Last Friday morning ceremonies were held to honor graduates from San Miguel's Police Academy. The occasion also served to show off a bunch of new police gear recently purchased by the city.

The graduating cadets are destined to become members of our Preventative Police. You can tell who the Preventative Police are because they're the ones with the guns. The other group present was the traficantes—traffic cops. Their holsters contain screwdrivers—for removing license plates from illegally parked cars.

Festivities got off to the usual slow start, everyone waiting—and waiting—for the brass to show up. This traficante, long experienced in delays of this kind, used the downtime to attend to a couple of personal hygiene issues.



OK. I know that's a cheap shot. But look, in these days of cellphone cameras, everyone is doing it, and besides, our traficante is much more circumspect than this Russian cop:



Oh, Jeez, Boris. Get your hand out of there! (Let this be a lesson to you: Be careful who you shake hands with.)

The graduating cadets, less inured to delays, found other ways to amuse themselves.



Bored myself, I asked these young officers to smile. In response, Cadet Deciderio made faces. The cop on the left lost it just after I snapped the photo.

Finally the Mayor arrived and ceremonies got underway. We were all looking forward to a timely finish when one of the Mayor's constituents insinuated herself into the picture with some complaints.



The cameraman and a bystander are cracking up. The guy on the right is taking notes: "Yes, Ma'am. Of course, Ma'am. No, we won't forget, Ma'am."

You can tell she's not buying it. The mayor might run for the Senate in another couple of years. He's gonna have to work hard for her vote. My advice to him: It wouldn't hurt to lose the cigarette-hiding-behind-the-back trick. It sure isn't fooling her.

After the abuela let the Mayor go, everybody lined up to get this thing over with. The high and mighty in the Police department came to attention, more or less.



The Generalissimo there on the left is the Chief of Police. He is so exalted he doesn't even need to shine his shoes. The officer with the radical cuffs is Director of the Police Academy. He looks like a can-do guy to me. Confidence-inspiring.

The cadets wiped the silly expressions off their faces, formed up and came to attention as well.



A few new Robocops, resplendent in body armor, proudly bearing their white "training" batons, with their pink plastic "training" pistols properly holstered, joined the ranks.



I'm guessing we're deploying them in case things get out of hand at San Miguel's running of the bulls this year. Let's see, 50,000 drunk teenagers, a handful of Robocops. I think I'd call in sick that day.

The cadets were becoming restive, standing at attention, so the Academy Director made them run around the block.



This new generation of police takes itself seriously.

Officer Tovar, in her "one-size fits-most" hat.

As the Mayor pointed out in his address to those assembled, our cops by and large are free of corruption. Times have changed. Today we have a professional police department bent on serving the public; not a band of government-sanctioned extortionists.

The cadets exude determination to be good cops. They haven't become disillusioned and I hope they don't.



Everytime I become jaded about our police, I run across a picture of some Eastern European cop, and I'm reminded to be grateful for the ones we have.

—§—

The city seems to have good funding this year. Nor did the outgoing administration steal everything that wasn't nailed down, so there was money for all kinds of police goodies. We got some new pickup trucks, a couple of new motorcycles and a couple of new patrol cars.



"Hand up... to request your right of way." I think this is intended to assist pedestrians, who presently are treated as fare game (Oops. That's fair game) by many drivers. Could this be a little police humor?

We got lots of new walkie-talkies, without which no traficante can properly function.



We got spiffy new bicycles, important in our congested streets.



But do you think they'd let those enthusiastic young officers ride them away? Nooo. They might scratch them or something. Better to load them up in one of the new pickups and take them back to HQ. With an officer in the bed to keep them from rattling around. Safety first.



Traficantes can be serious, too. More women are joining the police, and their presence seems to temper all of the officers. I'm finding both men and women to be more competent and helpful, and I read that experience shows they are pretty much immune to the lure of corruption, and serve as examples to the men.

Finally the celebration was over. Time to go back to work.



OK. Refreshments first. Then back to work.