"I like being out here (patrolling the district by car). That's where I live right there. (Captain Joseph Zaffino drives by his home in the 7th district) I have ripped this house up from top to bottom. I built that little shed in the back there. I use this little track right here for running.
The nice thing is, I live in the district. So when I go in a car and I go out, I come across a lot of my guys. They know that I live in the district. I'm right here, I care about what goes on in every nook and cranny of this place. When I go out to get milk, I'm constantly looking around because I'm responsible (for this district). Even though I'm off duty, I'm still looking. Just the other day I was coming home from a BBQ and I had my wife in the car with me, I was on Worthington Road. I happened to look at the chruch and I saw a latter against one of the houses and I saw two feet falling into the house! And I'm thinking, this is a burglary in process. So I get on my phone and I said, hey send me a couple cars up here, I think I just saw a burglary in process. I just saw a set of legs falling into one of the rooms. It turned out the father had gone out for the day. His kid was locked out of the house and the kid climbs up and breaks into his own house. This had a good outcome but as I was saying, you're always looking.
This is what I've always wanted to do, be a cop.
My older brother, Dominic, he's 53, he's in major crimes. My younger brother, Rob is in the 15th district, he's 37. My son is espiring to be a trooper.
Does it make you nervous?
I'm not nervous for myself, but I'm nervous for him. When you start thinking about the 5 officers that we've lost over the past few years. Even though I work inside, I worked the street for 22 years of my 27 year career. Yeah there's times that you get nervous and if anyone ever tells you they don't get nervous, they're lying. It's just the way it is. I'm nervous for my son. I have experience, I know how to handle myself. You worry about these young kids, just coming on the job and you hope they don't experience things the hard way. I was lucky, I went through 27 years, I only got hurt a couple of times. I've had a pretty healthy career. There's always a potential for violence, and that's just the nature of the job. So the nervousness will be there regardless of where my son is."
2 comments:
Another excellent story! Do you pick the people or are you assigned?
The photo stories are my own personal project, I chose the stories and conduct the interviews. I'm still working out the kinks of interviewing and shooting at the same time, any advice?
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