A Mix

Today was a mix. Lots of paperwork. Good interactions with officers and inmates. An epiphany. A call-out.

The epiphany: I've always worked under the assumption that my job was to either prevent or fix problems. That seems to apply to every job there is- you are either making things better or keeping things from getting worse. Part of that responsibility is to accurately see what the problem is, how big it is. Part of the responsibility is sharing that information up the chain of command. But that's not always the way it works. People want to accomplish the mission- get the job done. Bureaucracies are about preserving the system. When the ship is heading for big rocks, the obvious thing to do is to change course. The bureaucrat begins hiring the smartest, toughest, most creative people in the hopes that they will find away to avoid the damage without changing course... and god help the individual who stands up and says "This won't work- the system is flawed." Though the bureaucrat is driving the ship onto the rocks, they will throw someone over the side for making waves.

The Call Out: Not a lot of action lately, so when a neighboring agency without a tactical team calls for assistance with a riot with multiple barricaded, armed threats... it was looking like an interesting day. The team hit the ground running: a hasty pre-plan, some ball park concepts, equipment choices and draws for a range of scenarios; commo and even an advance team on the way... when the bad guys decided to surrender. This is the tactical equivalent of a case of blue balls.