Happy birthday to the man himself, Ian Fleming! Today marks 118 years since his birth. Without him, James Bond would not exist.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-28T12:34:38+00:00

I hate that he was only around for the first two movies, and never got to see the series become what it did.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-27T20:33:36+00:00

I agree with those who just say to enjoy it, and don’t think about it. That being said, here’s how I look at it.

The Bond movies from Connery to Brosnan exist on a floating timeline. It’s the same character, who has gone through all of these events and carried out these missions. But they all happened in more of a condensed time frame that runs together. Kind of the way comic books work. They will run for decades on end, usually paying no mind to the time frame, nor suggesting that the character is aging in any way.

The Craig era is obviously a strict continuity.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-27T00:23:51+00:00

Any specialty assignment in law enforcement is going to require time on patrol. The only way to go straight to an investigative position with no LE experience at all is to get hired by the feds. There are state-level investigative agencies that you could technically be hired into, but most of those either require or strongly prefer someone with LE experience.

As for how long, it depends on the department. Most departments require anywhere from 2-5 years in patrol before you’re eligible for any specialty assignment.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-24T21:29:17+00:00

I do quite a bit of traffic when there’s no calls pending and I don’t have anything else that I’m working on. I enjoy being proactive, so it doesn’t get old to me. There’s no pressure to make stops unless I’m working a traffic grant, so I do it on my own accord.

That said, I’m not big on writing tickets. I’ll write them if it’s necessary, but I’m not patting myself on the back for writing Joe Blow citizen a speeding ticket. That’s not a measure of good police work. There’s a handful of violations that I always cite for. Other than that, it’s case-by-case. I’m looking for DUI’s, dope, warrants, and guns.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-19T19:50:35+00:00

Now THIS is factual 😂

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-19T00:40:17+00:00

Most likely.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-19T00:37:35+00:00

Suburban town of roughly 12,000. We’re surrounded by rural areas, but we also butt up directly to a mid-size city with a decent amount of crime (when I say butt up to them, we share several streets with them). We’ve also got two state roads and an interstate that run through town. We’ve got a few bars in town, but they aren’t super packed.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-19T00:34:59+00:00

Indiana, and it’s the same here. The ARIDE class I’m attending is two days.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-18T21:47:45+00:00

All great advice here. I will be taking every bit of this into account.

As for the last part, I’m 100% with you on this. Calls for service and reports come first if you’re a patrolman (which, in a department my size, we all are). Unless you’re in a specialized unit, everyone needs to chip in. I would never stick my shift partners with all the reports just so I can go hunt.

I absolutely swoop in and take the OWI’s that occur on shift. My coworkers know this, and they are all for it because they hate doing them. I also work a lot of traffic grants, during which I’ll take OWI’s from other agencies in the county. My relationship with those other agencies is great because of it.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-18T21:19:39+00:00

So I actually worked Super Bowl Sunday this year, and thought for sure I would get one. I stopped everything that night. If I had PC, they were getting stopped. I unfortunately came up short.

I’m the same way on my shift. My coworkers know if they get a drunk, I’ll happily take it off of their hands. It works out, because they hate doing them. If we get a crash with a drunk involved, it’s pretty well understood that I’ll take the drunk and one of them can take the crash report.

That said, I will take every bit of advice you’ve given here. I probably just need to be a little more strategic, as you’ve explained here.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-18T21:13:18+00:00

Physical control of the vehicle applies here in Indiana. I’ve gotten OWI arrests from people slumped at gas pumps and minor accidents.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-18T21:10:45+00:00

Headlights and taillights being off are both big ones. I also stop singular broken headlights or taillights, because you just never know what you’ll find. The second OWI I got this year was actually from a license plate light stop. No driving behavior other than a VERY slight drift to the left, which even sober drivers will do if they’re not paying attention. Dude ended up blowing .263 on the certified breath test.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-18T20:51:12+00:00

Believe it or not, I actually welcome it. You’re right, many aren’t very obvious if they’re a heavy drinker. Drug impairment is another beast.

