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I studied Criminal Justice in college, partly because it required no math. The arithmetic part of my brain doesn’t function as I would like, so I avoid it. Criminal Justice, therefore, sounded like the perfect major. In almost four decades of police work, only a few circumstances required that I do math. Those events, however,…
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In law enforcement, vehicle maintenance is a high priority. We drive patrol cars hundreds of miles per week, so the oil must be changed on time and regularly. Failure to do so is frowned upon, to say the least. We were required to get the oil changed every 3000 miles. That meant we kept a…
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In 1986, my naive eyes were opened by a new job as a jail guard. The jail baptized me into the world as it was, not the world I believed I lived in. For the first time, I met members of the human race who were damaged beyond repair. I had no idea humanity was…
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Last week I celebrated 39 years in a career that almost didn’t happen. In 1986, I was scheduled to take an entrance exam for the Sheriff’s Office. I woke up from an afternoon nap ten minutes before my appointment. I didn’t think I had time to get there. So, I gave up on the idea.…
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In April 1979, as a result of some stellar driving in my dad’s Ford Thunderbird, I proudly received an Alabama Drivers License from the Department of Public Safety. Less than two months later, as a result of some horrendous driving in my mom’s Pontiac station wagon, I handed that license back to them. I was…
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There are a few citizens I’ve had trouble getting along with. One of those citizens sold drugs and harbored fugitives. Let’s call her Methany. Methany lived on a rural, county road. I’m sure her neighbors adored her. Visitors came by her house all night, every night. The kind that only stay a few minutes. We…
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Growing up in the 1970s was not for the faint of heart. No one wore bicycle helmets. We rarely wore shoes. Most of our toys had safety recalls. Vehicles had no child restraint seats or airbags. Everyone around us smoked. We drank water from garden hoses and chased the pesticide truck as he fogged the…
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Like many of my coworkers in the 1980s, I moonlighted as door security at a local bar after my patrol shift ended. Part of the job was keeping underage minors out. Fake IDs were common and often difficult to distinguish from the real thing. On one especially busy night, I tested the patrons in the…
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In the early 90s, our swat team was sent to locate an armed murder suspect. The search led us to the suspect’s family’s house. After we cleared the inside of the residence, it was my job to check the outbuildings. There was a walk-in shed in the backyard, so I started there. This all occurred before…
