks to getting information out of people, without the use of torture! 

    The next day we started with Motor Vehicle Theft Investigations.  And we ended the day with Courtroom Testimony.  It was interesting to say the least.  Some past instructor mis-communication made for a very angry captain.  But we sorted it all out in the end and had to go home and write a very lengthy incident report.

    The next two days, the last two of the academy, were great.  We started with Controlled Substances, and then Bombs, Explosives, and Arson.  We had a lot of fun joking about drugs.  And our instructor for bombs even booby trapped a students desk during our break with a trip line and a bomb (it beeped instead of exploding).  He never saw the trip line and set off the bomb.  It was great.

    And for the final day of the academy we began with Robbery and Burglary.  But we ended with sex offenses.  Yes, the last class for our academy was sex offenses.  And the instructors were nice enough to get by the rape and child molestation lessons first (not fun stuff) so we could then be all childish and goofy and spend the rest of the day acting like 2nd graders as we studied the lesser parts of sex crimes, the more humorous parts (bestiality, sodomy, etc.)  It was definitely a fun note to end our classroom lessons of the police academy on.

    Finally, on the last day of the academy, we took a test, and that was it.  I scored a 96% on this test.  We then signed some paperwork, went over what would happen that night at graduation, and then left.  Two hour final day was a great reward.  We headed home to get our suits pressed and get arrangments made, for tonight we would graduate!

    OC Spray, OC Spray, OC Spray….

    That’s all I seem to remember from this week.  OK, so the week started out with Accident Reporting and Vehicle Occupant Protection (yes, as in wearing seatbelts and car seats).  Boring right?

    The next day was Terrorism, and then OC Spray.  We got to line up and get sprayed in the face with police strength full power OC Spray.  Now this shit is no joke.  Peppers that you put on mexican food that burn your tongue off are like 80 skovile units of heat.  This pepper spray was 5 million units of heat.  We’re talking enough to make your skin actually blister up.  And we got it right in the face.  And now matter how much you shut your holes, it gets in.  You can’t breath, which makes you hyper-ventilate which makes you suck in more spray which makes it worse.  Your eyes are on fire.  Hell your entire face is on fire.  You have to retain your weapon and then stop at a cone and say the alphabet.  Then you go to the fountain.  It does no good.  Then you smother your face in shampoo (the spray is oil based so it sticks).  You smoosh shampoo into your eyes and then pry your eyes open in the streams of water. (more…)

    Pardon my sensitive image on the left here, but this week pretty much centered around that event, so it is relevant. 

    This week we started with impaired driving.  We learned some basic field sobriety tests.  The second day we dealt with interpersonal communications (I know, the excitement is overwhelming).  But on day 3 we hit the big daddy.

    Day 3 was NIMS.  It stands for National Incident Management System.  Basically it is what we do the next time the shit hits the fan like the picture above.  But it covers all levels of incidents.  Everything from a bad tornado, all the way up to an attack on America.  It is a system that helps all emergency agencies be on the same playing field as far as procedures, communications, and overall management.  I have to admit it that though the class was boring as hell, it was very necessary and is a good system.  I am very proud to have been able to learn the basics of it.  We had two written exams on NIMS that day (NIMS100 and NIMS700) that we must pass.  I scored a 100% on both, obviously a pass.

    The next day we had surveillance and vehicle pullovers.  The latter was pretty fun.  We got outside and practiced pullovers and writing tickets.  I’m sure most of you are not happy to hear that there will be more ticket writers in the world

    On the fourth day we had "Rules of Evidence" which is pretty important if you plan on winning your cases.  We also had our JPS written exam, which I scored a 90% on (also a pass).  And on the Friday written test, I scored a 94%.  We then learned how to take fingerprints, and how to lift fingerprints (crime scene).  I nailed my taking prints on the first try.  And on lifting prints, I did so good that our Lieutenant sent a friend into another room with a random item to covertly place a print on it to see if he could challenge me to find it and lift it.  I nailed it!

Got some of the video footage from EVOC in.  These are the main videos I have hosted.  There are tons of pictures and you can find them in the photo gallery I’ll post at the end of my academy blogging.

