A Well Planned BBQ

I was reminded of one of the best BBQ’s ever a while ago. My Bishop emailed me a short note that Sunday was Father’s Day and that it might be wise to hold off scheduling extra meetings in the afternoon after church. I hit the reply function and asked him if we were still on for the BBQ at his house; something that had never been discussed.

Back when I was working downtown for the PD I would sit through roll call each day prior to hitting the street. Most everyone has watched a television show that depicts the process; a semi-formal assembly where the police supervisors read important internal bulletins, assign officers to various beats and in general make an accounting for the beginning of the shift. After each bulletin was read the supervisor in charge would initial the page to officially indicate that it had been distributed to the troops, a process that would be carried out for three days consecutively to insure that each officer had heard it at least once.

One such internal bulletin was an invitation from our Captain to a division wide BBQ to be held at his home. Lots of officers along with their families, showed up for the festivities on the appointed day. It was interesting to hear about the Captain pulling into his driveway as he returned from his vacation with all those folks at his house. The official departmental investigation was unable to determine the source of the hoax bulletin, the one that had been signed by every supervisor for three days in a row on every shift. That has to go down as the best BBQ session ever; not the one at the Captain’s house, the one that went on in the Captain’s office. Smoke was coming out from under the door as each supervisor was grilled in the days that followed. Did I mention that when an officer got called to the office for almost any reason it was called a BBQ?