Charles Rader, criminal justice junior, said he considers the two police ride-alongs he went on in the summer of 2007 to be an amazing experience.
The ride-alongs were a way for Rader to get some hands-on experience in a profession he has dreamed of entering since he was a child.
Rader said he remembers going to his older brother’s baseball games when he was young and looking up to his brother’s baseball coach, who was a firefighter.
“He would get calls and jump in his car with the lights flashing, I thought that was the coolest thing I had ever seen,” Rader said.
Lance Barker, criminal justice and psychology junior, is a longtime friend of Rader and said Rader has wanted to be a police officer for as long as Barker has known him.
“He will make a good cop — he is professional and patient with people,” Barker said.
Rader said a friend of the family, who was an officer with the Louisville Metro Police Department, Officer Dan Montgomery, 36, had the idea to do a ride-along with him.
“You can only watch, ‘Cops,’ for so long,” Rader said.
Before setting out on the rides, LMPD required Rader to sign a waiver form, which says it is not the fault of LMPD if something happens to you during the ride-along.
“You sign your life away,” he said. “If you get shot and killed, LMPD is not responsible.”
Still, Rader said signing that form didn’t make him think twice about participating and made the idea of a ride-along seem even more adventurous.
Rader said the most exciting aspect of the ride-along was when the he was riding with Montgomery, and they received a call about a suspect with a firearm in low-income housing apartments.
“We flipped the lights and sirens on, and, before I knew it, we were doing 70 or 80 mph going down Preston Highway,” he said.
It was then that Rader said Montgomery looked over at him and said in a firm and serious tone, “Do not get out of the car.”
“The adrenaline rush I felt right then, I would have loved to start the next day,” Rader said. “It made me want to be a police officer even more going through that.”
Rader said he didn’t encounter any stereotypical cops who seem to take on an egotistical attitude.
“The cops that were on the same beat as Officer Montgomery were younger guys, very professional,” he said. “They weren’t out just to get someone or take their aggression out on someone. They had a job to do and took it very seriously.”
Montgomery said he tries to make every rider realize that different police officers have different standards while they’re patrolling.
“While patrolling, you need to realize that not everyone is a bad person, they just make bad choices,” Montgomery said. “As an officer, you need to remember the time when you weren’t an officer and treat them the way you would have liked to be treated.”
Barker said Rader is always fun to be around and predicts that will give Rader a stronger tie with the community which he works in.
Rader said he remembers questioning Montgomery about racial profiling and whether it is true that officers often practice it.
“He said it is really hard not to do it, but mostly it isn’t racial profiling — it’s car profiling now,” Rader said. “They see a beat-up, older car, and most of your crime is with low-income people, so those cars stand out more than nice ones with spinners.”
Rader said the experience of participating in the ride-alongs allowed him to really get a feel for how police officers operate in the world at-large.
“It’s so different from sitting at home and watching it on TV,” Rader said. “The real thing is slower than what you see on, ‘Cops,’ but when those calls do come in, every thing seems like it’s a ‘Cops’ episode.”
By ANNIE MALKA
Staff
amalka@umail.iu.edu