“Shine your boots.”
Please welcome Recruit Sarah, a member of The Jefferson County Sheriff's Department and Lakewood Police Department Combined Regional Academy. She has completed four weeks of training, with eighteen more to go.
It sounds so simple. I didn’t give it much thought during
orientation week. My brain, built to prioritize tasks, immediately dismissed
the chore of “shining my boots” to the bottom of my mental to-do list. Little did I know that this would be my first
obstacle to overcome at the Academy.
This year’s Combined Regional Police Academy consists of
44-recruits sent from 10 different agencies. For the eight Lakewood Recruits,
we were selected from a pool of over 300 applicants. The message is clear from
Academy staff: hundreds of people want to be sitting in your seat; don’t waste
our time if you are not willing to give Academy 100%.
The first week of Academy is about laying the foundation for
the 21-weeks to come. I came in with the expectation that I’d be spending much
of my time on the “sexy” police skills (driving, shooting, and fighting). My
eyes were opened to the multitude of “other” topics necessary to becoming a
well rounded, community police officer. Academy will include topics like stress
awareness, equipment care, knowing criminal code, crisis intervention response,
and victim rights.
The
night before Academy officially began; I sat at home the proud owner of a new
pair of Danner Boots. I thought I’d be done shining them in an hour. How naïve
of me.
Five hours later, I was covered in shoe polish, my bathroom
was stained black, and my boots looked even duller than when I had started. Is
that even physically possible? There is nothing more disheartening than to be
completed dominated by a menial task. Panic began to set in.
Sucking up my pride while sporting a pair of dull boots, I
spent the first week asking my fellow recruits for help. After getting 43
different methods that would “guarantee” a shiny pair, I made it my daily mission
to get it right. Each night I would spend a few hours trying one strategy after
another (I do NOT recommend involving the element of fire when you’re a novice
no matter how much your fellow recruits assure you it’s the way to go).
“Recruit Sarah, those are some shiny boots.” Those words from
an Academy instructor might not have meant much to most of the recruits. Yet,
to me, they signaled overcoming my first obstacle and commencing on the journey
that is the Combined Regional Police Academy. I never thought my path would
start with something as simple as shining my boots.
