Dunwoody Police Continued

The LT said that he could see police cars having heads-up displays in the future and when I got inside of one of them, I understood why. The car has a shotgun rack on the roof in front of the cage. In between the seats is a place to store a digital camera and beverages. There is a radio, stereo, and computer. The computer is linked with a licence plate recognition system. There is also a printer and a console for controlling lights and sirens. It is also worth mentioning that the Dunwoody Police Department allows each officer to take home his or her car, which reduces maintenance costs. The officers are given cards to pay for fuel. The cars become operational for deployment as soon as they reach the Dunwoody city limits.



So, let's get to the questions I asked the officer. Which shift is best to work on in your opinion? He said it doesn't matter. How are the overtime and advancement opportunities? He said he don't want to do overtime because he would be working too hard. He already has to wake up at 0430 to be to work at 0545 and he sometimes have to stay late.

 

I could probably fill a couple of blog posts on the police actions I observed over the two days. However, I will limit my post to just a couple of them. The first was a low-risk traffic stop in a school zone. The officer parked near the flashing lights of a 25 mph school-zone sign. He used a hand-held radar gun to clock a passing car as speeding. The officer pursued the vehicle with lights only as not to scare other motorists. When the car stopped, he called it in to dispatch. He walked quickly to the driver, checking the trunk on the way. He obtained the driver's license then returned to his vehicle. He used the computer to check the license then wrote a ticket. He had the motorist sign the ticket then told her she could safely reenter the traffic flow. He then reported his status to dispatch as code 7, which means a traffic ticket was issued. In my next post, I will discuss another incident and then start my discussion on my ride along with the Marietta Police Department.