Over the years we got better trucks, cloth seats, AM/FM radios, a few even with cassette players. With the county upgrade to 800 MHz radios the field officers all got portable radios (HT's). We still had On Call pagers though, all the way up to when we left in 2006. By then several area agencies had gone to a more cell phone like way to communication with dispatch doing away with in truck radios almost all together and relying on a removable radio that only had a charging station under the dash.
Back when we first got the 800 radios they had quite the abilities! You could even make phone calls from your truck through the radio and an all county access number. With that number people could call you too but that more often didn't work well due to the number being used by so many people! Although the phone calls were just like a talking on the radio and so were 'simplex' and not 'duplex' like a phone call is, even a cell phone call. So you had to talk, wait.......... and listen for a response then talk again. Most people you'd try to talk to couldn't get the hang of talk, listen, talk again and so it made for difficult to impossible communicating, so the novelty wore off quickly for me.
I remember listening to my scanner and hearing the Sheriff department employees, street patrol and detectives both, calling in orders for food, calling home and friends and other types of "personal" calls with their county radios. Soon our department had the radio shop 'turn off' the abilities for the valley trucks and cars to make phone calls, not the supervisors though. And I'd still here Daryl or Steve making their personal calls along with the Sheriff's employees. Just no longer the valley field staff of Animal Control. Turns out the cell bills were too high with all the calls that were being made through the radios by various ACO's who were saving minutes by using the new toy of the radio/phone or didn't have cell phones yet. Not everyone did at that time, not like they do now.
To be continued again...........
Friday, May 6, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Patrolling areas I liked, or didn't like
The number one thing all ACO's did and must still do, is drive.
One of the duties listed in the old job description and maybe still listed even with the cost of fuel was (is) "patrol geographic areas".
That could be incredibly boring or incredibly fascinating and fun! There were areas I really liked driving in and areas that really sucked.
My 'worst' areas, the areas I would have rather been almost anywhere else?
Number one would be when we had the city of Ontario. I drove that area for 5 years as it was included in one of three areas that split the "West End" of the San Bernardino Valley from Fontana to the Los Angeles and Riverside county lines. I didn't care for the predominantly gang areas that were located at the time between Holt Blvd North and the 60 Freeway South and from Grove, East to Ramona, West.
For Animal Control lots of cruelty calls came from the area for the "gangsta's" pit bull or pit bull mixed dogs. Often just being there where the public could see them or the gang kids would threaten people with the dogs or attack smaller dogs in the area to prove their dog was the "baddest". And if not those dog calls then it was most often the staked out fighting birds (Roosters) in the back, or front, of peoples yards as bird fighting was big business back then.
Number two area was Lytle Creek. I used to say and I imagine it still would be, "the armpit of the valley". A small village with only one way in or out back up in the foothills it was split into two sections, the lower canyon and the upper canyon. The expensive homes were the upper canyon and most calls there were loose dogs and leash law complaints about neighbors. The lower canyon was the less expensive homes to downright and literal shacks. And getting cooperation was almost never easy. Often the dogs the upper canyon complained about were following the 'creek' up from the lower canyon.
Third would be Bloomington and Fourth would be Muscoy. And Fifth of the bottom five would be Fontana areas we had then didn't then did again as the contract with the city came and went and came back.
My favorite areas were usually in the deserts with hours of long drives which I especially enjoyed when I was involved in a good audio book. When we started getting XM satellite radio the Christmas of 2003, then it was listening to old time radio shows, movie themes or such that I wouldn't want to stop and do the call and have to miss something! Stacy and I both did and still do love the ability to listen to great music or whatever, wherever you are with XM.
In the valley though, and most of my years in the department were in the valley, I liked working in the "Alta Loma" and Rancho Cucamoga areas. Another 5 year stint area but a few years after working in the Chino and Ontario areas, I liked the definite "higher income" level of this area. I was working Sunday to Wednesdays then and with hardly any calls on Sundays it was often just driving around, patrolling and just being seen. I liked seeing all the very expensive collections of autos out on their "Sunday Drives".