Skid Pad (none of these are me):

Braking (63 is me):

Cone Course (26 is me):

This week started out on a Sunday for most of us. We had a 2 hour drive down to the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in middle Georgia. I started the drive about 5:30pm, timed to meet a friend of mine from my class so that we’d be roomed together in the barracks (two per room, first come first serve).

Once down there we checked in and had a look around. The facility was amazing. Almost like a town of it’s own. People from all over Georgia go there to train. Everyone from corrections officers to firefighters to GBI Agents to police officers. The place trains thousands of people every day. It is so large it has it’s own prison right there to supply all the labor needed to maintain the place. Once we got to our room, I realized just how long that week would be. The room was very small. There was no TV, no thermostat, no clock, and a single sized bed and brick pillow (same the inmates sleep on). It was hot, uncomfortable and just overall miserable. I don’t know how people like State Troopers spend months and months there in those rooms… (more…)

    Well this was another ‘academic’ week.  We started off with one of my favorite instructors (from my home town) learning Motor Vehicle law.  I found this an interesting day personally, though a lot of our class was bored with an entire day dedicated to one topic.  But I learned a lot.  For instance, according to Georgia law, it is illegal to pull out into the center turn lane and then use it as a place to wait and merge with traffic.  I mean we all do it, and our instructor said that he’s never heard of anyone giving a ticket for it.  But I was shocked to hear that I break a traffic law almost daily.

The next day was Media Relations and Officer and the Public.  Definitely one of the most boring days of the academy.  We had a good instructor, from Athens PD, but you can only polish a turd so much.  The topic was just not exciting.  Luckily it was only half the day, as the remainder was spent in JPS and DT.

The following day we had HazMat.  This was an all day thing, and the highlight of the week as you can see by my picture choice.  We were tested that afternoon and the test required an 80% or higher to pass.  Luckily we all passed.  I managed to get an 84.  I rather enjoyed HazMat.  It was interesting to learn how to read placards and identify different types of tankers.  I’m just one of those people that enjoys learning new things, but gets bored with learning common sense things. (more…)

Well, not much to say about week five. Literally an entire week of academics. We spent the first day on Crimes Against Children. We spent the next 3 days studying searching without a warrant and searching with a warrant. It’s amazing just how in depth the law gets when it comes to searching people, places, or things. Growing up I figured a police officer could search you whenever he wanted to. Or that if he asked you to search your car, you need to say yes or he’d do it anyways. Turns out, there are some stiff requirements for a police officer to search you, your car, or anything else belonging to you. Our final day today after the test was spent on Juvenile Proceedings. Quite boring, most of us spent the day fighting the urge to sleep. I managed to pull an 88% out of the test. It was extremely hard, most people got 70’s or low to mid 80’s. Amazingly nobody failed it, though half the class was sure they would have. It was difficult to the point that I was worried myself about it.

(more…)

     And now the hardest week of my life.  Range week.  It turns out that the firing range we use is three counties over from my own.  It takes me about an hour and a half one way.  Once there I have to drive through what seems like everlasting dirt/mud roads and cow pastures.  The range we use is the UGA Police firing and bomb squad range located in the back of their Cattle Research Facility.  It’s quite a long and muddy drive.

We spent the first few days getting familiar with our pistols and shotguns (some had never shot a gun before).  We spent weeks prior to this practicing our draws and grips every day in class.  It now boiled down to this… range week.  Luckily we only had one day of shooting the shotgun.  After the first half of rounds I started to get a bit sore, which led me to starting holding the shotgun incorrectly, which then ultimately led to me completely losing all functionality of my right arm, and a nice sore aiming cheek.  Completely my fault, but I was just too exhausted to concentrate and hold it correctly.

On Wednesday we spent half the day back at the academy (woo hoo, another 2 hours of driving added to my day) doing a practical exam on Crime Scene Processing.  We were split into groups and taken to a crime scene where we had to completely process it from photographing, to reports, to fingerprinting, etc.  It was quite tedious.  Then we headed back out to the range and had to stay there until 10:30 pm to do our night shooting.  This part was actually neat.  Shooting with our flashlights or with only flashing blue strobes from squad cars.  Was very challenging and fun.   (more…)