Monitor police communications. by Delirium's Fishes
April 19th, 2008 5:39 PMWhen I initially signed up for this task, I thought it was going to be generally easy; my dad has been a cop/firefighter for over twenty years, and I have easy access to a scanner. But being my over-achieving self, I decided to forego this method in favor of actual spying. The result was me taking a camera and a notebook with me to work (which is conveniently located across the street from the fire department and police station (I know, I cheat)) and photographing roughly ten hours of activity over the course of two days, which—trust me—sound like a lot, but in a little suburban town in Illinois, doesn’t add up to much.
Every picture is captioned with the date, time, and a general description of the goings-on...there's nothing too epic here, but it is mildly entertaining. ^_~ Enjoy.
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4/18/08 at 5:34 pm The Police station at the beginning of the first night. No squad cars are present.
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4/18/08 at 7:22 No squad cars have come or gone in the time between the last photograph. But, look! *points behind the buildings* A train! (hard to see, I know, but my ADD kicked in)
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4/18/08 at 7:56 pm Notice the empty parking space; the single table I had been waiting on left *hangs head* and there was still no change in the department.
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4/18/08 at 9:12 pm A dispatcher took a smoke break... I apologize for the blurriness; she could see into the well-lit restaurant and was watching me with the camera in a very suspicious way...stealth minus ten... The scene generally remained unchanged for the rest of the night, considering I left work around 10:30. I considered dropping the task since my most interesting photograph was a blurry image of somebody smoking, but I decided to continue my mission into the morning...
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4/19/08 11:31 am This is just after I punched in to work this morning. Both of the on-duty squad cars are present. Otherwise, absolutely nothing is going on.
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4/19/08 at 11:48 am The ambulance returned to the firestation after a call. I decided to showcase their contribution to our great town since the police force seems to be doing jack.
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4/19/08 at 11:49 am ...and by monitoring the firestation, I missed one of the squad cars leave... *hangs head*
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4/19/08 at 11:52 am Shortly after the ambulance pulled into the station, a strange girl and her dog stopped to lean against the brick wall for five minutes doing nothing...I don't understand either... 4/19/08 at 11:56 am In the distance, I heard a siren go off, and I got all excited and ran to the window, only to realize the sound had come from the radio in the kitchen. The cooks lawled.
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4/19/08 at 12:04 pm Ooh! He's leaving! Something's HAPPENING! He left!
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4/19/08 at 12:08 pm ...and he came back...
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4/19/08 at 12:14 pm Someone tried unsuccessfully to get into the maintenance building where they work on the cars... >.>
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4/19/08 at 12:25 pm Both squad cars are gone, off doing justice for the American people...
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4/19/08 at 1:02 pm ...meh...screw justice...they got donuts... Also note that a dispatcher left.
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seriously, look how many appeared out of nowhere...gotta be donuts...
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"Hey guys! DONUTS!" (I also want to mention that the cop out of uniform smoking against the wall has been at the local high school to educate kids about the dangers of smoking and drinking...lol)
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4/19/08 at 1:15 pm Nothing is going on, but it started to rain!
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4/19/08 at 1: 26 pm ...and still nothing...however, the car sitting all the way to the right in this frame pulled out the second I stepped away from the window...out of donuts...
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4/19/08 at 1:39 pm This cop briefly parked in a space on the fire department half of the lot--as if the entire half of the police side wasn't completely empty--and then left right away again...
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...yeah...I don't get it...
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4/19/08 at 2:38 pm Mr. Anti-Smoking on his second smoke break of the afternoon.
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4/19/08 at 3:27 pm Afternoon dispatch arrived...this was the same woman that was watching me the previous night... ...she suspects nothing... a male dispatcher came outside a few minutes later talking on a phone, but I did not deem him picture worthy...as you will see, I wish I had...
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4/19/08 at 3: 38 pm All the squad cars are present again...along with the cop that seems to wish he was a firefighter... It should also be noted that there are signs on the side of the fire station that says "Fire Department Parking Only." Does that look like a firetruck to you?
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4/19/08 at 4:00 pm This seems to be rush hour at our station... We had a dispatch shift change...
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...Mr. Anti-Smoking took his third smoke break...
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...and I witnessed the beginning of an emotional breakdown...the male dispatcher on the left is the one I witnessed earlier on the phone...I didn't quite realize what was going on; I assumed another smoke/phone break...
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...but their voices got louder, and I could pick up on parts of thier conversation through the open window...
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...and then he started crying... eventually, he had his face in his hands and he was audibly weeping, but I felt kind of wrong taking pictures of his misery, so...
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...I returned to the smoke break...and they multiplied!
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4/19/08 at 4:45 pm This is just before my shift ended, and all of the squads are gone again, and judging from their behavior the night before, they won't be back anytime soon. I suppose I should be happy that there weren't any major crises while I was snapping away with my camera, but I am a little disappointed. On the bright side, I'll keep you posted with lots of updates!
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(none yet)5 comment(s)
"It's okay, buddy. You'll poop rainbows next time."
"....... :: starts bawling ::"
Interesting. Such diligence!
And yet, I feel for that dispatcher. (I very briefly worked in EMS, but found the stress to be too much, so I left before I became a bad EMT who didn't give a damn about patient care.)
The smoking anti-smoking educator is very strange. I wonder if the kids could smell the cigarette smoke on his clothes.
Patience.
From all I've heard, stake-outs are just as much fun for them.