If your idea of police work comes from TV, you might picture officers cruising around waiting for something exciting to happen. Lights, sirens, dramatic music, problem solved in 40 minutes.

Real life looks a little different.

On average, our officers handle 1,100+ calls for service each month. That includes everything from car crashes and theft reports to shots fired, suspicious activity, welfare checks, and the occasional “there’s a rabid raccoon wandering around outside my door” situation.

But responding to calls is only part of the job. During an officer’s shift, they are also working community events, attending required training, giving safety presentations, speaking at schools and local organizations, directing traffic, testifying in court, following up on investigations, and the list goes on. Most of this happens during the same day, in between answering calls for service.

And then there’s the paperwork.

Every call, yes, every single one, requires documentation. Reports, supplementals, incident logs, statements, evidence entries… it adds up quickly. Some weeks, the paperwork multiplies faster than those mystery socks in your dryer. But unlike the socks, the paperwork won’t disappear. It just waits patiently. Judging you.

So if you see an officer parked somewhere typing away, they’re not ignoring the world. They’re catching up on the last call, the call before that, and the one that came in while they were still finishing the first report.

Policing isn’t just what you see driving around town. A lot of the job happens in between the calls, usually behind a keyboard, with cold coffee and an unfinished report.

Because the real story doesn’t fit into a 40-minute episode.

Stay tuned for more Behind the Badge: Weekly Insights into Policing, where we break down common questions and misconceptions about how policing actually works.