Eddie hadn’t managed to successfully avoid Sgt. Saul Panadopolus that morning. As much as his friend’s complaining had greatly lessened since the Chief’s office had announced the selection of Quantum for their data storage and management needs, the sergeant still seemed to find reason to bitch about something, no matter how minor. Still, Eddie though, a couple minutes of some small gripe was better than the long drawn out (comparatively) gripe sessions that Panadopolus used to engage Eddie in as his sympathetic ear. It was yet one more reason why Eddie preferred to have his squad on the evening or midnight shift; less administrative personnel around to have to interact with.
This particular day shift promised to be quiet, although – like most cops – Eddie would never use that word to describe it. It was superstitious to be sure, but saying, “It sure is quiet,” was akin to just asking for all hell to break loose. Sam was still on light duty, but was only a week away from returning to full duty. Eddie actually felt sorry for the man. Sam wasn’t real good at riding a desk and he FELT fine; the doctor just wouldn’t clear him until the minimum convalescent time was met. That would be next week. In the meantime, Sam was assigned to a desk in the training division, and his duties usually comprised of proof-reading updated curriculums. Eddie knew that Sam was bored almost to tears and itching to come back, but there was nothing either of them could do about it. One week and Sam would be back, good to go.
Until then, Eddie had an almost full squad:
Max and Sean were together as Unit 1095. Eddie had a lot of respect for both officers. They were competent and motivated and demonstrated decent levels of common sense.
Mike and Kyle, the squads “twin towers of terror” were together as Unit 1096. Both men were well over six feet tall and about 300 pounds. They were motivated and had common sense. Eddie’s only concern was that they seemed to sometimes have a bit too much fun at the expense of an arrestee.
Until Sam got back to full duty, Dave was alone as Unit 1097. Dave was a good officer though and if he needed to wait for back up on a call, he’d do it. He was no cowboy.
And last but not least, Pete and Bill were together as Unit 1098. Both were veteran officers and although Eddie wished they were a bit more motivated about proactive police work, they answered their calls, pulled traffic as necessary and were seen a lot in their patrol area. They were friendly with the right people, hard on the people who needed it and did their jobs above minimum expectations. They were both just far enough along in their careers that they were counting years down, not arrests up.
Sgt. Eddie Presser was on the radio as Unit 1094 and he vaguely missed the days of being in a “regular” patrol unit instead of being the squad sergeant. He missed being a Field Training Officer (FTO), but he was also glad that if that part of his career had to come to an end, it did so with Max (Breaklin) being his last trainee. Now a Patrolman First Class, or PFC, Max was doing pretty well and Eddie felt like Max’s career made a positive statement about what kind of FTO Eddie had been.
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Read the rest of this exciting episode as part of the e-book now available in Kindle format on Amazon. See it on Amazon.
