Thursday, September 29, 2011

Activity

Last night, I ran the dishwasher right before heading off to bed. It was full, and although I could have run it at any time, I love the idea of the dishes being washed while I'm sleeping. When I put the dishes away today, it will be obvious that I did some work around the house...even if the machine was toiling away as I slept.

But...I won't have any paperwork to back it up.

No tickets. No summonses. No arrests...nothing that involves little sheets of paper.

This may not be a perfect comparison, but I want to address something that is being both widely and covertly discussed within the ranks of the NYPD: since when does only those things that involve a paper trail indicate that there has been work done? What about all the times my husband is giving out directions, talking to a local shop owner, dispersing a roving band, roaming around the streets of SoB looking for a suspect?

You can't exactly write up a report about...so many things. You can't always predict when crime will happen, and you can't quantify police work with statistics alone. Sure, there's his memo book; but my understanding of the current workings of the NYPD is that they are looking for activity in the form of little sheets of paper all around.

I woke up this morning to dishes that have been washed. I don't have any paperwork to support that. And I don't think I need any.

4 comments:

  1. You're so right and it applies to probably all departments. Not everything can be put on paper and not everything requires paperwork like you said with giving directions and just having a conversation with the citizens which not seem like an important job aspect is. All that face time builds a positive repoire between him, the department and the people. It be nice if it was easily translatable to paper. (Excuse my jumbly mess of words, especially if it doesn't make sense. I'm working off 2 weeks with very little sleep).

    Running the dishwasher at night is wonderful. It's like waking up and the cleaning fairies have done it for you. Wouldn't it be nice if they could put the dishes (and laundry too) away :)

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  2. I think my hubby thinks that there are little elves that come in and do his laundry while he's sleeping...!!
    ;) Stella

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  3. My husband is in complete agreement on this one. In fact, he claims that BECAUSE HE DOES HIS JOB - as in, drives in circles all night on his beat - he has much less paperwork to contend with. Because he is being *visible* all night long, the thugs get the heck out of his beat and he doesn't get all the rape/robbery/mugging reports. In fact I think he looked and for a three month time period on his shift/beat there were no muggings. Pretty amazing compared to the other beats. And there is no paperwork to support his "laziness". Seriously, when you raise up in the ranks do you leave your brain behind?

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  4. Agreed...I do think that many cops "forget" when they rise up in the ranks...it sucks, because my husband is a good cop who gets frustrated for no good reason.
    :) Stella

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