Fun for the Fourth

Canoe Loading Area on a Holiday Weekend

     The week of the Fourth of July arrived quickly and went by even quicker. The river was bustling with canoers and kayakers, cave tours were sold out, and the roads were packed. I got out and helped direct traffic into overflow lots for a portion of my day shifts. On Sunday, we were called out to the Dennison Ferry area to guide visitors putting into the river for the day. Ranger Russel and myself police taped a makeshift road for outbound traffic. Taping off a road was necessary because vehicles were getting boxed in through the constant inflow of the put in loop. After we made sure traffic was running through smoothly we headed back to the station and prepared to run a sobriety checkpoint. The idea was to catch people coming off the river that had been drinking and were not in shape to operate a vehicle.

     We ran four checkpoints over the holiday weekend. I was responsible for recording license plate numbers, citations, and verbal warnings. We needed to record those statistics and the number of cars stopped for further use. We pulled people off the road for driving under the influence, we cited others for possession of drugs and/or paraphernelia, and we cited people for open containers. I witnessed a good amount of standard field sobriety tests and vehicle searches from working these checkpoints. I also rode with Ranger Sanders when we took a man charged with DUI to jail. Watching the Rangers talk to people during the brief stop of a sobriety checkpoint sets a good example for the way I need to contact people within the profession. You must be well aware of your surroundings: the oncoming traffic, the traffic in line that you will be contacting, the driver you are in contact with, the passengers within the vehicle, the smells coming from the vehicle you are in contact with, and the conversation at hand. I may even be missing some other instances, but I'm still an intern right?

 

Vehicle Search

Ranger Sacia Sealing Evidence

Evidence Bag

Recording a Ticket Within IMARS

     Don't forget what comes along with all that field work! Yup, the paperwork that follows. It roughly correlates to the time spent out in the field. The rangers here have reminded me to not fall behind on input, because it can be quite difficult to catch back up. Unfortunately, even knowing the shortcuts of IMARS doesn't make the system a whole lot faster to navigate.