Me, in a cop car

I had this brainy idea this morning. I’m working on a cop story and I’ve never spent much time in the presence of police officers. Watching CSI, NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues doesn’t count. So I decided to check out the Houston Police Department’s program for ride-alongs, which turns out to be amazing. In addition to the standard “citizen spends a shift in a patrol car” ride-along, they also have a free police academy thing, eleven weeks, one night a week, where you go and learn about how they do things and why, with hands on training. You get to ride in a car on a high speed chase (closed course) or are given a “red gun” in a shooting range and enact shoot/don’t shoot scenarios. Sounds like a blast, and I’m seriously thinking about trying it out in the spring.

But the ride-along is more imminent. I spent about fifteen minutes on the phone with the community relations officer, who called me a few hours after I e-mailed my query, and he seems very cool. He’ll give me a tour of the station before roll call (there’s a jail on site, too), recommended I attend roll call and then I’ll do an eight hour shift. Awesome. Assuming I pass the background check, I’ll be spending a Saturday evening patrolling the streets of Houston later on this month. This is so cool. I’m excited at the prospect. Can you tell? I know Matt Warner did something like this recently, too.

My desk is cleaner than usual. The stack of books on the right-hand pullout drawer is down to four or five, and the stack of papers on the other side is proportionately smaller as well. My to-do list has had some long-time commitments crossed off lately. I made a new list of upcoming market deadlines through next March, pro markets only that I might like to submit something for, and it’s surprisingly long. I doubt I’ll make them all, but there are a couple that I have to write something for.