Still popping back and forth when I get a chance, which isn't very often. My new roster sucks and with a toddler, there just is no time left to get online, but I made an exception tonight.
I am spending a week working in what is known as a Shopfront Beat. Just two of us working out of a mall area and the surrounding streets, and all on foot. Well first of all it is damn hot this week, and walking around in that sun is crappy, but it's a good break from the usual domestic violence and mental health jobs.
Anyway, we heard the call go out today that there was a young child went missing. 3 year old had run off from his Mum who also had another young one in a pram. She turned her back for a second and he was gone.
This happened in a shopping centre across the river from our Division, but we could hear patrols heading there from everywhere. It is a BIG shopping centre with a massive underground car park and three seperate shopping areas connected by walkways and a million different places a kid could hide. Not to mention the nearby river which if the boy had got through a couple of the barriers and made his way down to the river, it would have been a very BAD ending to the day. VERY BAD. By the time the call went out, the boy had been gone for about 20 minutes.
We thought "stuff it. Let's go." A quick run across the town bridge (a distance of about a mile) and we were in the shops. When we got there we made a point of meeting up with the patrol that was with the mother, just to show her how many cops were there looking for her kid, so she knew we were doing all we could. She was a mess. All I could think was if it was me, I would be destroyed!!
When we looked around I saw how many cops were there, it was amazing. We had motor bike cops in the car parks doing laps looking for him, and cops from about three different Districts had hit the mall. You would have certainly changed your mind if you had planned a good day of shop lifting and showed up this afternoon.
Due to the absolute saturation effect it caused a hell of a buzz through the shops. Every shop owner was searching there stores, and there were regular broadcasts over the PA. I was getting worried that it was not a runaway rahter than a take away job.
Luckily it was only about a half hour later and we had found the boy. Hearing that call on the radio was awesome.
I know it was not the most amazing job in the world, but I have always found the most satisfaction from some of the most simplest jobs. Even jobs like this where all I did personally was show a presence to reassure the mother that there was someone there looking for her boy.
It was a good job.
What are some of those jobs that rate fairly low on the whole scale of "what you did" or don't really rate as a good war story to tell your friends but still sit in your heart as a good day at work?
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