I imagine it's like any other job....a few moments of excitment seperated by many hours of lame humdrum stuff like my call.
Now the response was totally different when a drunk guy walked in my house. I could tell he was harmless after a bit. He just mistook where he was heading. He even thought that he knew me (obviously). Now I had a 5 cell ready to bash his head in ..but there was no reason to potentially seriously hurt someone who was just not at their best, so to speak. I just talked to him until he sat in a chair (that I offered him) and semi-passed out. I had tried to get my, at the time, young daughter to call 911 .., but she was pretty much an innocent airhead at the time (Huh? ..never mind dear).
Anyway, when I got on the phone, I told the dispatcher that everything was okay ..just that I had a drunk in the house and could he send the police to take him some place else. He, as he as surely trained, asked me to stay on the phone. After a brief amount of information exchange, I assured him that he was passed out but I wanted to make sure that he stayed put and I would put my daughter on the phone. The police came (very quickly), woke him up, cuffed him, and asked if I wanted to press charges. I said not unless they wanted the additional paper work ...I figured that the guy already had enough troubles as it was.
Keep in mind that I was about 265 at the time (and much younger) and really didn't react with too much hostility in most situations (I don't now). Most people would, understandably, be grabbing the first weapon that they could find and chasing the guy out.
I figured my way was better. He didn't need to find his way into someone else's place where he might get hurt or scare someone. This way he probably got a disorderly conduct citation and a place to sleep it off without getting beat up.
So the system works as intended in an emergency situation ..at least in my experience ..but can surely use a tweek on the routine stuff.
