This year the training officers added weekly swimming to the recruits' physical training. Photographer John Harte and I went the first day, and I quickly noticed that a lot of the officers and cadets have tattoos that had been covered by their clothes on the other occasions I visited them.

Now, I'm 28 years old and of the generation where pretty much everyone has at least one tattoo. I myself have four, and a nose ring. When I wear certain outfits, all of my tattoos are visible while I'm working. I'm sure someone out there is going to tell me that this is inappropriate. You and I are going to have to agree to disagree, and I hope we can still be friends.

Anyway, after I had watched the recruits swim for a bit, shot some video, I decided to get some shots of their tattoos. Just for fun. I thought maybe at the end of the video I was planning to make to go with the story, I'd put in a few shots of the tattoos. It would show the cops as regular people, which is the whole point of the project.

Then, and for several days afterward, a couple of the training officers started expressing concern. Tattoos apparently do not reflect well on the department.

Sheesh. Cops. I swear, I have written about 13-year-old girls who are less preoccupied with their image.

When I edited the video, there was no smooth place to fit the tattoo footage in. I might have just let it drop at that. But they just kept on about it. So the Bakersfield Police Department would really prefer if you did not watch this video.

So how did I choose the eight cadets to follow through the year?

First of all, people might be surprised to learn that the Bakersfield Police Department was sort of adamant about staying out of the process. I never did figure out what level this decision was made at, since Chief Bill Rector seemed to think that the BPD was going to choose the cadets, but he also didn't seem to really care how it was done. Either way, the department had no involvement in who I thought should be part of the project.

But they did help fill out my ranks. So I showed up to orientation night at the end of June with this idea for the project, the blessing of the BPD, and no participants. That night was when I told Rector that I was going to ask for volunteers. He said something to the effect of, "Well, you'll get 38 volunteers." (That was the number of cadets at the time.)

I thought, "Isn't that cute? So optimistic, so hopeful, so completely wrong." But since this wasn't the appropriate time to tell the chief of police I thought he was clueless -- and even as a reporter, those times are few and far between -- I just told him I hoped he was right.

He wasn't. I got up in front of the group, gave a little speech about how fun I thought the project was going to be, and got one volunteer.

Uno. Ein.

Great.

But what was an excellent stroke of luck was the point in the evening where all of the cadets stood up and introduced themselves. This was genius. Now I had names and a very basic bio, which would help me choose a diverse group.

I left the orientation with four phone numbers, one from my lone volunteer and three from people who at least agreed to allow me to try to convince them to participate. Only two of those four ended up being part of the project, by the way. But I wasn't overly worried because I had the names, and I had an ally.

I knew these would-be cops, who were already getting ready to embark on a new and stressful experience, would be hesitant to sign up to put their names in the paper. (Plus, cops in general avoid the media like we're a communicable disease.)

The only way they'd agree was if they knew the department was really behind the project. Fortunately, the PIO at time, Detective Ryan Paslay, instantly got what I wanted to do. I had pitched the idea long before he held that post, and been it had been met with a lukewarm response. He was immediately enthusiastic about it, and he was willing to put in some effort on the project's behalf.

A quick aside that still makes me chuckle. At one point he and I were discussing what the project would be and the basic purpose behind it. We both kind of saw it as a documentary or reality show.
"It'll be like 'Basketball Diaries,'" he said.
"Um, Ryan, 'Basketball Diaries' is the story of a kid spiraling into heroin addiction. I really hope you mean 'Hoop Dreams,'" I said.

Anyway, Paslay's powers of persuasion were far more effective than mine. I gave him a list of names and asked him to give me phone numbers. Instead, the cadets called me, usually within moments of getting off the phone with him. He swears he made it clear participation was voluntary, and I've never found Paslay to be especially intimidating, but I'd still love to know exactly what he said to those guys on the phone.

--CS

I'm hard at work on the next installment of the Becoming A Cop project. I've visited the cadets several times since the last story ran, and hope to update everyone on their progress throughout the month of August really soon. In the meantime, I'm going to try to post links to the last story, video and audio slideshow. I've never done it before, so this may not work at all.

Also, as soon as I figure this technology thing out, this blog will be the home of all the stories and other stuff we produce on this project through out the year. If I have time, I'll try to give you folks who check the blogs some exclusive material as well.

Print story - July 30, 2006
Video - Meet the Cadets
Video - First Day of Academy
Audio Slideshow - First Day of Academy