THE POLICE OFFICER LIBRARIAN

On Monday, I gave a presentation on safety and being a police officer at my son's day care. Two things occurred to me throughout preparation and during the event: One, I don't know why I didn't think of taking a book with me to read sooner. And, two, that was the most fun being a police officer I have had since I started with the department two and a half years ago. The sad thing is, it was my day off and I wasn't even getting paid.

Other things to share: talking to a group of 27, 3-5 year olds is very challenging. They have short attention spans. They are also very talkative. It's been awhile since I've been around kids of that age group. I'm still use to my son who just makes funny sounds and giggles.

Although I planned badly and wasn't able to find a halloween book to take with me, the children's librarian helped me find two really good books: "Keeping You Safe: A Book About Police Officers" by Ann Owen and "Officer Buckle and Gloria" by Peggy Rathman. I opted out of reading the latter because of the length and age group, but it's looks like a cute story, none-the-less for the right group. The first book had nice clear pictures and simple sentences that was perfect for the 3 and 4 year olds. It even featured lots of women police officers which is important in a room full of girls who want to be princesses when they grow up.

All in all, it was a very good day.

INTERVIEW OR INTERROGATION

As a police officer by day and librarian wannabe by night, I realized that while I don't spend much time working on my reference interview, I spend more than enough time "interviewing" the counties convicted felons and other mishaps. Let me just say, I've pulled out a few hairs over the inane, repetitive and mind-numbing questions I have to answer day after day. Let me put this into perspective for you so you don't think I'm the most anti-friendly cop out there. I work in a work-release center, where inmates are granted permission to go to work, school, appointments and job interviews. I'm basically a county-paid information center for inmates trying to make it on the outside, inside.
We have a process where all questions, regarding anything they have to ask, are written on request slips and collected three times daily, once on each shift. While this is a good method in theory, as it allows the deputies to answer the questions at their leisure and get back to the inmates when finished, attempting to get people to follow these rules, who can't follow rules on the outside is another story altogether.
And so, these past months I have become an interviewer not an interrogator, fielding for information from people who don't want to give it in order to help them with bus schedules, work schedules, appointments, huber law, criminal law and so on. It is tiring and tedious and I wish I were helping with books instead of bus routes, but such is life.