MPD

This is Greg's old team.

Greg's last trainer before he went out on his own.

Greg in his patrol car.

Greg and his friend Rob.

Greg and another friend, Paul.

MPD, what an experience. It has been almost 2 years since Greg started the academy and almost 1 year to the day that Greg has been completely on his own, a full blown Officer. Where to begin?The beginning was ROUGH. The adjustment was beyond anything we could imagine. Greg averaged 3-4 hours of sleep a night and I was going on little sleep myself since Scarlet had just been born a couple weeks before and every bit of life was just STRESSFUL. But little by little, it got easier and easier to where it actually became a good thing and Greg started enjoying his work. To the point that when Greg got his job offer, we hesitated a moment or two, debating if we really wanted to make the change. But when all is said and done- the cop life does not suit the family life very well. Not to say that it can't be done, but it is difficult. Mainly because of the unpredictable hours. Also, by the end, I started to get nervous about Greg getting hurt. There's been some incidents in Medford, recently, and the very last one someone came at 2 cops with a weapon and he had to be shot. Greg was right there. He was safe and it turned out fine, but it just as easily could've gone bad. The more these things happened, the more nervous it made me.

I'm really glad to say goodbye to all these things. I'm excited to SEE him EVERYDAY. I'm glad to have regular hours. I'm glad that we can actually make WEEKEND plans with other couples, instead of not knowing what to do with ourselves mid-week when all his days off are. Basically, I'm excited for everything!!!

The cop life is an interesting one. I don't remember who, but someone said as a cop you'll see, in one year, more than anyone else does in their whole life. I didn't know how true that was- but it totally is!!! Greg has had to wrestle a LARGE, TALL, NAKED, FILTHY woman out in public. That was his first day. He has seen a lot of dead people. He saw someone take a sample from somebody's eyeball who overdosed. He's had to deal with gross things- people that pick at themselves, people that have diseases, people that are bleeding, people that are high on drugs and acting completely bizarre and scary unnatural. He's had to draw his gun many times and had to point it at people in very stressful situations. He's had to search buildings with his gun drawn to try and locate and arrest suspects hiding inside. Not fun things!

One thing's for sure. My perspective of cops has COMPLETELY changed. I hate when people criticize cops. You wouldn't believe how when people found out I was married to a cop, the first thing they would do is tell me about some cop that was a jerk to them. And I'm just like, "Huh." I mean, what are they trying to say, that my husband's a jerk? What am I supposed to say to that? Not that I think every cop is perfect and never makes a mistake, but people have no idea what they go through and what they sacrifice every single day. I know I had no idea and now I only have incredible respect for them and their families.

On Greg's last day his team surprised him by throwing a little party during their briefing. They brought food and drinks, and gave him a couple of small gifts. Greg felt really close to his teammates because he literally trusted them with his LIFE on almost a daily basis, and they trusted Greg with theirs as well. The last day his sergeant told Greg to take it easy and just have a good day. So he was sort of just on call for back up. He spent a long while talking to his sergeant and it was a nice to have a good goodbye. He took pictures and said his goodbyes to other officers. He only took a couple small calls and just had a really good day sort of soaking it all in for the last time. All of his supervisors and the chief told him he's welcome to come back anytime. The last couple months they were often saying things like, "Are you sure you want to leave?" "You're going to miss this! You'll be bored at a desk." "You're up for a big raise really soon . . ." They were trying to sway him to stay, quite a bit. It felt really nice to part on such good terms and know they were so happy with his work.

All in all it's been a really good experience. As hard as it was, sometimes, MPD acts like a big family and as little contact as I had with them, the times I DID, it really felt that way. He gained a lot of great experience, and worked with a lot of great people and we both feel this was a big step in getting the job he has now.