Vanowen Division: Diary of a Boot

By Geneva A. Smith

This book is about my days as a rookie on the Los Angeles Police Department. I worked morning watch, which is really graveyard. I saw and experienced different things. No two nights were exactly alike. I saw how police were when no supervisor was around. I saw how police talk about one another behind their backs. They were very self-centered, and some didn't care to hear backup calls. At code 7 (lunchtime), some would turn off their rovers so as not to hear distress calls. They didn't want to be disturbed. This book is based primarily on these facts. Only a few things have been changed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781503599147

Geneva A. Smith

Geneva A. Smith was born in Texas to both parents and a little five-and-a-half-year-old sister named Carol. They had an older brother named Ira, who was grown, married, and away from the home. A few years later, her parents divorced. In a few more years, her sweet mother remarried to a man Geneva, and Carol called him Mr. Aaron instead of dad. The family decided to move to Dallas but stopped in Trinity, Texas, for a vacation. They stayed in a cute little cottage beside a lake. Later, Geneva's mother, sister, and herself moved from Dallas to another big Texas city. Geneva graduated high school and became restless. One day, she was listening to Johnny Mathis records and hit on the idea of moving to California and becoming a singer. Her mother was all for the idea. They moved to California to stay. Geneva wanted to sing the type of songs like Johnny Mathis. She took numerous lessons, but then other things interested her as well. She drove to Boston and studied wresting with the late Killer Kowalski. She joined the Air Force Reserves and then the Los Angeles Police Department. This is her journal.

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Copyright © 2016 by GENEVA A. SMITH.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-5144-7015-2

      eBook         978-1-5035-9914-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Names, characters, and places are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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.

Rev. date: 11/03/2016

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Special thanks to my mother, Mrs. Amie E. Banks for her sweetness and dedication to my ambition of becoming a Los Angeles Police Officer. Thanks for the many mornings she got up early to fix my breakfast and lunch when I was a Crime Prevention Assistant and a recruit in the Police Academy. Thanks for her encouragement when times were rough.

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It was 29 April 1984. I started my first day as a Rookie with the Los Angeles Police Department. My division was Vanowen Division located in the San Fernando Valley.

On this first day, I was very excited and eager to see what it would be like to be a real officer and handle some real civilian problems. It felt good to get away from the simulated situations that they had in the Police Academy.

I entered the back door of the police station with my 999 key. I didn’t know where anything was so I decided to follow the hallway and see where it led. It led me to a property room as the first room. I hadn’t passed anyone in the hall, so I went in.

As I entered the property room, I saw one of my Academy class mates. It was Aaron Marrs. He was a red head with glasses. He had been a very nice young man in the class. I was glad he had been assigned to the same Division.

Hello, Gina, he said as he saw me come into the room.

Hello, Aaron. I came to get a locker and get situated. I’m so happy to be finally getting started as a police officer after six months of physical torture in the Academy.

Oh, it wasn’t so bad.

That’s easy for you to say. You could run. We both laughed at that remark. I was always one of the stragglers in the extreme back of the class on a class run.

This is the man you see to get situated, Aaron said as he pointed to the officer behind the cage in the property room. He’s Officer Miller and he’ll give you your locker key. I will see you at roll call in thirty minutes. The room is across the hallway. Aaron then left the room with his uniform on a hanger.

I turned to Officer Miller who was standing there with a big warm and friendly smile on his handsome face. What a fantastic first impression of police officers. I had no idea of the hurt and disgust that lay in store for me at Vanowen Division.

Hello Officer Miller. My name is Gina Smythe. I guess I see you for a locker assignment.

Welcome aboard Gina. I will give you locker 224.

Thanks, I said and signed a sheet with names of locker assignments he had thrust in front of me.

Now, where is the locker room? I asked. He pointed with his thumb to his right.

That’s it right next door. And don’t be late for roll call. They don’t like that. Especially in a boot.

What? A boot? I asked, being completely lost by that term used in this sense.

It’s another name for Rookie, he informed me.

So that’s what I am. I like Rookie better. Thanks, I said as I left to get into my uniform. I found my assigned locker and began to dress in my new uniform. After about ten minutes, several other women came into the locker room. I thought for sure they would speak. No one said a word to me. They didn’t even talk to each other. I thought it was very strange. Weren’t these people friendly to each other? What a sharp contrast to the locker room at the Academy which always had a lot of noise and excitement. I finished dressing in silence just like the rest of that strange ensemble. When I finished, I took my black equipment bag and clip board to the roll call room. I sat up front where Rookies, excuse me, ‘boots’ sat, and waited for the show to begin. Finally the room was full and roll call was ready to begin.

As I looked around the roll-call room, I saw a bunch of jaded and nonchalant police officers. Perhaps they had been on the force too long or the excitement of living had dwindled from their lives.

I sat up eager and very attentive. The other young ‘boots’ were in the same posture. They were freshly out of the Academy and were not jaded yet. It was very new to us and we couldn’t wait to experience life as real Los Angeles Police Officers. We were occupying the first and second rows of the roll call room because we weren’t experienced enough to sit in the middle or back yet.

As the Sergeants came into the room, they sat up front at the desks facing us. They were shuffling papers and seemingly ignoring the chatter in the room from the ‘experienced’ officers. I thought the room would be silent once they walked in. Wrong!! They were treated as though they were invisible. I saw no signs of respect paid to the Sergeants. One of the Sergeants finally spoke up.

Alright, listen up. This was his way of calling the room to order. The chatter toned down and my Academy classmate Aaron Marrs smiled very broadly.

