Personal Narrative: A Career As A San Diego Police Officer

Looking back on my relatively short life of only twenty one years, it is hard to pinpoint any event that has such a significant impact on my life. Mostly because at this point, not much really can happen that occur in a short hour long time span. Most likely contributed to the fact that 90% of my life has been spent in school. So coming up with something that is not commonly experienced is not the easiest. But luckily enough, an event that may fit that description happened almost a year ago.

The moment in question was my opportunity to work for the San Diego Police Department. When most people think of a job at a police department, they most likely think of a sworn officer. But that is not the job I was after. The job, like many at a police department, is a civilian position. For those that do not know, a civilian position is any not occupied by a sworn officer. Simply meaning, its a position where you do not carry a gun and are not "sworn" in. My civilian job title is a Special Events Traffic Controller. Which as the name applies, it involves directing traffic at special events. Some common events that we work include Padres as well as Charger games. As to summarize it is a job for the police department that directs traffic and we work with but

are not police officers, though some use this job as a stepping stone to become one. I am also using this job as a means of furthering my law enforcement career, but for another civilian position known as a Forensic Technicians, since that is the major I am currently working on.

Now on to the event in question. The day of my interview went like most people's. Obviously starting with a shave and a shower. Since no one is going to hire someone with a messy beard as well as someone who is not bathed. I think put on my pressed gray dress shirt as well as a dark blue tie. I also put on my black dress pants and freshly shined dress shoes. I then proceed to have a nice bowl of cereal of the Rice Krispies variety. Then I did a final check to see that everything was in order, then proceeded to drive to my interview at the San Diego Police Department traffic division office. My interview was scheduled to occur at noon so I left with ample enough time so that there was no possibility of being late. Having done so, when I arrived, I was about fifteen or so minutes early.

When I pulled up to the office, I pulled into the small parking lot that holds about ten or so cars for the public.

Due to the major portion of the lot being locked behind a key card fence and gate. And since it was a weekday, no one was in the public parking lot and I had it all to myself. The offices themselves are a few trailer type buildings placed together. But the office I wanted was a trailer off to the left side situated by itself away from the rest. The supervisor building. Since I was a few minutes early for my interview, I took a few minutes to compose myself. Since this was my first interview, I had no idea what to expect or what kind of questions they would ask. So I just had to do my best to calm myself

down.

The instructions for my interview said to call the supervisor when I arrived, so I did just that. After a few rings someone picked up the phone. I introduced myself and asked if I was calling the right person and that I was ready for my interview. The lady on the phone said that, yes I was in fact calling the right person and that she would come to the door to start the interview. A few moments later, a short lady, about five foot two opened the door to the supervisor building. She was wearing a police uniform with numerous medals and badges, half of which I did not recognize due to my limited exposure to police personal prior to this interview. I then walked up the small ramp and formally introduced myself again. She did the same and let me into the building. The building, being a trailer, opened up into a small room with just a table and three chairs. Two on one side and one by itself. I obviously knew which seat was mine. Being that there was two chairs for the supervisors, another proceed to walk into the room. This supervisor, was around the same height as me, around six foot. He was bald and also had medals on his uniform. I shook his hand as well as introduced myself.

With all of the formal introductions out of the way, one of the supervisors told me to sit down in the chair. I did so and they proceeded to do the same. The man to the left and the woman to the right. The woman, who introduced herself as Tina, started with the basic information of why I was there. Such information as the job title, and a basic description. Already knowing this information from the application, it was nice to hear that I already had a good grasp for the job at hand. The first question that I was asked was the reason for my application. Before this question was asked, I never really thought about why I wanted this job in particular, all I knew was that I wanted a job. After thinking for a few moments, I came up with my answer. That being that I wanted to help people as well as work with police officers. Due to my choice in major, it is kind of important to get used to that kind of working environment. Without any acknowledgment that that was a good or bad answer, they asked another. The next group of questions was a series of hypothetical situations that I could possibly face on the job. One such question was how would I handle a resident that wanted to drive down a blocked street. This was another question that caught me off guard due to never being in that situation before. I initial started to talk about what I would due but stopped myself to better think through my answer. But because I was so nervous, I started stuttering a bit. But after a moment or too I was able to think through my answer as well as give a good response. I simple said that I would inform the resident on how to get around our blocked road in order to get home. Since I thought that it would be wrong to say I would open up the street for the one person, due to not knowing the full situation on why the street was closed in the first place.

As with my other answer, they only had stoic expressions and I could not gauge on how well I was doing with my answers. And that only continued as I kept receiving and answering their various questions. About five minutes later, my interview was coming to a close. I only had one last question. In hindsight, it was probably the most important question to give and answer to. The question was simply, "Do you have any questions." At that time, my first thought was to ask, "Did I get the job" but obliviously that would have been a bit pretentious and possibly arrogant. I decided to ask about how many events could one expect to work in a year as well as how many where there to work. Tina responded by saying that you choose how many events you want in a month and that there are around seven hundred or so events in total for the year. With my questions answered, the supervisor's asked me to step outside so that they could deliberate on how I did. I stepped outside for probably only ten seconds or so, but at that time it felt like an eternity. I was so nervous and my heart was pounding out of my chest on the deliberation. After the ten seconds outside, Tina opened the door and told me to sit down again. After another few heart pounding seconds the two supervisor's told me that I had passed the interview and could continue on my way to getting this job. They handed me a packet of information and I was sent on my way. About six months later after a background check, medical exam, and various other interviews, I was finally offered the job. And of course I accepted and have been working for them for over a year now.

Even though this may not have been that monotonous of an occasions due to others standards, I would say landing your first job, at a police department no less, is a major accomplishment. But this whole, almost year long process taught me a lot about my self. The fist major one is patience. Not many people could wait in between steps in order to get this job. Also on the job has helped with patience due to working with such a big group of people throughout the day, being sometimes in the thousands depending on the day. This job also showed me that I am not always the most humble at times. Mainly due to my job paying over sixteen dollars an hour compared to my brother who makes minimum wage at two jobs. At the end of the day the journey itself may not be that exciting, but for me, the payoff has been life changing.