One of the most interesting things I used to see often, and in many areas, was as I was driving around in the residential blocks, people would, even if they were in their own yards, pick up their dogs and take them inside when they'd see the truck. Always funny to me!
I got to go to the 1984 Summer Olympics as the shooting events were done out in the Chino area and people would go to see the events and bring their dogs and leave them locked in their cars. As it was summer and hot, the security would find the cars with dogs in it and call for a pick up. We'd make the security break into the vehicle and we'd take the dog. I did that twice in a work week. That kind of call also became a standard summer call in the many restaurant and mall parking lots as the population boomed.
Years later at the Fontana Speedway I was given an all access tour of the facility, got to drive on the racetrack and go see the "executive" and Press viewing boxes as well as got to be in the infield for a race event walking and patrolling with Stacy for our shift of the event. Million dollar RV's and in the middle of the race.
Oh well, more memories later!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad2
One of the duties listed in the old job description and maybe still listed even with the cost of fuel was (is) "patrol geographic areas".
That could be incredibly boring or incredibly fascinating and fun! There were areas I really liked driving in and areas that really sucked.
My 'worst' areas, the areas I would have rather been almost anywhere else?
Number one would be when we had the city of Ontario. I drove that area for 5 years as it was included in one of three areas that split the "West End" of the San Bernardino Valley from Fontana to the Los Angeles and Riverside county lines. I didn't care for the predominantly gang areas that were located at the time between Holt Blvd North and the 60 Freeway South and from Grove, East to Ramona, West.
For Animal Control lots of cruelty calls came from the area for the "gangsta's" pit bull or pit bull mixed dogs. Often just being there where the public could see them or the gang kids would threaten people with the dogs or attack smaller dogs in the area to prove their dog was the "baddest". And if not those dog calls then it was most often the staked out fighting birds (Roosters) in the back, or front, of peoples yards as bird fighting was big business back then.
Number two area was Lytle Creek. I used to say and I imagine it still would be, "the armpit of the valley". A small village with only one way in or out back up in the foothills it was split into two sections, the lower canyon and the upper canyon. The expensive homes were the upper canyon and most calls there were loose dogs and leash law complaints about neighbors. The lower canyon was the less expensive homes to downright and literal shacks. And getting cooperation was almost never easy. Often the dogs the upper canyon complained about were following the 'creek' up from the lower canyon.
Third would be Bloomington and Fourth would be Muscoy. And Fifth of the bottom five would be Fontana areas we had then didn't then did again as the contract with the city came and went and came back.
My favorite areas were usually in the deserts with hours of long drives which I especially enjoyed when I was involved in a good audio book. When we started getting XM satellite radio the Christmas of 2003, then it was listening to old time radio shows, movie themes or such that I wouldn't want to stop and do the call and have to miss something! Stacy and I both did and still do love the ability to listen to great music or whatever, wherever you are with XM.
In the valley though, and most of my years in the department were in the valley, I liked working in the "Alta Loma" and Rancho Cucamoga areas. Another 5 year stint area but a few years after working in the Chino and Ontario areas, I liked the definite "higher income" level of this area. I was working Sunday to Wednesdays then and with hardly any calls on Sundays it was often just driving around, patrolling and just being seen. I liked seeing all the very expensive collections of autos out on their "Sunday Drives".
One of the most interesting things I used to see often, and in many areas, was as I was driving around in the residential blocks, people would, even if they were in their own yards, pick up their dogs and take them inside when they'd see the truck. Always funny to me!
I got to go to the 1984 Summer Olympics as the shooting events were done out in the Chino area and people would go to see the events and bring their dogs and leave them locked in their cars. As it was summer and hot, the security would find the cars with dogs in it and call for a pick up. We'd make the security break into the vehicle and we'd take the dog. I did that twice in a work week. That kind of call also became a standard summer call in the many restaurant and mall parking lots as the population boomed.
Years later at the Fontana Speedway I was given an all access tour of the facility, got to drive on the racetrack and go see the "executive" and Press viewing boxes as well as got to be in the infield for a race event walking and patrolling with Stacy for our shift of the event. Million dollar RV's and in the middle of the race.
Oh well, more memories later!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad2
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)