The Department

This is a true story. It was 1992 and I found myself, along with 1,200 other people, testing for employment into the “Department”. In the end there were 46 of us starting the 15th Academy. I promoted quickly to the status of Training Officer. Life was good and I loved my job. I was confident, knowledgeable and a threat! I found myself transferring out of the correctional facility into a specialized unit, known as the Departments “best kept secret”. Once you got into this unit you never wanted to leave. However, I had no choice. One fall morning I received the phone call that changed my life. In turn of personal traumatic events I made a mistake on the job. However, despite the mitigating circumstances discovered through the Internal Affairs investigation, I found myself on the chopping block and headed toward termination. Was my mistake immoral? Yes. Were the actions of many people on this Department immoral? Absolutely. This is a story about the “good” of my job and the love I had for it. It is about the “bad” in the harassment, animosity and jealousy I experienced. This is the “truth” as to why I left the Department. The names have been changed to protect the guilty.