Week 7 – To mirandize or not to mirandize
We started Monday with another report writing class. This time, we responded to a burglary call, which ultimately ended in the arrest of the suspect. Most of us did a great job with asking the right questions and making the arrest accordingly; however, the majority of us still do not know when or when not to mirandize. While we got the necessary information, Miranda still gives us a headache. There is a fine line between questioning a suspect before arrest and at what point he is actually detained. While we are allowed to make mistakes in a classroom setting, and most everybody will at one point in time, it is a totally different story to do it in real life. Not only do you not want to infringe on somebody’s rights, but you also do not want to have a guilty person walk free because you screwed up. Monday afternoon marked another “Wellness lab” and suffice it to say, it kicked our butts. One word; ‘Murph’. If you do not know what the workout entails, google it and watch the movie Lone Survivor, which is based on his last mission in Afghanistan before he was killed.
Tuesday and Thursday were range and arrest control days. There are times I cannot believe I get paid to shot somebody else’s ammunition and to handcuff as well as wrestle with people. All of us are truly blessed to have been given this opportunity. On Tuesday, my group started with arrest control in the morning and we learned several control holds and cuffing techniques. In the afternoon, we drove out to the range and fired live ammunition for the first time. The temperature was in the teens and even hand warmers could not keep our hands warm long enough. Even though all of us had fun, I think my core temperature dropped about 20 degrees and my hands felt like icicles. Thursday morning was a different story and we got to shoot about 200 rounds at varying distances. Deputy Hoffman, the range master, gave us different scenarios of where and from how far out to shoot. He also threw in some malfunction drills to change it up towards the end of the day. Arrest control continued in the afternoon. My wrists were on fire and my shoulders felt like jello. We all had fun twisting and contorting each other, but all went home with several bruises and sore arms.
Wednesday was all about Domestic Violence. The subject is a huge problem in this day and age and one of the most difficulty as well as dangerous calls we as future LE officers will have to face. Detectives Turnbull and McKone both did an incredible job and made it easy to follow and understand the class. Their experience and humor with a difficult subject made the day fly by. Well, the day flew by except for all the extra runs, burpees, and push-ups we had to do as a class. This week, the kids gloves came off and our continued little screw-ups really cost us. We have all became a little too complacent, which is a death sentence for people in law enforcement, and the instructors showed us once more that this is unacceptable.
Friday marked another test (#7, but who is counting) and a Rules of Evidence class by Director Baca. The material continues to amplify the difficulty and firearms mixed in with arrest control have increased the amount of information we need to know and master. Spending another hour on Tuesday to clean our firearms really messed with my weekly routine. Practicing the perfect trigger pull every day and arresting my wife (thanks hun) to learn arrest control techniques have only made the weekdays longer and more difficult. I think I have rambled on enough for week 7 and hope to have a lot of pictures for next week’s blog.
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