The time machine

[CruiserClass]

So about 4 years ago or so I asked a beat partner where he wanted to meet for something or other and he told my "behind Galyan's". Galyans was a sporting goods store that was bought out by Dick's and hadn't existed for about 7 years. I had no idea where it used to be, so I just told him "I'll hop in my time machine and meet you there." We still laugh about it.

I had my karma backlash today. I described a car as "one of those new Datsun Z-cars." Once some of you get back from wikipedia, you'll see why that's funny.

So, what have you said in person or on the radio that the recipient would need a time machine to actually do or see?

[Iowa #1603]

I had one of those Z Cars.................................

[So Fla Cop]

Here are mine.....

Sunday day tour - washing and waxing the RMP

-Maintaining your assigned sector car - NEVER putting
it out of service if you could help it.


-The desk officer marrying and divorcing couples to
settle domestic disputes.

-Milk crates holding the backrest of seats from
collapsing.

-Car seats made of gray alligator vinyl that never
wore out but had a two burn craters from hand held
spotlights.

-When foot cops didn't see the inside of a sector car
for at least two years. Maybe.

-Bubblegum machine roof lights.2 red, 1 white.
- Making a collar.


- Black Rubber Rain Coat and cap Protector and those
screwed up leggings with the garters that no one ever wore.

-When cops were called patrolman and they were all
men.

-Getting the Lt. his flute or a pail of suds on the
late tour.

-Long winter overcoats (horse blankets)-all 15 lbs. of
it.

-Getting your scratch the last hour of your tour
because you didn't salute the sarge properly the day
before.

-When a Smith and Wesson M&P service revolver cost $42
bucks and a Chief's Special off duty revolver cost $52


-Your first time in a radio car and the old guy saying
"Sit down; don't DO anything; don't SAY anything; and
don't TOUCH the ****ing radio without me telling you
to. Got it?"

-Learning to spin your night stick without breaking
your kneecap or a store window.

-When batons were made of real wood. Usually
cocobolo.

-Slappers

-Emergency RMP repairs at a local garage.

-When a "rack" meant something.

-Making your rings to the sergeant and they better be
from boxes at opposite ends of your foot post. (Some
lucky fellows even carried their "call boxes" [wires
with alligator clips] in their pockets.)

- Making your rings using Ma Bell pay phones and
the pin # NYPD

-When you needed 5 years on the job before you could
even TAKE the sergeant's exam.

-When desk lieutenants were Godlike and precinct
captains were only whispered about.
- The "Broom"

-The Desk Officer's crutch.

-"Saving a line" for an MOS not at roll call.

- The Palace Guard.

- The coop

- Getting your first "psycho" to guard.

-The sarge saying, "one grenade will get you both."

- The Sarge saying, "Do an 18" and asking what the f... was an 18?
(for you youngan's, Accident Report City Involved)

- And of course, UF 28's, 61's, 57's, 49's, 10 Cards, etc....

-"Hey kid, to you it's a homicide, to me it's an aided
case."

-"He'd take a hot stove and come back for the ashes."

-Deadheads driving News trucks.

- Who is your Rabbi Kid?

-- Target of the Month

- A day off for good work

- A day off for a good arrest

- Department Tailors

- "Front Break" - nightmare for a foot patrolman
coming out of the crib

- "Blood Days"

- Bandoliers to hold you ammo.

- Five movers and 10 tags to keep your seat.

- Do you have a seat? who are you riding with?

- School and Church crossings

- When you had to be 5'10'

-Skells.

- Junkies that stood leaning over, looking half asleep,
but some how, never fell down

- When cops in tough precincts carried a Det. Spec
loose in a pocket.

- "Collars for Dollars"

- Putting a body tag on the big toe of your first DOA.

- Detectives at a ripe DOA, smoking cigars, putting Vicks-vapo-rub under their noses and burning coffee grounds

- "Shorties" -not small people, short Schaefer's or
Rheingold's. (a local problem. HaHa)

- Rap Sheets

- Shield day when you couldn't stop lookng at it and
couldn't keep your hand off new gun

- The gas book and gas pumps "protective counter".
Never had the same numbers.

- Radio Location Codes - Every precinct had their own
codes, usually denoting a place for two RMPs to meet.

- Leaving miles on the sheet for the next tour

- Inking the worn out cuffs on your shirts

- Skells , Mutts

- Doing a straight 8

- Sundays- Getting the newspaper & having breakfast
before going on Patrol - (must have been long long
ago)

- Getting permission to eat in another sector

- First vacation pick in a squad

- The "free" shoe shine machine that never had
polish.

- sirens freezing on cold days after a free wash.

- Getting a 10-8 (Return to SH with a six pack)

- Going to the "coop"

- Throwing the keys of a driver who had too many, down
the sewer.

