Writer's Police Academy 2012 - Police Cruiser

I got to sit in (the front of) a police cruiser at the Writer's Police Academy. (The officers at the Academy were so kind to us writers!)

The officer explained how he writes up reports right in the car (on the laptop you can see in the pics). The front of the car is full of electronic equipment and the back is quite small. There's no barrier between the front and the back, either, so anyone arrested literally sits in the back of the car as though it's a regular ride to Grandma's house.

There's also a very cool feature of the camera on this car. It's like a DVR. You ever watch a TV show and think, 'hey, I want to see this from the beginning' so you hit record and start it over - even though you only turned on the TV halfway through? Well, this car is equipped with that sort of tech. The officer saw someone run a red light - right in front of him! He hit the record button and it caught the incident - even though it happened before record was hit.

Word to the wise - don't run red lights. Especially don't run red lights in front of cops. Double especially don't run red lights in front of cops in this cool technological age.