Doing My Civic Duty
August 25, 2006 | Civic Dooty
Big Giant Badge
Originally uploaded by picture_ho.
A couple a months ago I applied to be a police department volunteer, to work at the new substation that was recently finished in my neighborhhod. My baby sister has recently become a police officer and I wanted to learn a little more about her scene. They’re planning to have the substations entirely run by volunteers, so I will work one shift a week and answer the phone and help people with reports and stuff. Neato, eh?
I applied, had an interview, and yesterday I had my training. It was held in the control room at headquarters, where they would manage a big crime. It looked just like on TV with white boards and flat screen TV’s everywhere and a huge screen that came out of the ceiling where they showed us how to work the computers.
Cop Shop
Originally uploaded by picture_ho.
It was a pretty interesting group of people*, mostly senior citizens. We spent AN HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES learning how to log in and out of our new email accounts. I am not kidding. I guess it is easy to forget that some people still have never even used a computer. They had to be shown how to click, (”no, don’t hold it down, just a quick tap”) and how to close a window (”see the red X in the corner of your screen?”). We practiced all together logging in…and then logging out, with successes followed by much applause.
At one point, this ancient lady with a loud, low smoker’s voice was getting all upset because it wouldn’t let her log in anymore. The trainer guy tried to explain to her that she had mis-entered her password three times and now she was locked out, but then she was more angry, like she was getting bad service or something. She kept arguing with him, “What do you mean I’m locked out, it says OK right there!”, thinking that the “you are locked out, OK?” button meant, “it’s all okay, this young feller is lying to you.”
Anywhoo, this should be interesting. Hopefully I will at least have some good stories to tell!
Snazzy New Polos
Originally uploaded by picture_ho.
* I have worked as a volunteer coordinator before, and the segment of the population that volunteers their time is for the most part, oh, a bit touched. Lots of crazies, lots of specials, and lots of old people, all with good intentions. Hmmm. What does this say about me?
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