After 15 years with the Birmingham Police Department and one year in Iraq, Sergeant Ted Ludvik has called Pell City home for three years. I sat down with him before the ride-along and he covered many different topics. The following are excerpts from the conversation.

Police in General

– “There are three types of cops: guys that shouldn’t be cops at all, guys that work hard everyday to continually get better and born cops who always click on all cylinders.”

– “A lot of cops can be reclusive because they deal with the worst parts of society at work and afterwards they just want to be left alone.”

Time in Iraq

– “I helped with Iraqi police firearm and SWAT team training. Iraq was just like here; it could go from boredom to sheer terror in an instance.”

Crime

– “Crime is about the same during the year; it’s just that the call types are different. In the winter people don’t go out of the house as much so the number of domestic dispute calls go up. You also have the big holidays with in-laws and the bills piling up.”

– “You’re usually not going to get a DUI driver in the middle of the day, just like you’re not likely to get a bank robbery at night.”

– “Most of the calls at night are alcohol- or drug-related.”

– “With the high gas prices, you have to expect more gas stealing and drive offs.”

2008 Pell City Block Party

– “We had one missing child report, but the child had just moved from one group of the family to another. A couple of calls cleared it up. We also had one person with chest pain and one with asthma problems that left by ambulance.”

– “One thing that keeps things like the block party safer is the lack of alcohol. It keeps everyone in a festive, non-violent mood.”

Growth

– “The consensus in the department is that we hope the city keeps up with the growth of the city. You can’t have a population boom without raising the numbers of officers on the street. Our calls have probably doubled in the last six to eight years but our officers haven’t increased.”

SWAT

– “Our SWAT program just started in January. The team will be busier because our narcotics guys are doing such a great job. Now that Mayor Adam Stocks got us a SWAT budget, the officers won’t have to spend their own money for gear. I probably have $4,000 of my own money in SWAT gear.”

– “A barricaded gunman, or serving a high-risk warrant would be a SWAT situation. It’s a very delicate process to determine whether or not to use the SWAT team.”

Profiling

– “Profiling has been taken out of context by political correctness. It’s really just using common sense. We don’t profile, we do use common sense.”

Tickets

– “We’re not here to just put people in jail. Tickets are intended to modify driving behavior. Processing a DUI takes two to three hours. The bonds man will be there by the time I get my reports done.”

– “Wrecks are not really accidents. Someone’s always negligent.”

– “Drivers must maintain a safe and prudent speed. If there is an extremely heavy fog and you’re doing the speed limit, say 35, but you should be doing 10, you can get a ticket.”

Responsibility

– “Society has become a ‘it’s not my fault’ society. No one wants to take responsibility for his or her actions. You see guys on the TV show COPS that steal a baited car. The cars are planted and meant to shut off after being stolen. The cops get the guy out and he says ‘I didn’t do it, it’s not my fault.’”

Police Car Video Recorders

– “All the officers love the tapes. People think if they come in and complain their case will mysteriously disappear. If someone lies and says the officer acted inappropriately during a traffic stop, all we have to do is go to the tape and it clears everything up.”

Tasers

– “One taser is $600, but it’s one of the best inventions for police officers. It has saved a lot of officers and citizens. There has never been a proven case of a taser death.”

Another reminder to drive defensively—toward the end of the interview with Ludvik, a man came in to get his papers after the bail bondsman got him out. He apparently received a DUI the previous night and this is what he said. “I’m glad I got pulled over because I was as drunk as a dog. I never would’ve made it home. By the way, do you [speaking to Ludvik] know where they got me?”

Ludvik tells him it was around Wal-Mart. “Huh,” the man said. “ I must have been going to get something to eat. Then again, I might have been trying to find my way home,” he laughed.