Two Weeks Down, 2/23/12

Well I’ve kept you guys waiting long enough, today was an awesome day, and super valuable for both my personally and for my LINK internship.  Before I get to the good stuff I have to bore you with the not so fun stuff.  This morning I worked on my project some more and got started on the write-up of my experiment.  Thank you Steve for the practice at writing a scientific style lab report, I am using that as a base framework for my write-up.  I then plugged in some more of the criminal histories into my spreadsheet.  Since Christian was gone again today I was getting my orders from Mr. Risberg this morning, the elected DA, the big boss man.  I was at first a little nervous to meet and even talk to Todd because of his position.  I figured him for an up tight, strict, rules! kind of guy but once I got to know him, he’s just like any other one of the workers their… except he’s their boss.  I find that really cool that you can have an important boss man and at the same time have a good friend and co worker.  That’s what I like about the DAs Office is that everyone’s friendly to each other.  I’m already getting pestered by one of them. 

            Now to the good part!  At 1:30 I met with Joe Gabbard at the SO (Sheriff’s Office) and got a tour of the jail and surrounding facilities.  That is a massive building! i got to talking with Joe to see what he did and we got around to why I wanted to be in law enforcement.  Originally I had this huge interest in being a SWAT sniper and I still do.  I told Joe this and found out he is the head sniper for the Durango SWAT team! NO WAY!  Small world isn’t it.  That was extremely valuable talking to him about what was involved and what he does, how much training he does, etc.  He was telling me that for a sniper team it was 99% training, recon, observation and intelligence gathering, and 1% shooting, and a lot of their work is strictly looking and observing and gathering information.  It’s funny the shows you watch that portray the police as super hectic and shootouts every day, but in reality it’s a lot of paperwork and getting information.  One thing I will say is that they appear to have a blast though.  I overheard a conversation between Joe and a coworker about that coworker losing a game of poker with pocket kings!  Yah, sounds like a whole lot of no fun to me.  As we toured the facility we went into a interview room.  At first glance it looks like an ordinary room, but under closer inspection, what looks like a screw hole in the ceiling is actually a microphone.  And a busted corner of the ceiling is a camera.  We continued to the jail portion and as we traveled each door would unlock as we got to it, which is really cool when you get to the door and it buzzes and then you can open it.  As we traveled farther into (what I will point out feels a lot like a maze) the jail, we went down the drab cement hallway were we came to a door that unlocked as we got there.  As Joe opened the door I found myself in a tech paradise, just like the ones in the movies.  The ones with the three TV screens full of video camera feeds.  Yup just like that.  It was super surprising to see that tech room all of a sudden; it just didn’t fit amongst the cement walls of the jail.  Three TVs sat on a desk, the two outside ones full of video feeds from all over the jail, inmates walking here and there with there nice orange jumpsuits.  The middle TV, the biggest of the three, had the entire floor plan of the jail with a little camera icon at every location there was a camera.  The operator clicked on one and could see the door and could unlock it from there.  Those were the guys that let us in.  We continued to booking where they book in every inmate that enters the jail.  That’s where they go when the cop sais “book him.”  I got to see the giant sally port they have at the jail, as well as the giant steel doors that lead into the sally port.  They looked like they were form an aircraft carrier.  We then went into what Joe called the “fishbowl” which was similar to the first tech room but overlooked three cell blocks, or pods as they call them.  The glass was one way so the inmates couldn’t see us.  That concluded the tour and we went back to Joe’s office and talked a bit more until I left.

            On a personal note Joe runs a shooting class that is almost open to the public in a few weeks.  At the moment he trains military and law enforcement how to shoot effectively.  I am super excited because I may get to take the class and get shooting more accurately. 

            The tour of the SO was one of the most valuable experiences I have had during LINK, if not the most.