This Sounds Fun Actually

If you can't have fun at work, you aren't trying hard enough:

• Law enforcement are supposed to be people you can trust. But what if I told you getting arrested has turned into something of a game for some Bozeman Police officers? Friday afternoon, a press conference was held at the Bozeman Public Safety Center where this significant issue was discussed.

  “Two teams of patrol officers were engaged in a bingo competition. Where success in the game hinged on whether they engaged on actions listed on the bingo card,” says Bozeman Police Chief Jim Veltkamp, who led the press conference.

Too far? Only if you're manufacturing crime to win the game. Bozeman is handing out suspensions for unprofessional behavior, but no citizens got railroaded for anything.

But it wouldn't be difficult to find a few dozen situations to fill out a Bingo card and have a little competition on the watch:

• find "X" City sticker violations - those are everywhere. In fact, you could probably make up half-a-dozen boxes on the Bingo card for assorted violations, which would just be doing your job;
• same with a few movers if you do traffic stops;
• respond to "xyz" call - provides backup to co-workers and camaraderie on the watch;
• use a certain phrase on the radio - nothing dirty or a violation of FCC rules, but something funny, like a movie quote;
• scavenger hunt type stuff, legal and harmless, like maybe an autograph from the homeless guy that lives under a certain bridge;

We used to do stupid crap like that all the time. We had a list of license plates to run over the air that ran 40 or 50 pages (to piss off dispatchers), some that came back to funny names (yeah, even that one) and another plate that had been programed into LEADS as the Bluesmobile that most dispatchers memorized so they wouldn't be caught reading it over the air. 

It used to be easier to have fun.