Dave Smith
Officer (Ret.)
Police Magazine
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The thing about being a good burglar is that you have to know when to move and when to stay still. One of the really bad times to move is when a K-9 officer is using the pay phone in front of the building you are burgling.
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I think one of the hardest things in life is deciding what advice to take and what to ignore. I like to think most people give you advice they honestly think will be of help...OK I may be a little naïve, but I like to think that anyway.
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Yeah, Mike is strong. But Carrie is even stronger. Mike told me the greatest thing in his life is his wife, who has given up so much for him.
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I would later reflect on the odd incongruity of the K-9's toenails gently striking the tiles in the Junior High that we had just cleared. They were so dainty, almost tentative, as he rounded the corner into the shadows of the dead-end hallway where I hid silently in darkness. After that, he was a blur of snarling teeth and crushing power gripping my extended right arm.
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Tucson Police Department had a classy but oddly untactical uniform. We had blue wool pants, always in fashion in the Sonoran Desert, and a white shirt. Yep, white. We were really visible to the bad guys.
Read More →I have even joked and kidded with the dead themselves at scenes. Truthfully, I have done some of my best shtick talking to dead bodies. OK, they don't laugh, but they also never interrupt.
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Often we think that something that happens to us is a matter of bad luck, yet it changes things so much that it becomes good luck! An example is the day I was "killed." It was my senior summer, and I was driving a tanker in the Coconino National Forest looking for a small fire that one of the towers had picked up following a thunderstorm. It was extremely rugged terrain, and we could find no way to drive to the site of the fire.
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Not long ago a good friend of mine was killed in an accident. He had gone to the academy with me, been my roommate, and later worked the beat next to mine for two years. We had the bond of on and off-duty friendship and adventures. In thinking of Sam I remembered the scariest building search I ever did.
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One of the most canine-like drives I have ever felt is the urge to chase, to pursue, to catch. I must confess to an odd primal thrill I always felt when a miscreant took off running. I wish I could say my mind thought "Tally ho!" in a thick British accent.
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