K-9

The day began like any other day, getting up at 7:00a.m and getting ready for school but today I didn’t have classes so I was going to spend my day at the Sheriff’s Department. I talked to Deputy Angela Painter the day before and she said they had a detail to do in the morning and that I was more than welcome to come with, but she would tell me what kind of detail it was. I got to post around 8:15 and we left in the squad car for Metamora. All the Deputies and Detectives were at Shell gas station when we came into town. We stopped there and then it was time to meet up at Metamora PD. When we pulled up there, there was two Metamora police cars there, 4 Woodford county squads there, 1 State Police K-9, 2 Peoria city K-9s, 1 Tazewell county K-9 and 1 Woodford county K-9. I was standing there thinking this is going to be a good day! The Metamora Police Chief got a call from the High School and said were ready to go! Everyone mounted up and off to the High School. We ran the dogs around all the cars in the parking lot on both sides of the building and then if the dog would hit on a car, which that means if they alert on a car they would call the student out and have them unlock their car and a Officer or Deputy would search through it. We had a few alerts and no drugs were found. After that myself and Deputy Painter drove around and waited to go to lunch with the others. After lunch we went back to post and I left from there.    

DARE

It was one of those mornings again hearing my alarm clocking going off at 5:50am and slow rolling out of bed to get to the bathroom to take a warm shower before I leave. After I took my morning shower, I got my uniform on and went down stairs looking for my winter coat. Today wasn’t a normal ride along day. I was riding with the DARE officer today! But first things first, we were helping out with a seat belt detail just down the road from Metamora High School. I got to the Sheriff’s Office around 6:30 and meant up with Deputy Painter. After she got what she needed from her office we were off to Metamora Police Department to meet up with 2 other deputies and 2 city police officers. After we came up with our plan of attack we got set up. I was a spotter. My job was to stand down the road away from the signs and look for anyone putting their seat belts on and if they were off I would just radio down to the deputy and tell him a description of the car and they would talk to the driver. I stood there for 2 hours and froze to death until school started and then we left. Deputy Painter and I went to Riverview Grade School in Spring Bay to talk to the students. She answered question they had and I talked to them about what the Explorer program is. After being there for a few hours we went for lunch with the other road deputies and then headed back to the Sheriff’s Office to do some other work before going home for the day.