- The Miranda Insert - Often carried in hat pocket

- First Bulletproof Vest

- Policewomen with 32 Calibre service revolvers

- Nickel plated service guns, some with white pearl
grips

- Arresting Women and calling around to find a female
matron

- Young cops chroming shields, brass precinct numerals
and shirt buttons to look sharp while wearing them on
tailored dark blue shirts.

- Embarrasing Moment - Range Officers blowing lint out
of your revolver barrel during inspection

No stripes no gripes. (Keep your mouth shut until you
have served at least five years)

- Orange traffic safety belt

- "What Have You got Kid" - Detective to rookie cop
concerning a prisoner

- checking the glass at the end of a late tour

- Forgetting your "Back from Meal" ring

- Working with a "Skirt"

- "Rap, Tap, Bang" - What range people instructed
you to do if your automatic jammed

- Taking a "personal", writing the time in your memo book, let say 1910. After your personal, when you determined the boss wasn't looking for you, changing the 10 to 40 (1940 hrs) and taking another personal.

- During the entry physical, some old timer calling you "Skippy"


Being on your feet for so long in BCB (Brooklyn Central Booking) that you used the intercom, called the name of a rookie sleeping in the lounge. When he got up to see the ADA, you jumped in his grave.

[GoldBadge]

I had one of those Z Cars.................................

Datsun 280ZX

[GoldBadge]

SFC, one more - PO's were "patrolmen" irrespective of gender.

and BROOM is at that other place.

[Dinosaur32]

So Fla Cop.....Even the majority of the NYPD Cops will not recognize most of what you wrote. Some of your memories were the same or similar on my job. But I started back far enough to learn the rest from the Cops we dealt with especially in Marufi's or Vals.

[Mulgrave600]

I'm not old enough to remember a lot of the traditional ways the job was done but I always laugh when the old school members reminisce.

-Cars without FM radio
-Paper patrol returns
-When our cars had POLICE rather than Police on them
-Blue lights on the roof only
-Leather jackets, wool trench coats, white peak hats
-Analogue radio
-No MDT to announce exactly where you were or how fast you were driving to get there
-Defensive equipment was a .38 revolver, handcuffs and a polycarbonate fixed baton (if you remembered to take it out of the car)
-Drinks before, during and/or after night shift
-To make a traffic car 'high visibility' it was just ordered in yellow
-Traffic coppers wore tan jodhpurs
-Typewriters
-Computers being introduced, one per station
-LTS sirens
-You saw the sergeant at the start of the shift and that was it. The offical advice was: 'figure it out yourselves'
-Police cars were pretty much the same as the ones in Mad Max
-When there was a 'Policewomen Division'

Then I get sad when I realise that we still use a text based information database, handwrite crime reports and fax them to a data entry bureau.

[So Fla Cop]

So Fla Cop.....Even the majority of the NYPD Cops will not recognize most of what you wrote. Some of your memories were the same or similar on my job. But I started back far enough to learn the rest from the Cops we dealt with especially in Marufi's or Vals.

Oh yes....Marufi's....thanks for that

[Dinosaur32]

SoFlaCop......Did you drop a couple of singles in the drawer to get your case called at arraignments?

[jcioccke]

Just when I start feeling old, I read your old timer posts and feel good again lol


....I kid I kid

[So Fla Cop]

SoFlaCop......Did you drop a couple of singles in the drawer to get your case called at arraignments?

I would never do something like that.

[Seventy2002]

need a time machine to actually do or see?

I was dispatched to noise complaint - trains running past the caller's house were too loud. Both the caller and the dispatcher were unaware the tracks had been pulled up 10 years earlier.

There's a cheap motel on the outskirts of town. Although it has changed ownership and names several times in the last 30 years, cops still call it by the name it had when it earned its reputation.

I've told more than a few youngsters to meet me at businesses and buildings that no longer exist.

[jtl323]

Ok, so i havent been around as long as some on here...but things have still changed hugely in 15 years. My first car had old Whelen strobe lightbar, only 2 lights worked, and you had to occasionally hit the roof to get those to work. The lights werent even visible in the daytime, and the siren was mounted inside the engine compartment, so no one heard you coming until you were 20 feet away. The old vinyl/faux leather bench seats in the crown vics...you go jumping in your car too fast and you would slide across to the passenger side. Radios rarely worked....handheld radios were more useful as impact weapons.

I went from having to hand write 20 page reports, to carbon copy reports, to typing them at the office, to finally typing in the car.

I remember carrying quarters to work or stopping at pay phones to dial 911 when dispatch wanted an off air conversation.

Mag Lites... Before they were plastic. Those bulbs could take multiple skull strikes before shattering....

The days when NO ONE had a #$*&@ video recording phone , and what you said happened was what happened.

The post- 911 days when citizens would come up to you and say "thank you", or send their kids up to you to say "thank you for your service"...or strangers in the drive through line in front of you spontaneously paying for your food...

[hemicop]

I made a comment about checking "hot sheets" for stolens---- the "instructor" had a confused look on her face......

[Iowa #1603]

VASCAR

or even better


Speed Tape