Soundings

Mike_Crystal

“Mike” LifeMoves
by Crystal Escolero
[Introduction]
Hi my name’s Mike. Grew up in Santa Clara. Good neighborhood. Decent anyway. Not rich. Not exactly poor. Depends who you ask.
I went straight to work, in a machine shop. That’s when IBM used to give all their jobs to all the little teeny companies in the bay area. So, I had a great job for six months. Next thing I know everyone got laid off and everybody was out of work.
So, then getting a job after that was...you know, I just turned 18. When you turn 18, it’s like “Oh you’re not trying hard enough. Get a job you bum.” And there were no jobs to get. All you can do is find little part time jobs. So, you never make a dime to do anything. Except feed yourself, buy your cigarettes, and drink your beer.
I just got stuck in that realm...

Jennifer_HannahLea

Jennifer Manry Final Podcast Transcript
By: Hannah Nguyen and Lea Zawada
[Typing on keyboards, faint radio chatter, the phone rings.]
JM: 911 emergency. I grew up in a law enforcement family. I was running around the police department since I was born.
[Cue Music]
[Narration:] Jennifer Manry is a dispatcher at the Menlo Park Police Department. She’s just celebrated her 28th birthday. She’s wearing the blue polo of the MPPD and on one of the many screens is a photo of her pug, wearing the same uniform. She grew up listening to exciting stories of cop life.
JM: My dad was a sergeant for 30 years and he was at redwood city police department.
They would tell me stories as i got older.
[Narration:] Like the time he was in a shootout.
JM: The guy was pointing a gun at his pregnant girlfriend and he had my dad on the ground and my dad just took a chance and shot the guy. The only thing he brought home with him was if he had a stressful day you could always tell. He was a little bit quieter he was a little bit more short. But I only know that now because I have days like that too.
[Narration:] It felt natural for Manry to work in law enforcement. She was proud of the work her dad did, putting away bad guys.
JM: My dad loved his dispatchers and he appreciated them very much. So was like yah you know talk to a couple of them you know I would do little sit alongs. I remember the first day that I did my first sit along that was something where I was like this is fricken awesome. So after that I just kept doing little sit alongs and I’m like yep that’s what I wanna do.
[Narration:] She found a job that excited her. It was stressful at first, especially when she was on her own for the first time.

John_LewisRyan

Intro
Hook: Cascade of 911 What’s Your Emergency sound bites.
If you ever call 911, you’re probably in a bit of a panic, and don’t really care who answers as long as they answer quickly
Ambient noise from police HQ
Menlo Park Police this is John. (1. 05:00)
When a call comes in, John answers.
My name is John Murphy. I work for the Menlo Park Police Department. I am a dispatcher here. I have been in this field for 28 years. (1. 00:00)
Ambient noise from Police HQ.
Act I: Spring Romantic ideal
Call comes in: Language/Stress
Music/Hum of John and Office.
He takes the call. If necessary, he uses a 10-code language to dispatch patrolman. I have no idea what’s going on, but John explains,
There is a whole 10 code 11 code. He said 1186 means he is making a traffic stop in the 800 block of Sharron Park Drive. She recorded the location and told him to go to the licence plate. That is what he did and he gave a color of the vehicle he stopped. That officer just said I’m 10-8 I’ll be in route to Robert 50. 10-8 means I am done with what I’m doing and he is going to the other officer to help out. (1. 03:00)
Even when John’s not on a call, he is always “on”. His shift is always one call away from someone’s crisis.
You just don’t know what’s going to happen next. (2. 29.18)

Eddie_Matt

Final Script - Matt Klein
START
Its been pretty active with home burglaries and stuff like that - so we are going to do some supression, make contacts, stuff like that - do some traffic enforcement - {pause} see what happens
Eddie’s an officer with the menlo park police department- We start the day by going to a recent hotspot for crime. We park and idle in a shady spot near an intersection and eddie begins to size up each car that drives by. He’s looking for suspicious vehicles and probable cause to pull them over.
We pull over a chevy impala for having excessively tinted windows. Eddie tells me to stay in the cruiser so I watch him slowly approach the car- he waves and smiles at the grandma in the back seat, talks to the driver of the car for a couple of minutes-
Suddenly he runs back to the cruiser, jumps in and we zoom off

Eddie had seen a suspicious SUV fly by us with tinted windows and no license plates, so he gave the first vehicle a warning, and we chase after the SUV
We pull them over, but It turns out that they had just hadn't put their license plates on, so eddie gives them a warning and we head back out on the road

I've worked at menlo park since 2013 - i was a community service officer first - then the position opened up for a police officer - went through the academy - and i've been on patrol as a menlo park police officer for almost two years now
Eddie’s a young cop, but his instincts and reactions are quick and almost veteran like. I asked him how they trained him for that and he said they didn't. His training officer just threw him into it.
Alright you want to swim? Okay no lessons you are going straight into the water. And you kind of learn that way.