Recently one of CA Cop's fellow officers has had a few run ins with a man he had arrested in the past. Only problem is these run ins occurred at or near his home in Baytown. Once with his family present. The man recognized the cop before the cop recognized him.
Hearing all this talk made me curious, do you live where you work (or where your cop works)? Have you had any issues if you do or don't? Do you prefer one way or the other?
We live a good 35 minutes from Baytown and CA Cop has still spotted an individual or two he has taken down to county. He is pretty adamant about not living in Baytown for many reasons one of which being that he wants to be able to feel as though he is truly "off duty".
So let me know your take on the subject and if you are happy with how you currently have it worked out.
We live close to the core area of our city. Blue will be posted there in about 2 months. I'm trying not to think about it too much, but I have a feeling that, after a year or two, Blue will want to move away from all of his...er...clients. Which is fine with me, the house is good for now but I'd much rather live in the country!
ReplyDeleteOnly 89k in the community. We really haven't run in to anyone that he would have concerns over. His first dept was in a place with 5k people and we lived in the neighboring town because the entire place (where dept was) was a P.O.S. dogtown. YUCK. I worked in that community and he wouldn't even speak to me in public except to address me as an "acquaintance" lest anyone know we were married.
ReplyDeleteI live in the same county that I work in, but I am currently stationed in the district furthest from my house.
ReplyDeleteI have worked in the district where I attend church, until that started to get weird. I requested a transfer when I was going to peoples houses that I attend church with. I have also ran into people in the grocery store that I have arrested.
I love working in the County I live in because I feel like I am vested in keeping my county safe. Running into people you have arrested comes with the territory no matter where you live because people are so mobile now days.
Prior to our move we lived in the same city. With over 1 million in the city he just worked on the other side.
ReplyDeleteNow, he works an hour away in another town. I work in the same county but outside of the main hustle in a tiny village. The units here different story. Everyone knows where they live including me. Ugh! I try to keep,my residence secret, but that's not going so well.
They think we're weird for driving so far and being secretive. They won't learn till its to late here. :-(
We live in the town. In small town America there isn't any choice... well we could live in the country but that's not an option for us right now. We run into his "clients" pretty regularly. He doesn't initiate interaction with them, we keep tabs on which restaurants' employees he has "worked with" recently and avoid the restaurant for a month or two, and we avoid the haunts of his shadier clientele. That's the way it goes in the small towns. It isn't too bad, or not significantly worse than living and working in a small town to begin with.
ReplyDeleteI work for a city of approx. 160,000. I would never work/live in the same place. Having said that, I was in my front yard one day mowing when this dude walked up. First words out of his mouth were, "You work with Sgt. M.?" Sgt. M. is the undercover vice/narc unit supervisor and I couldn't place this guy. So even though I live 20 minutes away from work in a neighboring town it still happens there too but far less than in the same town.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a few of the smaller town folk are still able to work and live in the same community. I love small towns.
ReplyDeleteWe live within walking distance of DH's dept. There are so many great things about being that close; commute time is awesome, opportunities for seeing DH on shift are easy, we can get to know his coworkers a little bit more easily. There is also this [irrational] "thing" ~ I feel like I know he is safe because he is so close. Like I would hear the lights and sirens and know if something was wrong; heck, when I hear/see a news helicopter or two I flip on the news or comb twitter to figure out what's going on. If we lived farther away that wouldn't happen as much. Originally, DH was excited about living and working in the same place. Like The Officer said, he has a larger vested interest in cleaning up around town given that he is not only an employee but ALSO a resident.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, the same thing has happened to us; seeing a former client on the street or out and about. It's gross. We do almost all family stuff in neighboring towns and DH will never be caught dead out on a walk or at the park with us in town.
That's a good question to pose. We have been dealing with it now for 3 years. When DH was first assigned his beat it just so happened to fall into the neighborhood that we had just decided to purchase our first home in.
ReplyDeleteNow, the area we chose other officers gave us a lot of slack for since it is heavily covered in the people he would deal with. In the beginning I wasn't worried. He works nights, parks his car in our garage, doesn't wear the uniform leaving the house. We kept it quiet. But eventually the nosy neighbors would figure it out. It also doesn't help when your house is within a block from the county lock up. Uh yea... Let's just give people a target to shoot ugh.
As time has passed he has had to deal directly with neighbors, (we do not chose to associate with our neighbors) and most recently I have had an incident were they figured out my proper name and made contact with me in a cyberstalking sort of way. I feel less safe and more paranoid to go outside more now then ever in my life because these people have purposefully sought me out.
I have a small child and I am not happy about it one bit.
That being said, it has had it's benefit, but we are hoping we can move out of this city and into a different area. Hoping because of the economy our house isn't an option to sell at this point.
I don't recommend being that close to your work place if your area of residence is in a shady community.
Poor planning on our end. But we have learned and will be better for it.
Just found your blog and you make me laugh. Love it.