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Okay, so I may not be the most interesting read and I may not say anything that you don't already know but this diary is mainly for myself. I enjoy sharing it with others, particularly my close friends so they know what's happening in my world, but its still mainly for me. I love to type out my thoughts. Its a great break from my otherwise hectic day. And I love reading over old entries and seeing how much life has changed. So enjoy the read but try not to be too critical.

A Questionable Role Model
April 04, 2007 - 1:28 a.m.

It is extremely late and I should really be asleep but I couldn't turn in without first leaving a little entry about my little "run-in" with the Springfield Police this evening.

What started out as a little girl's night out ended up being a sucky 2 hour, stand in the freaking cold, give information and talk to a stupid cop evening. Now please understand that I have a lot of respect for our law enforcement officers. Our officer just happened to have a few screws loose. So, let me explain why I was talking to a cop.

After eating a mediocre meal at IHOP, I climbed into the car to warm up while Mari stood next to the car for a quick smoke before we headed on our way. While she and I were talking, a truck parked next to us backed out of the space and right into a car. Now, one would think that if you hit a car, you should at least get out and look at the damage, right? But NO. After doing a VERY BAD job of backing out of the parking spot (she went straight back), she mearly put it in reverse and drove away - as if nothing had happened. What she left behind was one heck of a dent in an otherwise pristene Mazda 3. Thus began our evening of explaining to the cop what transpired. The cop was less than impressive. What should have taken a half out to gather information took over two as he did a sloppy attempt at searching for the guilty party through his onboard computer.

While the owner of the Mazda, Mari and I stood out in the fridged and windy parking lot, the cop sat comfortably in his warm vehicle making extremely flat jokes and stupid comments. After gathering all the necessary information that was needed to file the report he - rather than sending us on our merry way - began searching through the computer for the vehicle and the woman who was driving it. AND, rather than doing a search for the license plate (we knew all but the last character), he did things the hard way - searching for things that were of no help. Finally an hour into this Mari suggests doing a search with the partial plate numbers. Of course that narrowed the list of possibilities from the hundreds to just two. But the fun didn't end with this new information. First, he only sees one of the two possibilities (we are able to fully see the screen as he is working) and then, he begins to state that the address that they have listed for the suspected vehicle is not in the city that is listed but - by the address - he explains that it is in another city to the south. The only problem is that the zip code is for that of an area in the north west part of the town he says it is not in. I, assuming that he just read it wrong, state that the zip code is in fact in this city, on the north side. To my amazement, he disagrees, explaining that the zipcode for the northside is something else. Now, I lived in the zipcode that he said didn't exist in Springfield. I would think that a Springfield cop would know that the zipcode is a Springfield zipcode - especially since the Police Headquarters is in the zipcode the zipcode in question! At this point, I'm stunned that he's actually willing to disagree with me even after I state that I used to reside in said zipcode. Ugh! But it gets better still. As he looks through the list of possible suspects, he points out an address that he finds humorous. The address read like this "1234 Side Street PO BO, Farber MO 65801". The address was obviously cut off because of space restrictions on the screen and "PO BO" was short for "PO Box". However, he stated that that was the goofiest address he'd seen - and he was serious! Mari and I finally left after wasting nearly 2 hours feeling less than impressed by this police officer.

Now I've left out a bit more because you can get my point without me having to type so much more. I have to say that I was very disappointed in our law enforcement after this episode. When the witnesses are better at seeing information on the computer than the police officer, there's a problem. We should never have had to stand out in the cold that long. We shouldn't have had to suggest (out of frustration) to do a search with criteria that should have been obvious to the officer. We also should not have had the ability to browse the officer's computer to the point that we did - seeing lists of possible vehicles, licenses, etc.

I am still amazed by the events of the evening. On top of that, it was not at all amusing, the officer's attempts to kid around and buddy up - referring to me as a computer nerd because I was able to find information quickly while it took him quite a long time to locate it and blinding Mari with his spot light twice in an attempt to tease her about her smoking. *sigh* Maybe I am making a big deal out of nothing but I still have to ask the question of how things are accomplished in this town with officers such as this one on patrol.

A Heart In Turmoil - July 25, 2007
Still My Baby Girl - July 24, 2007
Aaaaggghhhh! Stessful Summer! - July 23, 2007
Jumping Through Hoops - July 20, 2007
A Vacation from Vacation - July 17, 2007

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