Weeks 18 & 19—Recruit Magor

Weeks 18 and 19 were full of studying. We had our second to last test which was 75 questions that were geared towards preparing us for the Peace Officer Standards and Training (P.O.S.T.) test. All the recruits did great.

We had three days straight with the lab, learning lots about crime scene investigations. We got to practice taking crime scene photos and it is important to never delete a picture because then an attorney could later question why we deleted that picture in court.

 

We also learned how to take latent fingerprints, and it was actually harder than I had anticipated. There is an art to it, which I don’t have mastered quite yet.

The stressor of Week 19 were the written and physical tests for our arrest control tactics. We had a full days worth of review, which reminded us of how precise we have to be for some of the tactics. Come test day though, everyone did great and passed.

I would like to thank Agent Beers, Deputy Spoutz and all the other arrest control instructors for all the time and effort they put into the class. The instructors were passionate about helping us learn the proper techniques so that when we start our careers we can be as safe as possible.

Then…….the day I had been anticipating since Day One of the Academy came: O.C. spray.

We got to practice with inert O.C. to get the hang of how to use it and then got the real deal. I had the privilege of being sprayed by Director Baca. After that, the course has a dummy that you have to punch for 30 seconds, then you move onto hitting another dummy with a baton for 30 seconds and, lastly, identify a threat, give orders and handcuff the suspect.

It burned to say the least. I rinsed my eye with a hose for probably close to 20 minutes. The worst part is when you stop rinsing, it reactivated the pain!

When I got home I showered to get it all off and once again it reactivated. My wife found it to be quite humorous. I now have much more respect for O.C. than I had before. I would advise future recruits to prepare yourself for lots of pain, but know that you can fight through it and the pain will subside!

 

Weeks 16 & 17--Recruit Magor

Week 16 and 17 were quite eventful. The tests went well and now we only have two class tests, an arrest control test and the state Peace Officer Standards and Training (P.O.S.T.) test left to complete!

We had firearms and arrest control training and continue to hone our skills. It’s pretty amazing how good at shooting we have all become; every recruit passed the state shooting test.

Director Baca gave us our study guide for the P.O.S.T. test and it is thick. So I’ve been studying a lot lately. 

 

We had two days of vehicle contacts and high risk stops during our past week or training. They were a blast and we learned a lot about how to safely perform a vehicle stop.

We had some training for R.A.I.D. (Rapid and Immediate Deployment), which was pretty realistic. There was live fire from blank rounds to simulate an active shooter. It was great training on how to respond and stop an active shooting situation.

On our last day of firearms training, instructors brought in numerous different types of guns and let us see how they worked. All the recruits challenged each other in a Top Shot tournament. We shot at some steel targets and whoever hit all the targets first won. Shout out to Recruit Swearingen for earning the Top Shot position.

We also got to check out some simunitions, which shoot just like a normal pistol but have little plastic bullets with paint in them. I’d like to thank Deputy Ackerman and Deputy Hoffman along with all the other instructors for the time and effort they put into the firearms program.

We are about five weeks from graduation and there is still a lot to learn and lots of studying to be done!

Week 15--Recruit Magor

All of Week 15 was driving training. It was a lot of fun and a nice break from classroom time. Everyone passed the state test and did very well. We got to do lots of drills driving around cones and learning new maneuvers. 

I’ve never been able to drive a car as fast as we did. We went fast backwards around corners and around cones. Hitting a cone is a horrible feeling, but every single one of us did it at some point this week.

We had two rainy days during the training, which allowed most of us to experience losing control of the vehicle. The instructors did a great job teaching us how to regain control though. There are lots of little tricks to driving that we learned that I had no idea about.

My squad grew closer because we got to spend so much time together having so much fun. We even had a team barbecue at the track. We also went through lots and lots of sunflower seeds mixed with sour patch kids candy. It sounds horrible and weird, but it is very tasty.

I’d like to give a shout out to Recruit Charloe for getting the fastest time on the P.O.S.T. test at 3:07. In order to pass we needed to get faster than 4:10. Being able to push the limits of the car taught us how far we can push them, and maintain safety, when we’re out on the streets patrolling. 

I was able to have a passenger film my driving while I drove a practice test, this way people can see what exactly the course entails.