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One of 12 new Largo police officers works through her nerves as she answers her first official call, a complaint about a loud stereo.
By AARON SHAROCKMAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 4, 2002
LARGO -- "340 PD, go ahead?"
With that, Haley Seker was a cop. Well, almost.
"Yep," said Paul Amodeo, her training officer, alongside her in the patrol car. She passed the practice test. Now it was time for the real thing.
Seker, 22, held the gray Motorola radio to her lips: "340 PD, go ahead."
Finally, after six months of training, she was a Largo police officer. And in minutes, she'd be answering her first call, a complaint about a loud stereo in a mobile home park.
"I'm nervous," said Seker, black hair slicked back in a ponytail, a rookie with a lot on her mind.
Seker and 11 other recruits officially joined the Largo Police Department Wednesday. Amodeo said 12 new badges and 12 extra pairs of black boots will help police Largo's ever-expanding city limits.
"The city is aggressively annexing," said Amodeo, a field training officer who's riding with Seker for five weeks starting yesterday. "They just keep expanding. And the more officers we have, the better off we'll be."
Last year, Seker thought she'd be prosecuting criminals, not arresting them. She was in law school last fall, but it was boring, not the drama television makes it out to be.
"I'm a very active person," Seker said. "It was a lot of sitting around and doing nothing. It wasn't what I expected."
Seker and the other recruits spent 19 weeks at the police academy and another seven weeks training in Largo before they hit the streets Wednesday afternoon. Seker started with two other rookies, Mike Darrow, 30, and Tim Kelly, 28.
The dispatcher on the other end of Seker's radio sent her to Whispering Pines Mobile Home Park, a routine stop for officers working the "Echo" beat, Amodeo said. For the next five weeks, Seker will get to know the area well, according to Amodeo.
"We'll be spending a lot of time there," he said.
First, Seker needed to know where "there" was.
A map helped. But Amodeo was the true guide. He's been to the park hundreds of times over the past three years. Residents know him by name.
Along the way, crawling through Largo traffic and then through the community with almost as many speed bumps as homeowners, Amodeo quizzed Seker. Where to go? Who to talk to? What to say?
She was ready. Then she knocked on Patricia Tomko's door.
"You could hear the stereo so loud that it took me right out of bed," said Tomko, one of the residents who treats Amodeo like a close friend.
Later, she looked at Seker.
"Are you new?" Tomko said.
Seker nodded her head.
"My 12-year-old, when you see her, she's bigger than you," said Tomko, causing everyone, including Seker, to smile. Seker's Kevlar vest and utility belt couldn't hide her small frame from anyone.
Her pale face couldn't hide the fact that this was her first day, either.
Seker and Amodeo visited the house from which Tomko said the loud music was coming. A teenager said she got a new stereo and was playing it for a couple of minutes. Amodeo asked her to be considerate of the neighbors.
She obliged. That was it. One case, albeit uneventful, was in the books.
Whew.
"They tell you to listen to the radio to hear how officers speak," Seker said. "Well, I did that to get ready. But when you actually do it ... it's a lot different."
Amodeo said Seker handled her first call well.
On the way back to the station, the two saw a car inch through an intersection and turn through a red light.
"Wanna pull 'em?" Amodeo asked.
Seker said she wouldn't mind. But the two decided to let the offenders go.
"Don't worry, there's no shortage of opportunities to pull traffic in the city," Amodeo said.
Seker will have plenty of chances to flip the switch, flash her lights and catch criminals.
She's a cop. Since yesterday.