Officer, You're Under Arrest
Squad car driving and felony arrest day at Pinellas County Sheriff's Citizens Academy is an eye-opening — er, eye-popping — experience.
Red and blue lights flashing in the dark of night in a secluded area. The smell of exhaust twinges at my nostrils. Spotlights are pointed at a driver still inside a vehicle that was just pulled over. Deputies believe he has a gun. Although this is a mock scenario, and we know the man inside isn't a real danger (he is a training officer for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and he only has a prop gun), adrenaline is still pumping through my veins. As participants in the sheriff's Citizens Academy, our job is to apprehend the imaginary armed suspect peacefully. Luckily, he was mostly cooperative. How in the heck do they keep it together when they're in a real-life scenario and the suspect has a real intent to do harm?, I thought. When …
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