Column: Mud in my ears

Every newspaper is a little bit different when it comes to listening to police calls.

Some will have the scanner on at all times, some will just turn it on when they hear sirens, and some won't turn it on at all.

I've found there has to be some sort of happy medium, but this was gained from experiencing all three.

The first newspaper I worked at had the scanner going all the time. It was a town much larger than Whitehall and it never stopped. It was almost impossible to get anything done with that thing going off for everything. I would cringe every time someone got pulled over because we would all have to hear it. I honestly thought why do we need to know if someone got pulled over for going five miles above the speed limit, but it happened all day long. It's really hard to concentrate on typing a story when it is literally going off every 10 seconds.

Having it on all the time was a good thing at times. If something big was going down, you would usually know. I memorized the police codes and was ready to fly out the door if something major was happening like a 187 or 207.

On one occasion, I was sitting at my desk and there was a report of a dead body lying in the middle of the road. Within seconds, I grabbed the photographer and went flying out the door and into my car. I ran three red lights and probably committed another 20 violations on the two-mile drive. It turns out there wasn't a dead body, someone had passed out in the road and was long gone before I made it to the location. The poor photographer didn't speak to me for a week after the drive. I will always remember the look of fear on his face as we went flying through the red light of a major intersection. He let out a shriek that I think he was embarrassed by, and that might made me feel bad for a few minutes. On another occasion, I heard a call of a toddler playing on the railroad tracks. I did not want to go, but was told I had to. I didn't think this would end well and wanted nothing do with it. The only way to gain access where the responders were located was to pull of the side of the interstate and walk about a half-mile. It happened to be very muddy that day and by the time I arrived at the scene I had mud up to my thighs. I had on brand new pants and shoes I had received for Christmas, and they were never the same. When I talked to the officer, he informed me it was a dog, not a kid. I had marched through the never-ending stream of quicksand for a stray dog that was still very much alive. They laughed at me when I got back to the office. When I went home that night I found mud in my ears, in fact I was still finding mud for about a month.

At another paper I worked at, the owner would refuse to turn the scanner on. When someone asked him about it, he said "We are not Ambulance Chasers" and that was that. I certainly agree that it's probably a waste of time to go to every wreck or call, but if sirens are going bezerk, it's nice to know what is going on.

We are close enough to the fire hall that we always know when something is going on and will turn on the scanner and determine if we need to go. Sometimes I will zone out at work for a few minutes and when the town siren goes off, it nearly scares me right out of my chair.

Once that goes off it's probably time to turn on the scanner. That siren is the perfect happy medium.