OCTOBER ARIZONA TRIP, PART 1

I left Sunday morning to return to the Phoenix area to see my uncle and to also test for the Police Officer Recruit position with the Mesa Police Department. The last trip in September I made to Arizona basically sealed the fact that I am dying to get out of the Orange County / California chaos. However, I’m not working at a job where I can just transfer out to that area, so there’s a little more to it than just putting in for a transfer and picking up and going.

Prior to arriving to my uncles on Sunday afternoon, I stopped off to see if anyone had purchased the house that I had been looking at. Seeing an “available” sign in the window (no pun intended), I drove over to the sales office a few blocks over to see my friend who I had been e-mailing about the house. I was able to do another walk through and saw some of the areas that were in the process of being repaired (a drywall nail went through the main water pipe in the master bathroom shower).

Monday morning I arrived to the Mesa Police Training Facility at 7:30am to begin the testing process. After submitting my application and it being approved allowing me to test, I spent the next several hours at the training facility. The test started a little after 9am and I finished shortly before 11am. I was later told that I passed the written porting of the test and was being scheduled for an oral board interview within the hour.

After quickly changing from shorts and a t-shirt into my suit and submitting my background packet, I was the first applicant of the testing process to go through the oral board selection. Approximately 30 minutes later I returned back to the lobby area and was greeted by the recruitment sergeant and was congratulated on passing the oral board portion of the process.

Tuesday morning I woke up shortly before 5am and reported back to the Mesa Police Training Facility for complete the physical agility portion of the initial testing process. I had mixed feelings about how this was going to turn out. The physical agility testing in Arizona is completely different than what I’ve done in California. It wasn’t the 1.5 mile run that I was afraid of being disqualified for, but rather about the sit-up portion.

A few months back I pinched a nerve in my lower back and I’ve been going to a physical therapist for the pain. A week before the scheduled test my back had been in a lot of pain, especially the extreme lower left side. Needless to say, I was sweating that portion of the test. When I attempted to complete my first one I felt a sharp pain shoot up my back, however, each one there after got less and less painful. After completing and passing the initial physical agility portion of the test I was assigned a background investigator and an interview time for Wednesday, then returned home (or my uncles “spare house” and sat in the Jacuzzi for about an hour.

Wednesday morning I arrived to the Mesa Police Department at 8am and met with my background investigator, where he conducted a formal initial background investigation. After leaving the police department at 12:30pm, I went home, changed, and took a nice long drive around the valley area.

Thursday morning was the day of the polygraph. All week it had been in the back of my mind. A few nights prior in one of the many conversations my uncle and I had sitting in the backyard each evening we had talked about this portion of the process. Basically it was something not to worry about. If you can’t control it or change it, don’t worry about it. Things will work themselves out. Before going to the station, I was able to sleep for over 11 hours and had morning coffee with my aunt before driving back to the house that I’m totally in love with. None of the construction workers were around to talk to, but the front door was unlocked so I took another look around looking at all the completed repairs.

When I finally arrived at the station, I was a little nervous with really sweaty palms (it took 45 minutes to be fingerprinted electronically on the LiveScan machine because my fingers were so wet…that’s another story in itself). My polygraph examiner came out to get me and escorted me to his office. The first hour and a half was an interview, sharing stories and experiences, and learning about his position and education as an examiner. I have never met someone so professional, easy going, and easy to talk to such as this individual. Long story short, by 3:05pm I was done with the polygraph examination. He said that there were still some other tests he had to run on the results, however, he was very confident that I would pass. I was brought to another section of the department and had to complete another portion for the process before finishing at 4pm.

I arrived back to my uncles and packed had headed out of town at 5pm. The drive back was relaxing, quiet, and stress free. I got home just before 11pm and fell asleep.

All in all it was a great trip. I’ll be going back next month just for a short weekend trip to spend some time with my aunt and uncle (and to look at the house again…I really need the stock market to turn around, but then again if it’s meant to happen, it will happen).