Philadelphia, 1977 – 147 rookies – no veterans…
Philadelphia tried something no major city had tried before.
They emptied out a notoriously corrupt police district and replaced every veteran officer overnight — with 147 brand-new rookies fresh out of the academy.
No mentors.
No institutional memory.
No safety net.
And one of them was living with undiagnosed Asperger syndrome.
What could possibly go wrong?
Rookie Police Experiment Vol 1
Midnight transfer. Broken station. Neighborhood on edge. Undiagnosed AS.
What could possibly go wrong?
Police work is challenging for anyone. Being thrust into police work with 147 freshly minted rookies directly from the academy, with no veteran police officers to break you in, a severe challenge. With undiagnosed Asperger syndrome, it was challenging to the nth degree.
I recently saw an ad for safety equipment in which a retired police officer professes in two and a half decades of police work, he never once intervened in a rape, home invasion, or robbery.
I don’t know where he worked, but I checked all those boxes during the first few months.
Rookie Police Experiment Vol 2
Between Volume One and Volume Two, I experienced shootings, stabbings, burglars, blizzards and horse chases.
This volume starts as I return from my first vacation, forced by my lieutenant, because I didn’t want to miss anything.
And, it wasn’t about to slow down anytime soon.
The lieutenant was absolutely right when he said, “There’ll plenty of crime left by the time you get back.”
When I came back and jumped on the still-spinning merry-go-round of police drama, it was clear he should have added, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”
The experiment didn’t calm down. It accelerated.