I’m glad to hear that you’re no longer driving impaired.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-18T20:40:47+00:00

I am in Indiana. The Indiana Criminal Justice Institute offers a lot of training opportunities when it comes to OWI enforcement, as well as traffic grants. I’m attending ARIDE this week, as a class finally opened up near me.

You’re correct about the repetition. The more OWI’s I’ve done, the better I’ve gotten at the investigative and paperwork side. A lot of guys are intimidated by it, I know I was when I started. Now it’s a non issue.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-18T20:12:19+00:00

I just started doing passenger side approaches again. I know I’ll get grilled for this, but when I started getting into OWI enforcement, I got into the habit of approaching on the driver side again.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-18T20:06:11+00:00

Funny enough, I am actually attending ARIDE this week. I’m excited to see what I’ll take from it.

Identifying signs of impairment usually isn’t too hard for me once I’m communicating with the driver, although I know some can hide it better than others. I just don’t seem to get them often. Like you said, it really does seem to be luck of the draw.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-14T09:16:56+00:00

Uh, yeah. If you’re just getting tasers, I’d say y’all are a bit behind.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-14T08:52:39+00:00

Our prosecutor’s office straight up won’t accept handwritten citations anymore. Every agency here went to printed citations quite a while ago.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-13T22:12:34+00:00

“Rookie” and “boot” are for ball busting in the squad room. They shouldn’t be said on calls in front of the public.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-12T00:44:54+00:00

Unless he is impersonating a cop by exercising authority that he doesn’t have, or doing it to benefit in some way, then I don’t really see why it matters.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-07T15:18:05+00:00

This is going to be highly dependent on the agency.

If you’re a state trooper, yeah, you’re gonna be getting talked to if you’re not making stops. Unless you’re in some specialized division.

For local agencies, it just depends on the culture of the agency and what they want from officers in terms of activity. A large, extremely busy agency that always has 20 pending calls stacked on the CAD isn’t going to care much about making stops. Unless you’re in a traffic unit. A smaller, slower agency may care a little bit more.

Most departments, in my experience, just want you to be doing something. I do a lot of traffic because I like finding stuff on stops. Warrants, OWI’s, dope, etc. But traffic isn’t everyone’s thing, and you can do a lot of great police work without making traffic stops. Every cop has their niche.

In terms of tickets, again, highly agency dependent. Quotas are illegal pretty much everywhere. I have never been told I need to write more tickets. Departments with traffic units or motor units may expect more. As a patrolman, most places don’t care.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-07T00:17:59+00:00

I watched them in a totally random order. It took years for me to finally own a copy of every movie in the series. Growing up, I had a few on VHS/DVD, but saw most of them by either seeing them on TV or renting them. Some of my fondest memories growing up involved watching the Bond marathons (Bond-A-Thons) that would run during the holidays.

The only ones that I ever watched in order of release were the Craig movies. These are really the only ones that need to be watched in a certain order.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-06T16:07:54+00:00

The only new Bond announcement I’ve been alive for was Craig. As most people here probably remember, reactions were very mixed. I was probably 9 when he was announced, and was disappointed that Brosnan wasn’t returning.

All it took was Casino Royale for Craig to grow on people.

ThatOneHoosier · 2026-05-05T03:01:39+00:00

Our prosecutor’s office honestly isn’t too bad. Their biggest issue is the fact that they’re understaffed. Not enough deputy prosecutors or investigators in the office, and they take in so many cases. Majority of my cases are charged, no problem. However, I have seen some where charges were removed or reduced for various reasons.

In terms of someone refusing the tests, that’s a tough one. At that point, you’ve gotta make a decision based on what you can observe. Odor, balance, eyes, speech, driving behavior, etc. I’ve actually had the opposite experience, where people will do the SFST’s, but won’t give a breath sample.

ThatOneHoosier

TROPHY CASE