Week 3: The Tampa Citizen Police Academy
The Mark & Carrie Experience
Helicopter, Horses, Dogs & more
It was another exciting week at the Police Academy. The police cadets moved the parking cones off the lot and down came the police helicopter. Officer & pilot Dave Denison gave a great tour of the beautiful machine. There are 6 full time pilots and 6 assistants on the force. The copper are in the skies over Tampa about 10 hours per day. The cost to run the coppers is $1,000 to $1,500 per hour. Our Tampa force has 2 large choppers at a cost of 4-5 million each. There is also a smaller one. They are equipped with some very high teck things. One of the impressive new items is…the officers and dogs on the ground now wear LED lights that only the choppers can see. This is a huge aid in observations from the sky. After a fun photo of the chopper made a dramatic exit .It was kinda like Glenda the Good Witch leaving OZ.
Officers Tim & Kelly introduced us to the horses. Coming from Ybor City we both recognized the horses. “Tank” is a very big horse and “Termite” is always chewing. There are 8-10 horses in service. 4 full time officers and 10 other that are qualified to ride.. All the horses are donated from the public. Each horse wears rubber boots 9 this helps protect them from broken glass. the riders all use English saddles. this give the officers more control. The horses are especially effective in crowd control. The demonstration was impressive as how gentle yet effective this horse are. The officers said that when they ride up on a horse and ask you to move, don’t get upset. What the officers are really saying is “Your a potential victim and need to get out of here.”
Officers Ryan & Ray introduced us to their partners & buddies “Razo” & “Chestney”. These police dogs are the best of the best. They are purchased from breeders at a cost of $10,000+ each. they then go thru 600 hours of training over 3-5 months. There are 14 dual purpose dog that do regular police work and 1/2 narcotics and 1/2 bomes sniffing. The dogs understand English and some Dutch & some German too. When the dogs retire the ofice get the first chance to adopt them Most of the dogs remain with the officers. Did you know that in the Air Force Carrie was a drug dog trainers? At home later this same night there on TV were Ryan & ray doing a demonstration at a local water park. All our Police Officers work long days!
The night ended with a quick tour of the Forensics Truck. Officer Alicia Kaufman explained the big truck comes with a generator that runs large LED outside lights. There were hard hats, shovels and tons of other things to collect evidence. It was interesting that metal paint cans are used to put cell phones in. Once placed in a can or wrapped 5 times with foil. The phones can not be de activated.
Next week It’s Specialty Teams including TRT/HNT Demos & EOD Demo & Specialty vehicles & Marine -Dive Team. We can’t wait!!!
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