Friday Night 5-0

My experience with the New Paltz police has not always been one that I am pleased with, but standing on the side of the law was a much better experience. I arrived at 8:30 p.m. and was greeted by a warm welcome from P.O. Krause who said, "You're coming with me." He told me not to touch anything in the car, and run away if something happens...as if I wasn't nervous enough. We pulled over two cars for speeding, but gave no tickets. The first pullover was a paramedic, and the second was a nurse. P.O. Krause constantly justified his reasons for not ticketing the nurse and paramedic, which I thought was interesting. It seemed as though he thought I expected him to be writing tickets to everyone, no matter what. He was trying to explain to me that sometimes you have to really worry about the bigger issue, he said " I can't write a ticket to someone who might save my life some day." I totally understood him and was actually surprised to see how hard he worked to explain his decision making process in enforcing the law. While there wasn't much action besides the two pullovers and a break in by some local fraternity brothers, the experience was amazing and I would do it again in a heartbeat! P.O. Kraus showed off all the electronic gadgets he had in his car, including the plate scanner which was crazy. Krause also explained how the shifts work and what the most common issues in New Paltz have been lately. Overall it was a wonderful experience!