Yesterday was my first day in my new position, though today was the first actual business day on the new job. Weekends are a bit different, in that only a few people work on Sunday and most offices that affect me (such as the courts and the general non-emergency police department) are closed.

However, I think I managed to establish myself and make a police sergeant respect me, so yesterday was a productive day. And the bonus is that he's one of the main PIOs (Public Information Officer -- someone who's supposed to be kept up to date on major cases so the media can get information when the detectives are all out in the field and unavailable). He's got something like 20 years of experience, and the first day he met me was when I was asking him some questions last week about the recent double homicide. He suddenly asked where I was from, I told him where I lived, and he said no, he wanted to know where I'd worked previously. "You don't have this look that says, 'What should I write down next?' that some of the reporters first have," he said. That was when I had a glimmer of hope that I'd survive in this job.

So yesterday, I called the police department to see who was on duty, because I was supposed to write a story about these trading cards the police officers give out. This particular sergeant happened to be on duty, and he said he could take the photographer and me out in a patrol car to watch him give cards to kids. This was my first ride in a police car, and I got to sit in the front seat.

I won't go into details or I'll be here until tomorrow, but that was FUN. The squad cars have computers right there in the center console, with keyboards and touch screens. Officers can see what is going on, and they can file reports right in their car, rather than going back to the station to type them up. Everything gets sent through radio waves, so it works with their radios and scanners. He touched the screen, and I could see what all of the officers on duty were doing.

The ride-along was fascinating, the card-giving was interesting because I could see people react to having a police officer walk by just for the purpose of saying hi, and then the unplanned race through town was amazingly exciting. We were on our way to the lake to meet a different officer when the sergeant said, "I need to move on this call." He turned around, stepped on the gas in the V-8 engine, put on the lights, and away we went. It was fun to see the stoplights all stay green for us, and we went about 60 mph (in a 35 mph zone) at one point. We were the fourth squad car to arrive on the scene, and everything was under control by the time we got there, so that was good (though it would have been handy to get there so quickly if it turned into a story for me to report on). But the speed through town was extremely fun.

Somewhere during the afternoon, I asked the sergeant some other questions about stories I was working on, and I apparently impressed him with my observations and questions. Today I met the head of investigations, and the sergeant apparently told him I was going to be a good reporter.

Today was very different, though not in a bad way. It was crazy at times, nearly overwhelming most of the time, but I'm not quite as scared by the large shoes I have to fill. I'm going up a steep slope right now, because I must catch up on tons of cases and learn how to take different approaches in order to get information from various people, but the steep slope is fascinating. I haven't gone tumbling backward down the mountain yet, and perhaps I'll get in shape soon enough so that I really start to enjoy the climb.

And that's all for now. "The Move to Lodi" will have to wait for another post. Oh, but today I got my new business cards and my e-mail address. That was also mildly exciting.