Adam Milling
Mrs. Michel
English 1001
October 14, 2007
Police Officers in Our Community
In our LSU community there are many people that are over looked. Some of these are by accident, some on purpose, but all in all we do not appreciate many of the things they do. A few of these are janitors, garbage men, and even the people who cook our food every day but I chose another profession. The person I interviewed is a police officer. His name is David Wallace and he works with the Baton Rouge Police Force. He is tall with short brown hair, and a thin yet muscular build. This essay will give a description of being a police officer in today’s world, from his point of view.
Born on March 25, 1972 and raised in Watson, Louisiana David’s mind was set on the fact that he would be a motorcycle police officer when he grew up because his father had been a Baton Rouge Motorcycle Police Officer in his childhood and he admired what his father did and was inspired by the sense of pride he got from his work. Also, when he was a teenager he thought about being a professional bull rider but the actuality was his dream was to follow in his father’s footsteps. After high school he did not pursue further education due to this dream. Now, a thirty five year old man, he has been an officer with the Baton Rouge Police Department. To take a step back for a second, first David had to go through training to get where he is today. His training was a demanding twenty one weeks long at the police academy to become a police officer. Next, each new officer must wait for six months of riding with a veteran officer before they are set out on their own. Once his training was done he became a cadet in the Crime Information Unit. He then attended the 57th Basic Training Academy in 1994. After he graduated this academy he was assigned to uniform Patrol 1st District where he spent approximately eight months. Later he decided to transfer to a different department. He had to go through more training upon making his decision to transferring to the Solo Motorcycle Division. This training consisted of eighty hours of basic riding lessons. After those eighty hours were successfully completed, David was required to ride along with a Certified Motorcycle officer for one hundred and twenty hours to gain his independence. David is now in two different departments. He is both in the Solo-Motorcycle Division and the Special Response Team. There are many duties required by each of these units. One priority of the Solo Motorcycle Division is to enforce the traffic laws throughout Baton Rouge and ensure that there is a safe and efficient flow of traffic through the city at all times. Also, the Solo Motorcycle Division is responsible for all special events that occur as well as the escort of dignitaries. Likewise, the Special Response Team (SRT) is also responsible for special events and dignitaries along with other tasks. One of these is the resolving of situations that have a high potential to for violence and even events that have potential to become a violent situation. A few of these situations include, but are not limited to, barricaded subjects, hostage or crisis situations, sniper incidents, high risk search or arrest warrants, suicidal situations, and as I stated earlier dignitary escort and protection.
When asked how the job of being a police officer affected his life, David answered that it forces him to live at a higher standard because the unstated rule of a police officer is to be a role model for society. During the course of the interview for my English 1001 paper David stated, “after working in this profession for a period of time, all of the high risk encounters becomes a way of life.” He also mentioned that “as a member on the SRT we do a lot of high risk entries. When making the entries we wear special bullet proof entry vest, ballistic helmets, and carry AR15 assault rifles.” David stated that he had to put on this gear approximately two weeks ago, his SRT team was called out on a high risk warrant execution in Baton Rouge. He informed me that the information that was given to his team was that an undercover narcotics officer had made a large cocaine from a single family home and the officer was scheduled to return to the home to make another large buy from this family. David stated the severity of the situation when he told me that, “there were small children known to be present, as well as the grandmother of one of the suspects”. The men they were after were three black males. Their names were unknown but all of them were known to carry guns. Also making the situation more critical was that the suspects were believed to be on high alert because they were having a turf war with other rival gang members in the area. “Our assignment was to make entry into the home, take every one present and securing them. After doing so narcotics officers would search the home for the items they were looking for and interview the people who were detained. Then they will make the appropriate arrest.” These missions sound easy but are high risk when the suspects are armed. They arrived in an Armored SWAT Vehicle, also known as the Bear Cat, when they saw several men standing outside on the front porch. He said one of the men ran inside the house and once they arrived to the front door the men still outside were ordered to the ground and were immediately covered by team members. The team went into the home where they found the grandmother and two small children who were suspected to be inside sitting on the couch. As they continued moving through the home they came to a locked door where the man from the porch ran into. “We did not know if the male was destroying the drugs or maybe arming himself in fear of going to jail” David recollected thinking before entering the room. The door was breached and a flash bang, a device that makes a loud noise, a bright light, and produces smoke) was deployed. Once in the room the team observed the male reaching under the bed. He was secured and they later found out he was hiding cocaine which had a street value of approximately two hundred thousand dollars. Through further investigation of the house large amounts of drugs, several guns, and approximately one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in twenty dollar bills, of drug money was discovered and taken off of the streets. Thankfully no one was hurt during the raid. The three men were arrested, and among them one of which had a warrant for his arrest for murder.
When Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana it rocked our LSU community and with that the jobs of the people in this community. One effect of Katrina on David’s work was there were a lot more cars driving around in Baton Rouge which meant there were more accidents happening along with more traffic laws being broken. Also, another effect of Katrina was that David was required to work more. He had to change from working eight hours days five days a week to twelve hour days seven days a week. Even with the added hours and increase of traffic in Baton Rouge David says there are no doubts or regrets he has about his job. With that said there are still things he does not like about his job like the one hundred plus degree days in July and August. Also, he wishes that the court system would become less lenient and more unforgiving to repeat offenders.
When asked what he believed his future plans for his job were, David replied that he would continue working for the Solo Motorcycle Division as a Supervisor and for the Special Response Team until his retirement in another 13 years at the early age of forty eight. In a more personal note he says after his retirement he is just going to enjoy life and maybe even work for the Harley Davidson Corporation teaching motorcycle lessons to incoming officers. Lastly, I asked David what he thinks the affect on society would be if his profession did not exist and his answer was, “without officers to enforce the laws the world would be chaos.” Hopefully, this essay gave a glimpse of Louisiana and one of its professions that is very easily over looked in our Baton Rouge community.
Mrs. Michel
English 1001
October 14, 2007
Police Officers in Our Community
In our LSU community there are many people that are over looked. Some of these are by accident, some on purpose, but all in all we do not appreciate many of the things they do. A few of these are janitors, garbage men, and even the people who cook our food every day but I chose another profession. The person I interviewed is a police officer. His name is David Wallace and he works with the Baton Rouge Police Force. He is tall with short brown hair, and a thin yet muscular build. This essay will give a description of being a police officer in today’s world, from his point of view.
Born on March 25, 1972 and raised in Watson, Louisiana David’s mind was set on the fact that he would be a motorcycle police officer when he grew up because his father had been a Baton Rouge Motorcycle Police Officer in his childhood and he admired what his father did and was inspired by the sense of pride he got from his work. Also, when he was a teenager he thought about being a professional bull rider but the actuality was his dream was to follow in his father’s footsteps. After high school he did not pursue further education due to this dream. Now, a thirty five year old man, he has been an officer with the Baton Rouge Police Department. To take a step back for a second, first David had to go through training to get where he is today. His training was a demanding twenty one weeks long at the police academy to become a police officer. Next, each new officer must wait for six months of riding with a veteran officer before they are set out on their own. Once his training was done he became a cadet in the Crime Information Unit. He then attended the 57th Basic Training Academy in 1994. After he graduated this academy he was assigned to uniform Patrol 1st District where he spent approximately eight months. Later he decided to transfer to a different department. He had to go through more training upon making his decision to transferring to the Solo Motorcycle Division. This training consisted of eighty hours of basic riding lessons. After those eighty hours were successfully completed, David was required to ride along with a Certified Motorcycle officer for one hundred and twenty hours to gain his independence. David is now in two different departments. He is both in the Solo-Motorcycle Division and the Special Response Team. There are many duties required by each of these units. One priority of the Solo Motorcycle Division is to enforce the traffic laws throughout Baton Rouge and ensure that there is a safe and efficient flow of traffic through the city at all times. Also, the Solo Motorcycle Division is responsible for all special events that occur as well as the escort of dignitaries. Likewise, the Special Response Team (SRT) is also responsible for special events and dignitaries along with other tasks. One of these is the resolving of situations that have a high potential to for violence and even events that have potential to become a violent situation. A few of these situations include, but are not limited to, barricaded subjects, hostage or crisis situations, sniper incidents, high risk search or arrest warrants, suicidal situations, and as I stated earlier dignitary escort and protection.
