It Wasn't What I Expected

Writer Cindy Carroll is one busy woman, but she found time to visit us this
week. She writes scripts as well as books and short stories. She teaches
classes, too. (Ask her about them.) Cindy is our fourth blogger talking about
training with law enforcement. She shares her experiences with the Halton
Region Citizen’s Police Academy. She just graduated! Welcome, Cindy!

It wasn’t what I expected

It was better. I received the letter in December telling me I was accepted into the Halton
Region Citizens’ Police Academy. I had completely forgotten that I applied because I applied for the September session. A letter came for that one too, saying I didn’t get in but they’d hold onto the application. Sure, I thought. People say that but they never do. Well, they did.

Classes were every week starting January 12. And let me tell you, from the very beginning it was like suspense writer heaven. Almost every unit or bureau was scheduled to talk to us at some point during the 12 weeks of classes. Some of my favourites were the homicide bureau, the intelligence unit and the TRU team (Tactical Rescue Unit).

The classes were invaluable when it came to practical knowledge of things I’d only read about. For instance, a grenade is heavier than it looks.

At least it was to me. The gun we used for target practice was lighter than I thought it would be. It was also way louder and had more kick than I expected. You really do have to exhale and squeeze the trigger slowly until it just goes off. If you think about pulling the trigger you squeeze too fast and you miss your target. The bullet proof vest was also lighter than I expected.

I had my favourite presentations. The intelligence unit officer was awesome. He took us from the beginning of an investigation when they get a call reporting suspicious behaviour right to the arrest. He changed the names and nature of the crime of course. But for that one I took pages and pages of notes.

The one that struck me the most was the crisis negotiator. They’re not called hostage negotiators in Canada because we don’t have a lot of hostage situations. Hollywood usually portrays these people as burnt out, bitter cops. But she was not burnt out, definitely not bitter. She LOVED the job. Got excited by those 2:00 am phone calls summoning her to somewhere in the city to talk someone into not killing themselves and getting help instead. It was also interesting to learn that the crisis negotiating was on top of her regular duties as an officer.

One of the best parts was that it was free. I would have paid to have twelve weeks of access to police personnel, demonstrations, hands on practice, presentations. But it’s part of the community policing initiative they have going on to help citizens better understand what is involved in policing. It gave me lots of information to work with, caused a few breakthroughs in the story I was working on and sparked a few ideas for other stories.

I advise everyone to do a search to see if their city offers a citizen police academy. It can be invaluable to a suspense writer. It can also be a great way to get more involved in your community and understand the police a little better. I already respected them. Now that respect is through the roof.


Cindy
www.cindycarroll.com
www.proseriesalumni.com
www.scriptscene.org - Go ahead. Make a scene.