I'm A Graduate!!

May 20th, I graduated...Not from college, high school, or even kindergarten as some of you probably would guess. I graduated from the Citizen's Police Academy, a ten week course that gives everyday people a closer look at police work.

I have to say, this was one of the greatest classes I ever took, and that includes P.E. and Recess. Each week, a different department would speak to a class of 20+ about what it is they do, and how it helps our city. Wow! Some of the things that must be done to keep the PD going is pretty intense. I give a lot of credit to the people behind the scenes that help the ones on the front line. Make no mistake, credit is deserved all the way around in the Abilene Police Department.

A few of the highlights of this ten week course, besides getting to meet a great group of classmates, we got to witness the K-9 unit in action, the bomb squad lit up the night sky with explosions, and the S.W.A.T. Team showed off their skills on just how quick and sharp they are. Getting to ride along with a police officer for six hours was a neat way to see the life and duties a police officer must go through. Of course, I cannot leave out the chance to test my aim at the firing range with a .38. Want to know how sharp of a shooter I am? Ask me sometime, I'll show you the target!

Although, I wouldn't be giving this class any justice without mentioning that this was Chief Melvin Martin's last CPA class. I'm truly honored to say I was a part of it! The real blessing in this is getting to see the Chief in a different way, but to also see just how passionate and proud he is of each department within the PD. So as he heads into retirement and begins to take that well deserved vacation, I want to say thank you, thank you for allowing me to take part in this class and get to witness how police work is done.

Side note: If you want to join this class, you should consider signing up! Ask APD how. If you don't have ten weeks to spare, skip straight to riding along with an officer. That's how you really get to see what they do on a daily basis, and what Abilene looks like from a different perspective.

A Long Time Coming...Playing Hide and Seek With a K-9

Okay, so blogging is a weakness of mine...okay, a BIG weakness of mine. I'll work on it...okay, I'll try and work on it.

So I've become the reporter who got scared and hid from a yellow lab. Everywhere I go now, I hear "I saw you hiding from that dog," or some joke, "Why'd you run from that dog? Were you too scared of the attack dogs?" To which I reply, "Yes! And you should be too!" So maybe I don't go that far, but I do like to share with people about how fun it was working with the Taylor County Sheriff's Department, and their new K-9 "TJ."

First of all, TJ is not "that" kind of dog, he's not trained to attack or chew my arm off, in fact quite the opposite. When I first met TJ, I was surprised to see the Sheriff's Office using a Yellow Lab, instead of a German Shepard, but apparently it's not that uncommon to use other breads. I learned that Labs are perfect for searching out scents and narcotics. Which is exactly what the TCSO wanted to use, a K-9 to detect drugs.

So what's next, chihuahuas hunting down armed suspects? Well maybe not, but think of the possibilities! That little dog would yap, at the gunman until they give in. No offense, to Chihuahua owners, I'm sure they're fine dogs and very loyal, but come on, they do yap a lot.

All of this is to say, my night playing hide and seek with TJ was a lot of fun, and I'm very grateful I didn't get my arm turned into a chew toy.