The Good, the Bad & the Ugly: Holidays @ the PD

Most blog posts this last week have been full of holiday cheer and good tidings.  And that is the way it should be!  We should all take this time to reflect on the good part of our lives and let those you love know you love them.  I hope everyone had a special Christmas- whether you were with your family, friends or co-workers, or your fur-babies.  We had a very nice day with both families after I got off work (I worked some OT on Christmas morning). 

The holidays can be a very stressful time of year for most of us.  For some people, who weren’t blessed with or raised with the coping skills most of us have to get along through adversity, this means the police become involved in matters big & small.  I thought I’d share some of the Good, Bad & Ugly with you.   These are all actual calls and we get these every year.  I’ll start with the Bad and end on the Good!

The BAD

• The Dad who called Christmas Morning to get on the Toys 4 Tots list.  To get on the list for the free toys for your kids, you must call ahead.  But you can call as as late as the 20th of December and we can usually accomodate you.   It takes a lot of time to organize the donated toys- they have to be sorted by sex & age and we can begin filling orders for the individual families.  It also takes a lot of time to wrap the gifts (usually a police/fire department wrap party occurs- all on personal time).  The deliveries are on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning – where again, more PD/FD employees volunteer their time.  Calling on Christmas Morning is too late.  Being mad at us because you were too preoccupied with yourself to plan for your kids- double bad.
• Delivering the toys to the families who cannot afford to purchase toys for their kids is usually a wonderful, enriching experience and many of our employees have their kids help.  It is somewhat suspicious when a delivery is made to the “wealthy” part of town and parked in the driveway of a large, perfectly manicured home are two newer model Mercedes. 

• You may be wondering how this lovely Christmas card rates “BAD”?  My coworker found this on the front door when she came in from her break.  She handed it to me with an “Awwww,  look- someone left us a card!” and a shit eating grin… 

I opened it up and just laughed!  We cracked up so I was torn between listing this as a Good or a Bad.   It’s best to not take the nut-jobs personally.  And was he confusing the Parkland Officers shooting deaths to Pearl Harbour Day? Or did he really mean “Lakeport”?  We weren’t quite sure where he was going with that. 

Thanks Chris of the Holiday Card Terror Threat FAIL.

 The UGLY

• Most of the worst human experiences during the holiday season has to do with SHOPPING.  You know this from news accounts of mass stampedes injuring/killing people over items such as the Playstation.  Seriously people?  Trisha (my coworker) and I deemed Monday December 7th ”Official Parking Lot Space Rage Day”.  We had at least 3  reports of fights over parking spaces on this day.   One in particular stands out.  We got a call from an elderly woman who was being harrassed at the local Costco.  Apparently she pulled into a handicapped parking space that another driver had intended to park in.  It forced that other driver to park 10 feet further from the door in the space next to the desired space.  The other driver began yelling vile obscenities at the woman, who was with her disabled husband and then loitered around her car waiting for her to get out.  She called 911  and stayed in the car with doors locked until we got there.  The Ugly One was a younger man with no visible disability… except  his defective humanity.  He also had to throw in the race card (“You took that spot because I am ____”.)  Whatever dude.

 and now for the GOOD:

• Every year I organize a collection within the department for our custodian.  He works two jobs to support his family and this year his hours got cut to 4 nights a week from 7 nights a week.  We really can tell when he’s not there.  This year we were down 50% from our normal amount and I put out a last ditch email to garner up some more cashola.  One of the officers came up the next day and handed me a $100 bill.  He made my day.
• The ladies of the Senior Center brought in a truckload of baked goods for our department- as did a handful of citizens.  Baked goods are always a day maker.
• The woman who called to thank us for responding so fast to a noise complaint.  Every once in a while we’ll get a thank you call and it is very much appreciated.
• This year we started a Food Drive in addition to the Toys 4 Tots- and while it took a little bit to take off, I have high hopes that we’ll win the friendly competition between county wide dispatch centers next year!  Full barrels of food are always a good thing!

I do think that more good things happen than bad during the Holidays.  While every year, the Bad & Ugly come to visit, I can only hope that the ones from this year take stock in themselves and try to do better.  Putting others before yourself is a sure way to do that.  That’s what the season is really all about.    Happy New Year!