A Day in the Life of a Morganton Public Safety Officer
The life of a Public Safety Officer, or PSO, is never dull! Public Safety has the privilege of being able to provide both professional law enforcement and fire services to the community. Our patrol units work a rotating schedule with every other weekend off. We currently have permanent shifts, so you will either be assigned to day shift or night shift once you get done with Field Training and the Fire Academy.
Your day starts at headquarters having a shift meeting with your platoon. Whether you are on days or nights determines what time of day this “family meeting” takes place, either before the sun comes up, or as it is going down. It’s a good time to share information, crime trends, or pass along any other information your Sergeant and Lieutenant feel is important. You will be assigned a district, any special tasks for the day, and then everyone is released to go patrol.
Once again, depending on which shift you work determines how your day flows. Day shift is usually more busy in the afternoon, picking up around lunchtime and staying steady until it's time to go home. Your day is filled with patrolling school zones, taking calls for service, working wrecks, speaking with the community, checking businesses and paperwork. Night shift typically starts out pretty busy with calls for service and eventually slows down once everyone starts going to sleep. That can be a “normal bedtime” or what most people would consider early morning, especially on the weekends. While the community is still awake, you may respond to the same types of calls that day shift does, and you will see more calls where people aren’t getting along, fights, suspicious people and vehicles, and calls involving drugs and alcohol. It really does change day to day, and there is no expectation for normalcy. In the wee hours of the morning, many PSOs get out and foot patrol with their district partner and check businesses while others work on finishing up their paperwork.
In between your calls and tasks for the day, you have options. What does that mean? It means you can work on things you are interested in when you aren’t answering calls. The time is yours to make the most of, depending on what you are interested in. That can include traffic enforcement, warrants, community engagement, investigation follow up, training or any other activity that furthers the mission and vision of the department. If the fire tones go off, you stop what you are doing and go! After a quick wardrobe change, you are now a firefighter. Don’t worry, we will teach you how to make this transition quickly! Once you clear a fire call, another wardrobe change is in order back to your law enforcement uniform and gear.
Many PSOs find time during their day to workout. What?! Yes, you can workout on duty at the gym. We encourage it. As both shifts end, the baton is turned over to the next platoon coming in, ready to serve the community for the next twelve hours. The same goal applies for both shifts, go home safely after serving the community with integrity, professionalism, honor, accountability, respect, and equality. If those look familiar, they are! You may have seen them on our main page, because they are the values of our agency and things we display as we interact with the community.
If you would like to see this in real life, because words just don’t do it justice, contact us to do a ride-along! We will assign you a PSO to ride with for a couple hours to get a front row seat to the most interesting profession in the world!
For more information on opportunities within the department, contact Tim Corriveau, Professional Standards Captain at tcorriveau@morgantonps.org.
