Serve & Protect

I had my first ride in a police cruiser today. Now, I know what you're thinking, "Finally! They've gotten that whack-job of the streets!" But it wasn't like that at all.

We're doing remote buy-back on campus this week, and we tend to walk back and forth from the store since it's not that far. Well, our whole slogan is "Cash for Books" so, as you can image, that entails carrying a fair load of cash back and forth.

Usually, this is done at the end of the day when all three of us get in the van to lug the purchased books back. But today, our police detail offered to have a cruiser take one of us back to the store with the bulk of the cash. Since I was leaving early today, that was me.

Now, I expected that I'd ride up front, I suppose because I don't see myself as the criminal type. And that's where the officer who escorted me was heading, until the officer behind the wheel jerked his thumb at the back seat, so that's where I ended up. 

Don't get me wrong, he was perfectly polite, but it was a little disconcerting sitting behind those bars (attempting to hide the store logo on the plastic bag in my lap) while being chauffeured around the Square by Cambridge's finest. Especially when the radio began to crackle.

Possible shooting. Suspects afoot. You could feel the tension jump. When my escort picked up the radio, my first thought was, He does know I'm still in the back seat, right? As he responded in some sort of affirmative, I wondered if he was going to turn on the siren and speed right past my drop point, as he had already gone the weird way around.

"I'm going to let you off here, okay?" he said, as he screeched to a halt at the entrance to the alley and leapt from the car to open my door. 

"Oh, sure, yeah, great!" I don't think he heard me. 

The lights and sirens were on before I could get the door closed. And off he sped, to serve and protect.