True Detective Stories

If I’m going to honest and frank with you, I almost quit last night.

When I walked into the division, the day shift had about twenty unassigned jobs. Now while that is not necessarily my problem, if I didn’t assign those jobs, there would be 100 when I returned from my days off Thursday afternoon.

So I entered nineteen jobs from the other shift. I did so because the day work desk person is a giant bum.

Fast forward two hours. We have one domestic detective on our tour, and she is also a verified, certified bum. I gave her a domestic arrest, around 5pm, and then another domestic – with a gun and search warrants – arrived at 8pm. She must have heard about the job, because she came to my desk and said, “I’m so busy with this job, so you’ll have to give it to one of your guys.”

…

A domestic arrest takes less than one hour, so what the f**k was she doing all this time. I go to the sergeant and tell him what’s going on. He talks to the domestic detective and she continues to to state she cannot handle it… because handling it would mean she would have to stay late, and she doesn’t like that.

Now I’m getting really stressed out. The detectives are telling me to give it to the domestic detective, then they’re telling me to have the sergeant go tell her to take it. I’m like, “Dude, I’m not a supervisor, and I cannot order her to do anything.”

Now I’m getting nauseous from the stress and everyone is harping on me. I had already entered forty-five jobs, and still had a pile on my desk. I just wanted everyone to leave me alone.

So… the sergeant caved and stuck one of my guys with the job; a job where he will be there for most of the overnight shift. The detective was very unhappy, and appeared to think it was all my fault, and at that moment I literally considered getting up and quitting.

Obviously, there is a lot of stress which comes with this profession. I’m not even in patrol, and I am usually completely stressed out by the end of every shift. I see guys retire and die months later. I don’t want to be that guy, but I also don’t want to give back money to this city.

Sorry for the rant, but this place truly crushes your soul.