Amy Atwell Plays Castle!

For our first day with women who trained with law enforcement, please welcome Amy Atwell. Amy is a writer and a motivator. She is a Golden Heart finalist, which will mean more to romance writers than to most folks.

Amy was generous enough to share some of her experiences training with law enforcement. Please make her welcome.

I graduated from my local Civilian Law Enforcement Academy (CLEA) back in 2005. I had recently relocated from California to Florida's First Coast, and I learned about the free CLEA class in my local newspaper. At that time, CLEA was a brand new program offered the St Johns County Sheriff's Office, and the sheriff and his staff did their best to provide the students with every law enforcement experience you can imagine.

As a writer, the class provided great insights to the wide variety of duties covered by law enforcement. I could spend a few weeks here describing things we studied: SWAT operations, bomb squad, K-9, firearms, driving course, county corrections, negotiations and more. Instead, I'm going to discuss two sessions that really opened my eyes.

911 Call Center

My elderly father suffers life-endangering sugar crashes from his diabetes, so I've made a few 911 calls in my day. I know how eagerly someone waits for help to arrive. So, I was filled with questions when six members of our CLEA class visited the 911 Call Center.

The staff of four employees rotated taking and routing calls. Fire and medical emergency calls are routed to the Fire Department's operators. Operators try to quickly identify the needs of the caller and route the nearest help as quickly as possible. Bear in mind, these staffers work 8-12 hour shifts, and the starting annual salary (in my area) is $26K. Operators rarely work longer than 5 years in these high stress roles. One operator we talked to that night had been at her job for 8 years. Think of it: eight years of taking stressful calls, of helping save some lives, and sitting by helplessly unable to help others.

The night we were there, one of the operators took a call from a child who couldn't wake her mom. They dispatched the EMTs immediately. The operator stayed on the line with the little girl, reassuring her that help was coming. We were all hoping for good news, but when the medics arrived, one of them got on the phone to tell 911 that the mother wasn't breathing and had no pulse. They were going to transport the mother to the hospital, but as there was very little hope of reviving her, they didn't want to transport the young girl.

Our 911 operator took over talking with the child while the EMTs prepped to leave with her mother. Meanwhile, the 911 center dispatched a deputy to stay with the child and issued a call to Child Welfare Services. But our 911 operator stayed on the phone with the child even through the deputy arriving, the EMTs leaving, and all the while remained calm and positive. Only we could see the tears streaming down her face.

Talk about unsung heroes. I think a heroine who is a 911 operator would be amazing.


Ride Along

I got to ride along with one of our deputies for three hours one night. First revelation—the amount of technology these men and women have in their vehicles is awe-inspiring. The trunk has all-weather gear, road hazard warning devices (cones & flares), and the equivalent of a filing cabinet with various paperwork and forms for every contingency. The cab of the vehicle is outfitted with GPS mapping technology and radio communications, and a laptop computer fits into a holder by the dashboard. Deputies use this to receive updates and APBs. They can also use the computer to run license tags. This way, if they pull over a vehicle, they can establish if there's a flag in their system about that car. Since deputies rarely travel in teams, this helps the lone officer be better prepared for possible danger.

My evening with the deputy started off slow. I learned about their favorite restaurants, also found out the county has secret gas stations tucked away so all emergency vehicles can stop in and refuel without waiting in line or having to pay. And they do a lot of driving. Our county covers over 2000 square miles.

One radio call changed our evening. The state park staff had locked up its beach parking lot, but there was still a car in the lot. They reported to the sheriff's office, and when they ran the tag and contacted the car owner, the owner reported that a family member who suffered from mental instability had taken the car. This woman had taken the car and left some sort of note about wanting to kill herself.

Before I knew it, we were speeding through the pitch dark along the beach road at over 90 mph (speed limit normally 30). Reaching the state park, we parked by the road. The deputy asked me to stay with the squad car while he walked into the parking lot to check on the vehicle there. Finding it empty, he took his high-powered flashlight and headed down to the water.

To my relief, he returned less than ten minutes later, and he was ushering a woman in her forties who looked a little disheveled but not like she was in imminent danger. He escorted her to the squad car and put her in the back. I took a seat up front, and I was happy for the screen that separated the two halves of the vehicle. She asked me why I'd been arrested and then started to yell at the deputy. He stood outside radioing the hospital to expect us.

We drove her to the emergency room where she was greeted by the staff as an old friend. One nurse confided that they see this woman pretty much whenever she goes off her meds. Fortunately, we were able to sign over responsibility for her to the hospital staff, who said they'd release her to her family when it was appropriate. The deputy was relieved once these papers were signed, and when we got back out to the car, he admitted that if the hospital had refused to admit her, he would have had to take her to the county jail instead. Not what anyone would have wished for.

After that, there wasn't time to patrol neighborhoods. I did get a few tidbits from the deputy while he drove me back to my car. Things like his job really does get crazier during the full moon. Oh, and one of the busiest days of the year for law enforcement? The Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. He claims it's because families are sick of spending so much time together over the holiday weekend. Lots of domestic calls.

I highly recommend that writers check with their local law enforcement offices to see if a CLEA program is available in your area. Our alumni group still gets together occasionally, and we also act as volunteers. My experience gave me hundreds of tidbits to include in my stories, and I had a blast taking the class and learning so many things first-hand.

Thanks to the Pink Fuzzies for inviting me to participate in this blog week. Great topic, and I salute all of our law enforcement men and women.

Ask her questions!