Writer's Police Academy

Day 2.
I spent a good bit of the previous night, waking to make sure I didn't miss the bus. They bussed us in both days from the hotel to Guilford Tech and we were given strict instructions they would leave promptly at seven thirty a.m. with or without us. Since the first night, my alarm didn't go off and my wake up call came in the p.m. instead of a.m. I spent a lot of the night jerking up and checking the alarm clock:)

The day began at eight o'clock were we met in a closed door auditorium and weren't told beforehand what would be going on. We started the day by reading the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics. After that all hell broke loose...in a theatrical sense. They did a reenactment of a hostage situation that was pretty cool. The police were behind their shields on the side of the auditorium and they had a sniper in full dress in the back. As you probably figured out the bad guy went down. Afterward, the sniper spoke to the audience. Pretty interesting stuff. I don't know about you but I've always wondered when a sniper takes a shot, where there's a hostage as a human shield, whether the perp's finger might involuntarily press the trigger when he goes down. After listening to the speaker, my understanding is the sniper has a three inch window of the face to aim for and when they hit inside that window the person drops on the spot, no twitches, they're gone.

After that, Sherry and I went to the Police Tools and Equipment seminar. This was held by BLET instructor Rick Brewer. I found this one of particular interest since my son went through BLET training back in the day.

The next workshop we attended was Going Undercover To Solve Your Crime with instructor Marco Connelli, NYPD detective. This was probably one of our favorite workshops. It was fascinating. Marco talked about the years he'd spent as an undercover cop in NY back when he was in his early twenties in the narcotics division. He also took time to help with writing scenario issues writers were having with realism. He currently publishes YA.

Another favorite was led by Corporal Dee Jackson. This was on women's person safety. She gave us handouts and taught us two basic self defense moves. Extremely helpful.

The last one we attended for the day was Crime Scene Investigation/Photography Workshop led by Bill Lanning. It was a good one too. There was so much rain we didn't get the 'treat' of the smells, but that was okay by me:)

More to follow......