Monday
November 2

Our first field trip of the year! We started the meeting with our regular opening ceremony and a few announcements. I passed out some info about a toy drive for the childrens' hospital that all scouts in our area have been encouraged to participate in. Then I explained what we'll be doing at our work day at the local nature center this Saturday. You'll be sure to hear about those things in the future!

Then it was off to the police station. Our meeting place is only 2 blocks away, so we were able to walk. Since it was in the evening, there were only a couple of dispatch operators working, plus the officer who was expecting us. Of course there were several officers out on patrol, but nobody else at the station.

We started out by going into the municipal courtroon where there was enough room to sit down, and the officer explained about city court. He also told us that the Mayor and Board of Aldermen use the same room for their meetings, which was something I didn't know. Then he got bombarded with questions - good and bad - from the kids as well as the parents. I must admit that he was very patient with the silly questions the kids got started asking (like if they have bazookas, and if they shoot the windshields out of cars they are chasing ), and had some great answers for them.

Finally it was time to take a tour of the station! I wasn't expecting such a lengthy Q&A so I had started getting antsy. First up was the payment office for those who had traffic fines. Then the records department, where you would go if you needed a copy of the police report from an incident.

Then the cool part - the officer had to use a secret code to let us through the doors! We saw a few offices and he let us look into the evidence room, although we couldn't go inside it. He is in charge of evidence so he was being real strict about that.

You know the large row of glass windows and telephones you see in the movies and TV shows for visitation? HA! Here we have a small window/slot in the concrete wall! No cushy visits here! We walked around the corner from this area and saw the booking room. All possessions and evidence get put into lockers, locked, and are pulled out from the other side in a secure area. The officer let the boys into a cell and shut the door - most of them thought it was cool.

We headed down the back hall (we were making a large circle - the inside of the circle are the cells, so there's just 4 concrete walls and no windows.) At the end of this hallway was the dispatch office. There were two ladies working tonight. It was quiet at first, but then a call came in. We were allowed to stand in the hallway and listen for a while as long as we were being quiet. It was a 12-year-old boy. He was at an apartment complex on the main highway that goes through town, but didn't know which one. There are lots on the highway, so the dispatcher was trying to get him to put an adult on the phone (which he never did while we were there) or either tell her some things he could see around him, in the hopes that she would be able to pinpoint the exact apartment complex he was at. After a few minutes, the officer moved us on to let them continue to handle the situation.

We made our way back to the lobby, where one of the den leaders used the time to explain to the boys how important it is to know your address in case you should ever have to call 911. And if you're not at your own house, to be able to cooperate with the dispatchers to give them enough info to help you. We all thanked the officer who gave us the tour, especially since he had to stay late to do so. He did a great job, and I think all the boys enjoyed it.

I didn't realize it, but we ended up staying at the police station for over an hour! This meant that there was no time to discuss various safety-related achievements afterwards like I had planned to do. So once again I get to rearrange my lesson plans! Somehow we'll get it all done. Tonight's visit counted for Achievement 4f - to visit a government or historic place in the community and tell why it's important.