Ride-Along

[~Future~Cop~]

When a civillian does a ride-along with you what types of questions do you like to hear from them? Do you want them to be taking notes during the ride-along? Are there any types of question you don't like recieving? I know people will say it varies from officer to officer depending on who you are riding with but I would just like general answers to these questions.

[JLK]

sit back and enjoy the ride. if you are doing the ride along for school then take notes. if you are doing the ride along to see if you want to be the police then be a sponge and soak it all up. i dont like personal questions. for your safety immediately do what the officers says, he might not have time to explain till later.

[jmur5074]

Questions to avoid (my own opinion)

Have you ever shot anyone
How many times have you fired your gun
Have you ever been shot/been shot at
What's the coolest/scariest/funniest/saddest thing you've ever done/seen

[keith720]

sit back and enjoy the ride. if you are doing the ride along for school then take notes. if you are doing the ride along to see if you want to be the police then be a sponge and soak it all up. i dont like personal questions. for your safety immediately do what the officers says, he might not have time to explain till later.

Watch how the officer handles situations and don't try to pry answers out of them.

[lewisipso]

I guess I'm a little different. If it isn't a personal/family question ask away.

[keith720]

I agree, Lew, but by pry, I mean don't try to second guess the officer or any decisions they make. They have a reason for why they do what they do, and if they want you to know, they'll tell you.

[code3bg]

Don't bust ass in the car while he's out on a traffic stop... that never goes well (just take my word for it)!

[slick628]

Questions to avoid (my own opinion)

Have you ever shot anyone
How many times have you fired your gun
Have you ever been shot/been shot at
What's the coolest/scariest/funniest/saddest thing you've ever done/seen

Definitely these questions. If I feel it is appropriate to bring up these issues, I will. Also, as it has already been stated, no personal questions, with the exception of how do you adjust family life to you work/shift. Also, it's fine to ask why we do certain things the way we do, but don't tell us how to do our job.

[keith720]

Don't bust ass in the car while he's out on a traffic stop... that never goes well (just take my word for it)!

On the same hand, if the officer asks, "do you smell smoke," it usually means he just dropped a toot and is setting you up to take a big whiff.

[berserk]

Ask whatever you want, if I don't feel like answering then I'll tell you so. There's nothing specific that I'm hoping you'll ask. Take notes if you want, but unless you're doing the ride for school I'm going to think that you're weird. If you do need to take notes, I'd be happy to let you copy interesting stuff off of my call log later so that you can actually enjoy the ride.

As long as you seem to be taking an active interest, and you can hold down your half of a reasonably intelligent conversation, we'll get along just fine.