By Amber Jurgensen | Associate Editor
Editor’s Note: Plant City Chamber of Commerce Leadership Class is a program where members of the chamber meet monthly to explore different factions and lifestyles of Plant City. Associate Editor Amber Jurgensen is taking the class to better know and understand Plant City.
The roar of laughter woke me from my slumber on Tuesday, Nov. 13. My alarm turned my radio on to my favorite station, on which the deejays were chatting at yet another quirky news story from off the grid. The story involved a Wisconsin man in his seventies who was pointing a radar gun out his parked car window at drivers as they passed, in hopes of stopping speeding in his neighborhood. The only problem with his operation was that drivers thought he was pointing an actual gun at them.
With a call to police, the man was handcuffed before explaining that he had a radar gun, and he was released. Apparently, it’s not illegal to have a radar gun.
That’s about as close as I was going to get to any crime, cops and courts for the day, or at least that’s what I thought before I set out to join my 2012-2013 Chamber of Commerce Leadership class. Our theme for this month was Law Enforcement, Public Safety and Justice. This landed me right in the middle of a courtroom and behind bars…literally.
We set out for the new Plant City Courthouse first. There we took a tour of the facility and were able to attend traffic and family court, getting a personal up close look at the judicial system. I had attended court before as part of my work history with Channel 4 in Jacksonville. But many of my classmates had never seen court in session. Even better, two judges took time to talk to us about their work, the system and operations.
Their perspectives helped reveal problems in the community. Many of those involved in traffic court were driving on a suspended or revoked license, or didn’t have a license to begin with, according to one judge. A large portion of those drivers were migrant workers.
The day continued with a trip to the Plant City Police Department. Once again we were given a tour of the facility where some of the classmates began to clown around; Interrogating each other in the interview rooms, pretending to have our mugshots taken in the booking room, locking each other in the holding cells. But everyone’s favorite part of the police tour was a demonstration with a police dog who performed agility stunts with ease and obedience.
Moving along to the fire station, we had no idea we were going to be put to work. With different stations, the Leadership class got their hands dirty, putting on heavy equipment and tanks, carrying water hoses, raising the over 70-foot ladder, putting out fires with fire extinguisher and pulling a 175-pound dummy named Randy.
Let me tell you, being a fire fighter is tough work. Getting a chance to be in their shoes really brought it into perspective for us.
In fact, being able to see each host site in action gave us a better perspective on how things work and how hard it can be to do certain jobs, such as stay unemotional during family law cases or climb a ladder that seems more like a roller coaster incline than a device to safe people with.
This is what Leadership is all about; Learning about our community and the leaders within it.