Well, this is it, he said. We take down our first official information. He was referring to the information on the latest suspects, stolen vehicles and other crimes in our area. We had out our field officers notebooks to write down the information. I divided my page into three sections. They were headed CRIME, SUSPECTS and VEHICLE, for easy reference. The Sergeant who spoke was a young Buck Sergeant. He had just been promoted to Sergeant a little before I started at that division. I also found out later that a lot of the officers did not like him. He was an Italian named Sgt. Guido. He seemed to think he was a real stud. NOT!! He seemed very shallow and as I came to know him better as time wore on, I found him to be a rude loud mouth. He would come into my face and make a remark about my makeup. He did not say it was too much or too little.

Did you have fun with that eyeliner? was typical of the type of stupid remark he would make. These types of immature remarks were a constant with him everytime he saw me. He became a real pain in the butt.

I have the latest, he began. He then gave us information on seven new crimes. I neatly wrote down each crime and put the information under each heading. Aaron was not as neat as me, but he was very bright. Sgt. Guido then proceeded to give out officer assignments. I was assigned to work with Officer Andy Oscar. We were assigned area 9A49. I turned to Aaron and asked him if he knew anything about my training officer.

He was asking the same thing in the locker room. He wanted to know what you were like. I told him you were smart and very popular in class. He was concerned that he was getting a problem Rookie. He said he didn’t want to work with a female. I left that alone. That’s his problem.

Well, the nerve. There are a lot of us coming out of the Academy these days. He’d better wake up. Times have changed. Just as I finished my remark, an officer walked in. He was short, dark and hairy. He was not attractive even though he had a big smile on his face. He didn’t seem to be bothered at all that he was late for roll call.

That’s him, said Aaron. That’s your training officer.

He seems like he might be nice anyway, I said. I started filling out the top portion of my Daily Field Activity Report. Every minute of our time had to be accounted for starting with roll call. I filled in the appropriate sections while the other officers were being given their Unit assignments.

Do you know where 9A49 is? asked Aaron. I shook my head. Aaron then pulled out a Vanowen Division map and pointed the area out to me. In 9A49 was included the police station.

If I arrest anybody tonight, I won’t have far to bring them, I jokingly said.

When roll call was finished, we lined up in the property room to be issued a shotgun, taser, and rover.

I found it was the Rookie’s job to get all the equipment for both officers of a unit. It was difficult to carry two rovers, a taser, shotgun and my black equipment bag. I managed and in time got it down to an art. We then went outside in the garage area to get our squad car. We found our assigned cars by looking at the numbers on the door. Our car was not in yet. The officers from the previous watch had not arrived. I was surprised to learn that the squad cars are constantly going. When one watch is over, the officers ending their watch just turn the car over to the officers beginning their watch. After about a ten minute wait, they finally arrived. They took their black bags out of the trunk and started to pass me. I told them that Officer Oscar and I were assigned that shop number. They didn’t know me but it was obvious I was an officer. I was handed the keys and at that instant my training officer came into the garage.

Being the Rookie, it was my job to check the unit over. I had to check the unit for dents and scratches. If there were any, I would have to make the Watch Commander aware of them before we left so the Watch Commander would know we did not make them. There were no dents to report. I then thoroughly checked the interior. This check included searching the floor, pulling out the back seat and checking for items left in there from an arrestee. It was also the Rookie’s job to give the shotgun the five point check. It was loaded with 4 shells and locked in position horizontally in front of the front seat. The taser was placed in the glove compartment. My equipment bag and my training officer’s bag were placed in the trunk. I got into the passenger seat and put into the MDC information regarding us. As I was doing this, Officer Andy Oscar was checking the siren and lights. He was going to do the driving so this was what the driving officer did, I thought.

I want to see you do the five point check again, said Officer Oscar. I unlocked the shotgun and got out of the patrol car. I carefully took out the four shotgun shells I had been issued in the academy. I placed each shell, one at a time, in front of my stomach between my Sam Brown and my woolen shirt. I then nervously did the five point check. Officer Oscar watched every move. I felt much more at ease doing it without being watched. Officer Oscar sensed my nervousness.

You’ll get better at it. You did it right but you can do it much much faster. You’ll see. He was still smiling and that helped to keep me at ease.

Our first stop was the gas station across the street from our police station. It was the Police Department’s gas station so we needed no money. We just had to fill out the form on the gas pump. Officer Oscar also checked the oil and water. He then wiped off the windows. While he was doing this, I rechecked the MDC to make sure I had put in all the information and correctly. I checked our names, serial numbers, our shift, (which was referred to as PM watch-1515 Hrs to 2400 Hrs), our rover numbers and shop number. The shop number being the number of the patrol car we were assigned. Officer Oscar finished at the gas station and we took off ready to start our first day together.

The first stop was of course, Winchell’s Donuts. I used to think this was a myth. I got schooled on my first day that this really happens. We stopped at Winchell’s on Van Nuys. We both got out and got coffee. I was hesitant at first but Officer Oscar insisted. We went back to the patrol car to sip our coffee. Officer Oscar then talked some more about my five point shotgun check.

I could tell you knew what you were doing but you were nervous. It was not like you didn’t care, you were just nervous, he stated.

Yes, I was, I said. At that point a little boy walked by the car and told us that a man was lying down in the back. He pointed toward the building by the parking lot. Officer Oscar got out and so did I, with my coffee. We checked the man and found out he was just sleeping and sent him on his way. We got back into the car and Officer Oscar then said, Next time you get out of the car, please leave your coffee.

Okay. I wasn’t thinking. I’m still nervous, I smiled and said.

I know, answered Officer Oscar. We finished our coffee and started on patrol. The rest of the night was very easy going and I started to get relaxed with Officer Oscar (who later insisted I call him Andy), and my new job. I discovered that Andy was not mean at all, but very witty and down to earth. I started to like