A ride-along

An added level of fear, stress, anxiety, grief, and adrenaline all make policing a difficult pill for a lot of people to swallow, yet men and women in blue all around the country wake up at 3 AM to cover an early morning shift or stay out until 1 AM doing late night patrols. I wanted to learn what makes these people tick. What makes officers get up in the morning not knowing what the day will hold? What makes them risk their lives to save those who would not even say thank-you in return? These questions brought me to the Cannon Falls Police Department.  I signed up for a ride along and Officer Larson was open for one.

It was mere chance that I was able to ride along with an officer I already knew pretty well. I have a policy in my life of going up to anyone in uniform – whether it’s military or police – and saying thank you for your service. Larson stopped in one night during patrol to watch a high school basketball game, and my friend and I worked our way from the bleachers to tell him thanks for his service. What was going to be a five minute conversation turned into an hour, as we asked him questions about what life was like as a cop. As soon as I got into the squad car, we hit it off right where we ended two months ago at that basketball game.