A lot of new and exciting things are coming to South High School in the near future. With the new schedule in place already and construction underway, what else can the student body expect? New classes are being put into place to help with training for future jobs. These jobs will of course provide training, and hopefully reduce costs for college as well. One of the new programs will be new classes in public safety, so I decided to look into public safety–but more specifically law enforcement–and inform the student body who may be interested in this career path. My uncle, Captain David Vorpahl, is the Captain of the Detectives with the city of Manitowoc. He provided me the opportunity to follow along and see the various jobs of law enforcement. On Friday May 20th, I woke up at 5 a.m. to drive to my uncle’s home in Cleveland at 5:40. When I arrived at 6:00, my uncle was outside ready to go. During the short commute to Manitowoc, Vorpahl informed me that he gets up this early every morning. Also on the ride, he explained the basic differences of what he does now as a detective than when he was starting out as a patrol officer. While patrol officers will respond to traffic calls or suspicious people, just like the routine calls we think about, detectives are promoted when they complete specific training, better equipping them to use their discretion to create a solution. Vorpahl gave me a rule to write down as well that helped explain the differences between the two. It’s called the GET rule. The G stands for geography, like who is close and where did the call come from. The E stands for expertise, who has the proper training to find clues at the crime scene. The T stands for time. The patrol officers will give the evidence or statements they get to the detectives. The detectives will work on the longer investigations, like death investigations. It’s important to know the differences between the two before you decide to join and to keep an open mind. He also told me that it’s challenging being a police officer. There are many things that could go wrong and possibly get seriously injured, even during a routine traffic stop. He said something that stuck out to me when we were driving and I thought it was very important. “Officers see more in one year than many people do in a lifetime. There’s always something different. It makes it interesting.” I find this important because officers and detectives see it all, death, drunk drivers, abuse, violence–you name it, they’ve seen it. What makes them especially courageous is that they get up everyday to do it again to keep citizens safe. Arriving at the police station in the middle of Manitowoc, Vorpahl led me to a door with a key card to a staircase in the head police headquarters. Cubicles and interview rooms lined the main room with the police supervisor’s office of the left of the room. Officers were in the cubicles finishing their paperwork very early for the day. Some of the officers were still there from their overnight shifts. Off the large room leads to the room where mug shots and prints are taken. In a room not too far away, there is a room for temporary evidence. Many ordinary objects like coffee mugs were being swabbed for DNA in a purple tank. A locked door was off the room where Vorpahl told me permanent evidence is held. Only two people in the entire building have the key in an effort to keep contamination to a minimum. The keeper of the evidence examines the evidence then puts it in permanent evidence. After I was introduced to the officers and the patrol supervisor, Vorpahl showed me to his office. His office is just what you’d expect with two computers and a large desk. Family photos line the window sill and the desk, information about the Crime Stoppers program sit across the room on a small table. A job of his as the Captain of the Detectives is to write the schedules for the detectives in advance. It’s almost always changing to fit around the days that the detectives have asked off. One of the numerous jobs my uncle does is send reports and updates to the media outlets but first to the District Attorney’s office. For the media, the reports are causes for why people are locked up. When we were in the office for a little bit, Vorpahl informed me that since the Chief and Assistant Chief’s weren’t in the office, that he may have additional responsibilities that day. “In the city of 35,000, if something happens, I have to make a decision.” More specifically, what should happen if an arrest had been made. I know I would be scared to protect a large city of 35,000, but Vorpahl has done it so often that, “Once you learn it, it’s not as hard, you’re not as nervous anymore.” Then he tells me the story of how he pulled over a drunk driver for the first time. At 7, my uncle took me to a meeting with the officers that are in the schools during the year. Sergeant Stone and three other Student Resource Officers sat around a circle table in the Four Seasons, a restaurant in Manitowoc. My uncle wrote out the agenda of the meeting beforehand and addressed the agenda. The meeting was pretty informal and included breakfast. All of the officers there talked about what had happened the past month, including upcoming graduation and what the officers will do during the various ceremonies. The meeting also including troubled students and what the plan of action will be. While in Manitowoc, I had the opportunity to go on a ride along with an officer, Officer Rob Block. The SUV police car contains a computer, printer, and so many gadgets and gizmos. The first call of the ride along, was to a local business to arrest an employee that stole from their employer. When Block and I got there, the kid was crying and held in the back office. The kid already had a written statement but we had to arrest him and bring him back to the station for fingerprints and a mug shot. Even before Block had patted the guy down, the kid pulls out a pocket knife and tells us, “Just so you know.” The kid didn’t want anymore trouble when he got patted down. When we got to the station, Block pulls out the book classifying misdemeanors and felonies. The kid will most likely be charged with a Class A misdemeanor by virtue of employment charge since the business pressed charges. After driving the kid back to his car to be on his way, we got a call to lead a funeral procession. The procession was two blocks long and lasted about ten minutes. Block didn’t mind this duty, he was happy to provide this service to the community. In fact, he stressed to me that he wanted to treat people the way someone would treat him and his family, nicely. To end the ride-along, Block tried to catch people speeding but his equipment was updated and still had to navigate through the new system. We looked up license plates to see if any were suspended. After about thirty minutes, we found a suspended license driver. We turned on the lights and went after the guy. The guy tried to cut off the car in oncoming traffic to avoid us, but he was caught and pulled over. I saw the shadow of the guy reach over to the passenger seat–big no no when you get pulled over. Block immediately got out of the car and rushed to the guy’s car. After Block talked to him and came back to the car, he told me that there was his young kid in the passenger side seat. The guy knew he shouldn’t have been driving and that his license is suspended for two years. Feeling bad that the young kid had to see his dad get a ticket already, Block told the man that he could drive home but he would follow him. Normally, Officers would have people get out of the car and walk home but Block didn’t want to ruin the nice day the two were having. When I returned to the station and thanked Block, my uncle and I went out to lunch. We returned from lunch to a report that the man who was sexually assaulting women and willing to pay five hundred dollars for sex was arrested. We hurried and went straight to my uncle’s office, whose computer is connected to a livestream of the interview room. We watched the guy at first denied what he did. He admitted it, almost five minutes into the entire thing. Horribly enough, he was charged with the same thing about two years ago. Law enforcement is both boring and exciting. It has many opportunities to advance but it’s not required. Each promotion requires more training and the salary does get higher in time. The one day that I came to visit with my uncle was so neat. Seeing what my uncle and these officers do 24/7 to keep us safe has given me a better perspective of this field. If you are interested in law enforcement and public safety, stop in the counseling center for even more information. Also I strongly encourage anyone who is interested to sign up at the local police department for a ride along. This not only helps prepare for what may be a future job, but also gives you a deeper understanding for our heroes and what they go through everyday.
Story and Photo by: Arianna Vorpahl