Orientation

Company orientation for The San Diego Police Department was unlike anything I expected. Everyone was there from my Background Detective all the way to the Chief of Police. I've never seen so much brass in one room, and I don't think I'll see it again in my career. We were in a large auditorium and the walls were lined with Captains and Lieutenants representing every division in the Department. We even got to meet the Mayor and he shook my hand.

They all introduced themselves, then we all introduced ourselves. I felt slightly insignificant because we had a lot of people with military experience (some had 20 year careers), lots of people with various college degrees... overall people with more experience than me. What did I have? Well I've been a bouncer for three years...

We signed up for our medical/dental benefits, 401K, POA (police union), and the infamous San Diego City Pension. I was made.

Then we went to the equipment room and were issued our riot helmet, wooden baton, first aid kit, handcuffs, pepper spray, finger print kit, and some other items. In all about 10% of the required equipment for the Academy. Latter I made a few trips to the local police uniform store and I had to buy more than a thousand dollars worth of equipment. Oh well, I was set for life now.