An encouraging word

Sam Hicks spent the day with me yesterday. He's a 15 year-old sophomore at East High School. Sam was doing a job shadowing assignment for his Career Education class. We had a great time. Sam basically learned that my job is about answering calls, responding to emails, going to meetings, and talking to people all over the place. We made it to the 0730 and 1430 lineups at HQ and at Center Team, hit the morning staff meeting and the media briefing, and dashed over to the Northeast Team Station, where Sgt. Tom Towle took the time to show Sam the plethora of gear and equipment in the Team's inventory.

We had a couple important meetings, the most interesting of which was probably our hiring review panel. For 90 minutes or so we reviewed the first of three groups of applicants for our January recruit class. Sam got a first-hand look at the kinds of things employers are looking for: solid transcripts, stable employment records, bilingual skills, clean records, good life experiences and so forth.

I was expected at the Mayor's Office for a news interview about graffiti in Lincoln at 1300 hours, and I told the reporter from KOLN TV that the only way she'd get an interview with me was if she made sure Sam somehow got in the frame. She graciously and cleverly assisted in getting Sam a cameo appearance on the news, deep, in the background.

A day like this reassures you that the world turns, and that young people today are just as smart, capable, funny, and enjoyable as ever.

Come to think of it, I had two doses of this youthful optimism during the week, the other at Dr. Miriam DeLeone's Criminal Justice 101 Class on Wednesday. I told the students there that I was in the exact same class 34 years ago, taught by Dr. Roy Roberg, and it was the original stimulus that got me thinking about policing as a potential career.

Good luck on that car, Sam.