My Life in Law Enforcement: A True Life Story #5

First of all, I want to thank everyone that has taken interest in my story and keeps coming back, I sincerely appreciate it!

In part 4 we finished the very first day of B.L.E.T. and elected our class president. With the first day out of the way, my nerves have settled down some but are still like a tightly wound ball of rubber bands that are just about ready to snap at any given moment. Our class president has actually got it made because she is actually getting paid to come to this class. It's not a guarantee that a jail will send you to B.L.E.T. and to be honest, it's kind of rare. In this case, she apparently had been in someone's good graces. I'm sure other detention officers were upset that they were not chosen to go but anyway.

Every place is different and this isn't really set in stone at this particular department but it's kind of expected that if the sheriff's office hires a cadet, the cadet will start out in the jail and will probably work in there for about a year or so before he or she will have an opportunity to go on patrol. I agree with this method because working in a jail builds character and also teaches you valuable people skills that you just can't get anywhere else. Also, if you can't hack it in the jail, you sure ain't going to make it out on patrol so that's a quick and easy way to weed out culls.

I'm a very punctual person and can't stand to be late so I usually show up too early most of the time. I arrived early for class and initiate a conversation with my instructor for that day. (During the course of the program, the director uses several different instructors. Instructors are off duty officers that hold special certifications to teach and get paid well through the college.) After talking with the instructor, I knew that I wanted to become an instructor one day, preferably a firearms instructor.

Class begins and everyone is present except for one person... our class president. Class is supposed to begin with the class president leading the cadets citing an officers code of ethics. This was to be done every day at the beginning of class and at the end. The goal was to have the entire code memorized so that the entire class could recite it by memory on graduation day. One of the guys on the front row stood up, took a leadership role and started the code of ethics. About half-way through, our class president comes rushing through the door. Things happen but this didn't look good on her. A cadet is only allowed to be tardy a certain amount of times before being kicked from the program.

Our instructor begins to tell us about POPAT (Police Officer Physical Assessment Training) and the POPAT obstacle course. I knew that there was an obstacle course and I had seen parts of it but I didn't know the details about it... that was about to change. Before going out to the course, the instructor needed to give every cadet a physical assessment. This was a very complex series of tests believe it or not and I absolutely HATED IT! The very first thing that you do is get your fat checked or see how much you have. This was the most embarrassing thing ever lol! This took place in the classroom in front of everyone. The entire class is just totally silent and watching as the instructor manipulates and measures your fat. For the females, the instructor would have her hold her arm up horizontally and he would grab the fat underneath the bicep that usually hangs down on women. Then after he grabs as much as he can, he uses a set of calipers to measure it with. The victim just stands there with a bright red face while the class looks on in fear of their turn. You could literally hear a pin drop. For the men, the instructor would grab the love handle and do the same with it. The most physically fit guy in our class with hardly any body fat was shocked to see how much fat the instructor could gather up on the side of his belly. After that fun moment, we got to do what is called a step test. The step test consisted of the cadet stepping up on a box that is 12 inches high and after both feet are on the box, he/she steps back down. The cadet does this to the beat of a metronome and at the end of 3 minutes, the instructor will calculate the cadets pulse with other factors.

This was all that was conducted in the classroom, now we go to the gym for the other parts of the assessment. We were required to do as many sit-ups as possible in one minute and then we did the same for push-ups. After that we had to do a timed mile and a half run. After the run was completed the instructor calculated all of the numbers up and gave you a grade or number. After all of that joy, we move over to the obstacle course to get the run down on that beast.

This is a timed course and it has probably changed by now. Hell, my class was responsible for changing the way something was done in the course but I will talk about that tomorrow. The men have to complete it in 7 minutes and 20 seconds and the women have to do it in 7 minutes and 40 seconds.

• You start out seated in a patrol car with full duty gear on and with your seat belt on. When you're ready, you honk the horn and the instructor will tell you two street names and start the timer. (More on the street names later)

• You exit the car and run 100 yards, circle a cone and run back to the car where you will open the passenger door and pull out a 150 pound dummy and drag it 50 feet.

• After dropping the dummy, you run up and down a flight of stairs 3 times.

• After the stairs you run to a station where you will do 20 push-ups. The instructor is there with his fist on the ground making sure your chin touches when down.

• After the push-ups, you will run through a weighted door that simulates a man holding it on the other side.

• Once through the weighted door, you will have to clear a 5 foot wall.

• Once the wall is cleared you will run to a station where you will do 20 sit-ups.

• After the sit-ups, you take out your flashlight and crawl through a 150 foot culvert.

• Once through the culvert you will do 20 more push-ups and 20 more sit-ups.

• After that you will run 100 yards to the cone that you ran to before, circle it and run back to your patrol car.

• Once you get back to your patrol car, you have to tell the instructor the two street names that he gave you at the beginning of the course. If you can't remember the names, you have to run another 100 yards down and back!

After being given the run down of what the state requirements were, there was a lot of doubt floating around the souls of our classmates. To be continued

This post is part of a series of posts that will cover a large portion of my life beginning just before starting my law enforcement career. The content and pictures posted in said articles belong to @bluelightbandit. If you haven't read the prior posts, I highly recommend that you check those out to catch up to speed, thanks!

First post: https://steemit.com/story/@bluelightbandit/my-life-in-law-enforcement-a-true-life-story-1
Second post: https://steemit.com/story/@bluelightbandit/my-life-in-law-enforcement-a-true-life-story-2
Third post: https://steemit.com/story/@bluelightbandit/my-life-in-law-enforcement-a-true-life-story-3
Fourth post: https://steemit.com/story/@bluelightbandit/my-life-in-law-enforcement-a-true-life-story-4