Jafr: The Girl Behind the Badge

By Cheryl Choate

Can you believe this? The suspect is a DEA agent? He went ballistic and murdered his ex girlfriend in front of her family? Want to hear the best part? The victims boyfriend was hiding in the closet and saw the whole thing.

My hands grew clammy and I thought I was going to throw up the dinner I had just eaten prior to getting this call. That was the night I was assigned to work a special detail with the homicide detectives to help search for a murder suspect. I had to stay in cop mode, even though all I wanted to do was go home. Would I ever see my daughters again? Why hadnt I listened to my father? I was just a single, divorced, young mom with two daughters at home who needed me. This wasnt even my full time job! What was I doing? But I knew I had an obligation to my family to dig deep and stay strong and focused in order to go home alive!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524604271

Cheryl Choate

Cheryl Choate was a Reserve Police Officer for almost 20 years in Southern California. She was the only female to graduate from her Police Academy during a time when women were just starting to be welcomed into law enforcement. It was her biggest challenge to graduate from the academy and then work alongside full time officers for all those years. Being a Reserve Officer, Cheryl had the distinct advantage of viewing police work from both sides; as a civilian and a police officer. Cheryl, her older brother and her younger sister were raised by their single father in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in the late 60's and 70's when it was unheard of to not have a mom in the household. She learned to be independent and gained confidence and strength from her Dad. She is now retired from the Police Department and resides in Southern California. She has two daughters and two granddaughters. She loves animals and now owns her own Mobile Pet Grooming Business!

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2016 Cheryl Choate. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/01/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5246-0428-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-0427-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016906342

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

About the Book

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Decision – The Beginning

Chapter 2 Me? A Cop?

Chapter 3 Into the Police Academy

Chapter 4 Getting Hired - Making It All Worthwhile

Chapter 5 Training – The Real Nightmare

Chapter 6 Working Alone – Acting Brave

Chapter 7 Fitting In - Buddy or Dating Material?

Chapter 8 Proving Myself – AGAIN!

Chapter 9 Marriage & Divorce – Another Statistic

Chapter 10 Suicides and Funerals

Chapter 11 Earning Respect - Dangerous Encounters

Chapter 12 Balancing Civilian Friends with Cop Friends

Chapter 13 Single Mom VS Being a Cop

Chapter 14 Myths & Accusations – The Truth

Chapter 15 Retirement – When Enough is Enough

About the Book

The story of a young girl from Louisiana, who, at age 22, decided to go into law enforcement as a Reserve Police Officer. Using strength and courage from her unstable past, she was able to graduate from the police academy as the only female in her class. This is her story, after almost 20 years of police experience. She tells you how she handled the many challenges, fears and successes of working in law enforcement from her unique viewpoint; as both a civilian AND as a police officer. An inside view of what it was really like from the hiring process, going through training, to carrying a gun doing actual police work in a man’s world and wondering if you will make it home alive each night!

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Acknowledgments

I dedicate this book to my little sister, Debi Choate Walls. I love you and miss you everyday. I know you would be proud. RIP. ♥

Also, to my two beautiful daughters, Samantha and Kirstie: Thanks for your input and advice over the years, and for always being supportive of your Mom being in law enforcement. I love you both! ♥♥

Special thanks to my fellow author and good friend, Jennifer Evans. Thank you for spending hours patiently guiding me through this process and helping my story come to life! Thank you to my long time friend, Kathy Brennan Baerg, for telling me for years to write this book! You always loved hearing my stories and gave me the inspiration to write them down! And special thanks to Robert Michnick. I couldn’t have done it without you. ♥

In loving memory of my good friend, Mark Stenbo. You gave me the encouragement I needed to be confident in my ability to write this book and convinced me that people would actually be interested in reading it. I am so grateful for our friendship. RIP my friend. ♥

Introduction

What’s a JAFR, you might ask?

Well, it all started back in 1983 when an action/thriller film by the name of Blue Thunder was released. In this movie, the actor, Roy Scheider, portrayed the role of Los Angeles Police Helicopter Pilot, Frank Murphy, who was assigned a rookie observer to ride along with him during his shifts. The role of the observer was to assist in spotting the bad guys on the ground, but in the movie, the rookie could barely get his binoculars in focus before the senior officer Frank Murphy would spot the bad guys in action.

On his new observer’s first day, officer Murphy presented the rookie with a baseball cap with the letters JAFO embroidered on the front. The observer periodically asked throughout the movie what the letters meant and officer Murphy always laughed it off.

You’re supposed to be stupid, son. Don’t abuse the privilege, was one of the lines said to the rookie during the movie.

At the very end of the movie, officer Murphy finally revealed what JAFO stood for. Just Another F***ing Observer.

Police officers across the country loved this and began calling Reserve Police Officers JAFR. Reserve officers are volunteer police officers (sometimes paid) who usually ride with a full time officer, assisting in police duties throughout the shift. A lot of officers don’t like this because reserves do the same job for half the pay or sometimes no pay at all. Even though it’s a very difficult and stressful road to become a full time police officer, in their view, it took away from the prestige of their job, and some officers didn’t like this. It also made it easier for Reserve Officers to be hired full time because it was stepping stone into the department. Another plus, because it would bump them up in the hiring process since the supervisors already knew their personality, their work ethic and how they got along with others. In addition, they had already passed the background check and other required tests, so the hiring process was much quicker. But on the flip side, Reserve Officers received much lower pay and no benefits. So it was a big decision to make. I enjoyed being a Reserve, because it gave me the best of both worlds. I could still work Monday through Friday, normal 8am-5pm hours, and be able to take care of my children much easier than becoming a full time officer and working shift work, which changed constantly. Then on the weekends, or other days off, I could work the streets as an officer and help my community in some small way and feel I was making a difference.

Starting in 1982 that’s what I was.

Just Another F***ing Reserve, a role that would last twenty years.

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Chapter 1

The Decision – The Beginning

Growing up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, my brother, sister and I were some of the first latchkey kids I knew and I didn’t even know what the term latchkey meant. Us kids, eighteen months apart with yours truly being the middle child, were raised by a single dad. When I was eight, our mother, wanting freedom and a life of her own, moved from our home in Louisiana to California, some 3,000 miles away.

Even though Dad worked long hours, he was home by the time we returned from school. But since he had to leave for work around 5 am, I took on the role of responsible adult right away, making sure my little sister Debbie, who was only 6 years old, was out of bed so I could fix her breakfast, help her dress, brush her hair and make sure her lunch was made. Then my sister, brother and I would walk the ten blocks to the local elementary school in the hot, humid Louisiana weather.

From a young age, it was evident that I was a tomboy, loving basketball, football, baseball, softball, kick the can, hide and seek and my favorite, Cowboys and Indians. The hide and seek would come in handy later in life as I’d be doing plenty of searching out the bad guys. And the Cowboys and Indians? Well, let’s just say I got pretty good at using a toy gun.

Then, when I was twelve, we received a call from our Mom in California.

Hey, she said. How would you guys like to come spend the summer in California?

Umm, hi Mom, I said. What exactly do you say to a woman who is virtually a stranger? We had only seen her once a year since she had left years prior. Usually just at Christmas.

It’ll be such fun! she said. "We will go to Disneyland, Universal Studios, the beach, the mall, get manicures and pedicures and, oh, my gosh, just wait until you see all the palm trees and expensive