When asked how the job of being a police officer affected his life, David answered that it forces him to live at a higher standard because the unstated rule of a police officer is to be a role model for society. During the course of the interview for my English 1001 paper David stated, “after working in this profession for a period of time, all of the high risk encounters becomes a way of life.” He also mentioned that “as a member on the SRT we do a lot of high risk entries. When making the entries we wear special bullet proof entry vest, ballistic helmets, and carry AR15 assault rifles.” David stated that he had to put on this gear approximately two weeks ago, his SRT team was called out on a high risk warrant execution in Baton Rouge. He informed me that the information that was given to his team was that an undercover narcotics officer had made a large cocaine from a single family home and the officer was scheduled to return to the home to make another large buy from this family. David stated the severity of the situation when he told me that, “there were small children known to be present, as well as the grandmother of one of the suspects”. The men they were after were three black males. Their names were unknown but all of them were known to carry guns. Also making the situation more critical was that the suspects were believed to be on high alert because they were having a turf war with other rival gang members in the area. “Our assignment was to make entry into the home, take every one present and securing them. After doing so narcotics officers would search the home for the items they were looking for and interview the people who were detained. Then they will make the appropriate arrest.” These missions sound easy but are high risk when the suspects are armed. They arrived in an Armored SWAT Vehicle, also known as the Bear Cat, when they saw several men standing outside on the front porch. He said one of the men ran inside the house and once they arrived to the front door the men still outside were ordered to the ground and were immediately covered by team members. The team went into the home where they found the grandmother and two small children who were suspected to be inside sitting on the couch. As they continued moving through the home they came to a locked door where the man from the porch ran into. “We did not know if the male was destroying the drugs or maybe arming himself in fear of going to jail” David recollected thinking before entering the room. The door was breached and a flash bang, a device that makes a loud noise, a bright light, and produces smoke) was deployed. Once in the room the team observed the male reaching under the bed. He was secured and they later found out he was hiding cocaine which had a street value of approximately two hundred thousand dollars. Through further investigation of the house large amounts of drugs, several guns, and approximately one hundred and fifty thousand dollars in twenty dollar bills, of drug money was discovered and taken off of the streets. Thankfully no one was hurt during the raid. The three men were arrested, and among them one of which had a warrant for his arrest for murder.
When Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana it rocked our LSU community and with that the jobs of the people in this community. One effect of Katrina on David’s work was there were a lot more cars driving around in Baton Rouge which meant there were more accidents happening along with more traffic laws being broken. Also, another effect of Katrina was that David was required to work more. He had to change from working eight hours days five days a week to twelve hour days seven days a week. Even with the added hours and increase of traffic in Baton Rouge David says there are no doubts or regrets he has about his job. With that said there are still things he does not like about his job like the one hundred plus degree days in July and August. Also, he wishes that the court system would become less lenient and more unforgiving to repeat offenders.
When asked what he believed his future plans for his job were, David replied that he would continue working for the Solo Motorcycle Division as a Supervisor and for the Special Response Team until his retirement in another 13 years at the early age of forty eight. In a more personal note he says after his retirement he is just going to enjoy life and maybe even work for the Harley Davidson Corporation teaching motorcycle lessons to incoming officers. Lastly, I asked David what he thinks the affect on society would be if his profession did not exist and his answer was, “without officers to enforce the laws the world would be chaos.” Hopefully, this essay gave a glimpse of Louisiana and one of its professions that is very easily over looked in our Baton Rouge community.
1 comment:
I think it's a good man. What he do is essential to keep the motorcyclists safe. And his plan to work for the Harley Davidson Corporation teaching motorcycle lessons to incoming officers is a good one. I meet many friends on a site called bikerkiss. We usually talk about yhings about motorcycle together. We think if we have more officer like this one, the motorcycle accidents will become less and less.
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