This evening was the second of eight sessions of this year’s Southern Pines Police Citizens Police Academy. If your community’s police department has a program like this, I encourage you to get involved. It doesn’t seem like eight weeks is enough time to learn all there is to know.
During the first session, we had an introduction to the department and its functions given by Chief John Letteney, Community Services Coordinator, Bob Temme and the department’s chaplain.
Today’s lecture and demonstrations were conducted by Sgt Austin, who described the functions and responsibilities of the patrol division. We got to tour the department offices and take a look at some of the equipment used in patrol cars.
We talked a lot about impaired drivers and the methods used to determine the level of impairment by officers on patrol. Can you believe that there are people who think they can alter the results of breath alcohol detection instruments by putting a penny in their mouths? Weird, I know. I said I think we should start a rumor that putting a cat turd in your mouth will cause a negative reading. I’d love to imagine drunk drivers sucking on cat turds when they get pulled over. We laugh when we hear the stories about how impaired drivers bumble through field sobriety tests, but there’s really nothing funny about it. Drunk drivers are potential killers who have no care for the safety and well-being of others. I barely remember him, but my uncle was killed by a drunk driver.
Next week I’ll have some more pictures!