Black Wednesday

Week seven didn't get off to a great start. The Labor Day weekend was over (yes they gave us the three day weekend) and it was back to work. Tuesday went by swimmingly, no hiccups, just another great day of academics.

Wednesday however proved to be a bit more of a nightmare. Test three was our first scheduled appointment that day. Tests are always stressful; anyone who has been to school can tell you that. This exam consisted of a number of subjects from sexual assault crimes to crimes against people. There were 100 questions, most multiple choice, some fill in the blanks. We have eight tests to complete during the course of the academy, not including the final POST exam and a score of 75% or more is needed to pass.

After the exam it was inspection time. We were dressed out in our Class A uniforms (long sleeved shirt with tie) and assembled in formation outside of the Sheriffs Office HQ. A sergeant from the Westminster PD was scheduled as our inspecting officer. Here is where our first mess up came. We were given the order to dress-right-dress, which basically means we move apart about and arms length from each other so the inspecting officer can have room to move in and around us. Who could mess that up right? Well it seems about half of us did. It was very embarrassing, and Deputy Johnson was not happy with us.

The sergeant from Westminster was one sharp guy. He picked up on all our faults, no matter how personal they may have been, he did not hold anything back. The Westminster recruits got the worst of it though; he had no mercy for them. He made one of them run in and pluck his nose hairs! Others had to go in and call friends to find the answers to questions they didn’t know!

Inspection lasted about an hour, after which we were scheduled for PT, this helped relieve some of the stress from the morning which was good, but it was short lived. After lunch Deputy Johnson was going over some of the issues from the inspection when he caught a few people not paying attention to him. This is not good, especially after we had already pissed him off! Thirty five pushups later and the point was driven home.

The week did however end on a good note. Thursday we started firearms training; this was eight hours of class room with sixteen more to come before we hit the range, a very welcome break from some of the more intensive studies. We got to put our duty belts together and get them prepared for the techniques we will be learning over the next few weeks.

Friday Deputy Johnson was very happy with our performance at Red Rocks that morning. It was a very tough workout and he was happy to see not one of us quit, and was proud at how we were pulling together as a team. The academy coordinators are good like that. Especially Deputy Johnson, he will kick your rear end in when you need and then pat you on the back when you deserve it. It all balances itself out.