We had a major incident that occurred
almost two decades ago in which our town was linked to the crime but
we were never able to discover where the crime had actually took
place. A number of the affected departments set up an informal task
force in order to solve the crime, but the leads were just not there
and it went cold.
Recently the lead department received
new evidence that pointed to a hitherto unknown suspect. They came
to our department and coordinated with our investigation division to
pickup and go speak with this new suspect.
So three-fourths of patrol is in the
break room eating lunch, watching NASCAR on the flat screen
television, when a senior member of our command staff walks by the
room pushing a double-decker food cart. We let that go. A short
time later he returns with a bunch of pizza boxes on the cart. The
smart-mouth of our group, says, “Hey boss, that for us?”. He
chuckles and says no. Then he and the cart disappear into the
elevator and he goes up a couple of floors to the dick's offices. He
and the cart return empty handed, followed by a return trip that
contained drinks and finally a dessert run.
Right after the dessert run, the
on-duty shift Sargent pops up and we ask him if any of the pizza that
is going to our investigators and the outside department personnel is
going to find its way to us. He tells us that he had not heard of
the pizza and then walks out of the room. A short time later, he
returned and said, yes there is pizza (like we would not recognize
pizza as it went past us) but no, it was not for us. I then point
out that it would take maybe 2 or at the most 3 pizzas to feed patrol
and after they had bought all the other ones, how much more would it really
cost to do that. A conversation soon breaks out between the three of
us in patrol and the Sargent, in which we eventually concluded that
in the command staffs' mind we are not worth the cost of three
pizzas. I concluded the conversation by stating, “Well I for one
am glad to know my actual dollar amount worth to the department. Now
I can go get replacement insurance and know I am not going to
overpay.” We all laugh and hit the street.
Fast forward to the next day and I am
speaking now to the shift lieutenant about a different matter, when
the same Sargent from the day before walks up. The lieutenant then
says, “Oh that reminds me I found out about that pizza thing from
yesterday.”
I think, crap, I shot my mouth off and
irritated someone enough that the Lt is involved. The lieutenant
then says, “If it makes you feel any better, our detectives didn't
get any pizza either, they had to buy their own lunch. That was just
for the officers that came in from the outside for this case.”
The Sargent and I just stare at our
Lieutenant waiting for his mental bulb to light up. A few beats
later it does. He sighs and states, “Wait, I think that worse. It
means we care much more about a bunch of strangers we will never see
again, then the actual people that work here. It makes you feel all
warm and gooey inside.” And with that final statement the pizza
topic was permanently shelved as an approved conversational topic.
I guess going down on the sinking boat
is a little more comforting when you have company on that cruise, but
then again I think we all would rather not be sinking in the first place.
