Last week I had two homicides in a 6 day period, both gun shot victims. I never thought I could adjust to seeing someone fade away right before my eyes so easily. There's something about the level of professionalism between my coworkers that rubs off on me, and doesn't allow me to get emotionally attached to whatever case comes our way.

Unfortunately I'm starting to see this same level of emotional detachment carry on with me in my personal life. Lately I've been prejudging everyone I come across and I place them in 3 categories. Citizens, Cops, or Criminals.

• Citizens - This group fits 60% of the general public. This group of people work for what they want, and despise doing anything "criminal."
• Criminals - This is group of people take up of 30% of the public. Lie, cheat, steal - hell this group of people will do whatever it takes to get what they want. In contrasts, I really appreciate this group of people. Criminals are nothing more but job security, and without them - I'd have no career.
• Cops - This is the group I'm the most fond of (for obvious reasons). The 10% of indiviuals who decided they didn't want to be criminals, and for some odd reason were too arrogant enough to settle for being citizens. Again, without criminals - this group of people are worthless. Thank God for crime.

A senior officer at my department told me on my 1st night of working midnights "son, during the day there are 3 types of people on the street. Citizens, criminals, and cops. After 1AM there's 2 types of people on the street....criminals, and cops." So far I'm in my 4th week of working midnights, and it's sad to say he's correct. It's rare that I run into a regular law abiding citizen walking down the street at 3:24AM in the morning. Possible, absolutely. Rare, yes indeed.

Final Thoughts: Ask anybody on my shift, including my Sergeant what do I enjoy to do the most. You'll get a simple reply - "footchase." I don't know what it is, but I love a foot chase. The adernaline, the risk factor, the tunnel vision, everything that comes along with it gets me excited. So far I've had about 10 footchases. Every chase but 1 ended with a positive result. It's gotten to the point where a couple of the local criminals call me "trackstar." In the beginning I didn't like the name because I took it as a diss, but now that my Sergeant and other officers recognize me for being the fastest on our shift. So now I've embraced the name and welcome it with open arms.

Arrogance always take over me. Now when I approach a corner of 5+ guys, I ask - "so who's gonna make me earn my paycheck today?"