I thought I'd put all the links to all of the previous stories in one blog post. You should be able to access all the videos by going to the story page. And make sure to pick up a paper or check the web on Saturday, because this month's story is coming in two installments.

Print story - July 30
Print story - August 30
Print story - Sept 29
Print story - Oct 31

As I may have mentioned before on this blog, I've gotten pretty phenomenal access for this project. There has been practically nothing I've been blocked from.

Not that there hasn't been some protest. I've seen the whispered discussions when officers, unfamiliar with the project, are told I will be observing their class. They go something like: A what? Are you sure? Does the sergeant know about this? Well, I'm just going to call to him and make sure.

But it hasn't kept me out of the room.

Getting the cops and cadets to open up hasn't always been easy. I really don't blame them. It's pretty scary to put yourself out there in the way I'm asking them to. But overall they've been great.

So when I get barred from something, I don't really enjoy that. After five months, I've grown accustomed to my free rein.

The Museum of Tolerance was a huge headache. The people were very nice, but they clearly had not received the memo about how I'm allowed to do whatever I want. First they told us we would not be allowed to take cameras in at all. Well, I'd be no kind of reporter if I accepted the first no.

I negotiated and cajoled and went over people's heads and got permission to use the cameras without a flash. Then a day before we were supposed to go, a lack of communication at the museum resulted in me having to do that process all over again.

That's when I found out that the class would be undergoing a "debriefing" I would not be allowed to attend. It's supposed to be a place where they can feel safe saying anything, I was told. Even the training officers can't go. Unhappy, but exhausted from the camera battle, I decided to let it slide.

The day of the field trip, while the class debriefed, the photographer and I had lunch. Then they went to a workshop, and we attended that. The woman leading the workshop said they would be doing another debriefing afterward. I asked if we needed to leave for that. She said it wouldn't be a formal debriefing, so we could stay.

This debriefing is when the recruit made the comment about knowing more polar bears than homosexuals.

See, this is why reporters are not allowed in debriefings.

The story about the trip to the museum still hasn't been written yet. I'm still not done with the interviews yet. At this point, I don't anticipate the words polar or bear will appear anywhere in the story, although I'm making no promises. I just found the comment sort of funny and telling.

In the last couple of weeks, at least five people within the department have groused to me about that blog post to varying degrees. Two today alone.

I get more feedback from cops about these blogs than I ever do about the actual stories. Apparently everyone in the department is running home at night and reading my blog, but no one is an actual subscriber to the paper.

Anyway, this was all a very long way of saying that there is a lot more to say about the Museum of Tolerance than one cadet saying he'd never met a gay person. I hope that story will come out in the next few days.

-- CS

When the class did vehicle pullover scenarios back in October, recruit Cathy Hinzo did an excellent job on her first turn. She knew she was about to be shot, so she had her gun out without ever letting the driver know it. She read the situation quickly and adapted, making it impossible for the driver to find a chance to shoot her.

It was in the video right up until the very end, when my editor made me cut it out completely for time. So here, in almost its entirety with only the boring parts cut out, is Hinzo’s pullover.

Some of these pictures will be published when the next article comes out in a couple weeks, but here's a sneak preview. The first five are from the Museum of Tolerance and were shot by Henry Barrios, and the rest are from their Emergency Vehicle Operation Center training, shot by John Harte.

Last month several members of the academy class competed in the Volkslauf, and the rest of the class came out to cheer them on. I found out about this when another reporter recognized a couple of names in the winner's list and asked me about it. This very much displeased me, since it meant that I didn't know to ask the photographer covering the event to get a couple of shots of them and I couldn't get any video. There may have been some post-event pouting involved, but I'm admitting nothing. Thankfully, Officer Feola has been gracious enough to share a few of the pictures he got.

There have been a few times in the course of reporting this project where someone has said or done something and I have been struck by how truly different I am from the subjects of my story.

The first time was an interview I conducted before the academy even began. One of the recruits told me a reason he wanted to be a cop is because he really liked the idea of following orders, of structure. He didn't want to be too free, he said.

Oh wow, I thought. This person has a completely different perspective than I do. We could not have more disparate desires in a profession.

I had another 'oh wow' moment when I went with the group to the Museum of Tolerance in LA yesterday. During a workshop, one of the recruits said he had never met a gay person before. Ever. Actually, he said he'd met more polar bears than gay people.

Oh wow.

He's not one of the recruits I'm following, so I don't know a lot about him, just what he said at orientation. He is probably in his mid to late 20s. I'd guess between 26 and 29. He's been in the Navy for 8 years and is married with a couple of kids. And he's said he's never met a gay person.

The woman running the workshop was quick to point out that he has never met anyone who self-identified as a homosexual. Because let's face it, this guy has, without a doubt, met gay people, he just doesn't know it. Every gay man is not going to be like Nathan Lane in "The Birdcage."

I chatted with the trainer later about it. She said that it's probably just an example of a person seeing what they want to see.

Maybe, but willful ignorance aside, let's assume he really has never known a gay person. Sure, a gay person has maybe been the clerk at a store he's shopped at or a doctor he's gone to, but he's obviously never had a close gay friend, acquaintance or family member.

How can this man's life experience be so different from mine? We're about the same age. I've grown up in Kern County since I was 12. It's not like I seek out gay people to befriend. But over the years I have had dozens of gay friends.

I'll admit I've never met a gypsy, never shook hands with a Masai warrior and never broke bread with an Eskimo. But I'd argue that these groups of people are thin on the ground in the places I've lived. You can't swing a dead cat in California without hitting a gay person.

Is this recruit an aberration? Are there a lot of people out there who have never met a gay person? Is it concerning that someone who is going to be an officer has been so limited in his contact with people who are different from him? Are there any groups, ethnicities or sub-cultures you have had no experience with?

-- CS

This is additional video from the September story.

 

The trainees were practicing searching suspects for weapons. It was the first and so far only time I have been allowed to take a camera into their defensive tactics training. When I saw that two of the trainees I am following, Jason Felgenhauer and Nicolas Gospich, would be working together, I rushed across the room in hopes of getting a few seconds of video.

The rush was unnecessary. Watch as Felgenhauer searches Gospich F-O-R-E-V-E-R.

The Kern County Sheriff's Department is hosting a job fair at the front of their headquarters at 1350 Norris Road from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. People will be available to talk about all types of positions available in the department. For more information about the job fair, call Sgt. Richard Wood at 391-7605.