Councilman spends night on the town

Last week I was granted the opportunity to accompany one of our cities’ finest police officers as a civilian “ride-along” for a portion of his shift. Being a City Council official, I have been interested in this for some time, but the department has been short staffed to allow this. Finally, Police Chief Ryan Walker was able to make the arrangement. I wanted to see first hand what an average shift was like for our law enforcement. This “average” shift was lots more than I expected and very enlightening to say the least.

I arrived in time for Chief Walker to show me around the station, explain some of the equipment, technology, and many other police-related items that left me with a “deer in the headlight” expression I am sure. We have much state of the art equipment that was mind boggling to me, but everyday tools for the department.

Capt. Chris Olson put a bullet-proof vest on me and briefed me on the upcoming ride along. Sgt. Michael Lisenbee took me to his patrol car and continued briefing me on what the objective of the night would be, what to expect, how to react to certain situations should they occur, etc. In short, we were on our way to a drug raid. Five officers and our K-9 Napo were involved in the raid which was extremely well-orchestrated and thorough. It resulted in the apprehension of two individuals, drugs, etc., being removed from our streets, and these individuals charged and jailed. I even got to take them to jail to see the booking process. I don’t recommend anyone be on that side of the jail, those people mean business!

What impressed me was how professional and detailed the officers were. All worked in unison. Every one of them had a specific purpose and functioned as