Re: Bosch rides again

On 2025-07-10 1:27 PM, BTR1701 wrote:

On Jul 10, 2025 at 8:22:43 AM PDT, ""Adam H. Kerman"" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:
 

BTR1701 <no_email@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>

. . .

>

Yes, LAPD reserves have full police powers. I actually looked into signing
up as a reserve when I retired but with my deteriorating knees, I'd never
be able to do the 1.5-mile run up to their standards.

>
I didn't know that was a thing. Is it like Army Reserves or the National
Guard, that you have to report for weekend training every so often to
maintain skills, and that you can get deployed when ordered to?

 Not really. They're like a force multiplier. You basically get to choose your
division and if I remember right, you have to work a minimum of three
days/week but you get to choose which days. But when you're working, you're a
full-fledged officer just like any other LAPD cop.
 I was surprised to find there's no upper age limit. As long as you can
complete their abbreviated police academy, you can be a reserve. I could get
through everything with no problem except the run. I basically can't run
anymore. Which is ironic because the doc tells me it was all the running I did
in the past 25 years to keep in shape for my fed job that has turned my knees
into the wreck they are today.

Actually, that doesn't surprise me at all. One of my friends at university was an avid runner. She'd go out for a good run at least every day; I don't know if she ever stayed home because of the weather. She ended up marrying a guy she met in residence and he ended up moving to London (Ontario) where I was living at the time so he became my optometrist. She worked in his office part time so I kept up with her that way. Anyway, on one occasion, I went in for my annual eye exam and asked about Linda, who wasn't working that day. Her hubby told me that she was really bummed because she couldn't run any more. She'd been having problems because she'd worn out at least one hip and had to have it replaced. Initially, she'd been under the impression that she'd be able to run again after the surgery but that turned out to be wrong. She was really disappointed because she really loved running but gradually made her peace with it.
I could get knee replacements but that seems

like a lot of pain and expense to go through just to run again. I'm fine with
normal day-to-day walking, so I don't see the need for major surgery. And I
have a rowing machine to do cardio that doesn't impact my knees at all.
 

One of my more recent work colleagues had knee replacements a couple of years ago. She'd been an avid gardener before the surgery but the new knees meant she couldn't garden any more. She was strictly forbidden from kneeling since doing so would apparently destroy the replacement knees. It seems to me that they've still got to do some work to perfect these joint replacements so that you can do everything you want to do in them.

In the tv series, are the reserve officers working full time on specific
cases and when the case concludes, they are off duty with no specific
call up expected?

 Haven't watched the show but in the book, they're all volunteers. It's a cold
case squad and they each pick a case out of the archives of all the old
unsolved cases and work on it. They're only required to work one day per week
but most come in more often because they're all retirees or people with
nothing else to do, so they treat it like a full-time job.
 

I'm six episodes into the series and it isn't clear exactly how much each person works although it certainly appears that all of them are working full time. Given that there are plenty of cold cases to work, I can't see how they'd ever have to worry about not having any work to do. Mind you, the cold case squad in the series is brand new and largely dedicated to solving a specific cold case - a 25 year old murder of a city councilman's sister - so there's lot of political pressure on them to focus on that one case while Ballard and crew are simultaneously trying to solve others. There are also regular threats to shut down the unit if it doesn't solve the councilman's sister's case. Obviously, ALL of their jobs are in jeopardy if that happens.
Whether all of this is realistic is not completely clear to me but it seems plausible enough as you watch the show.
--
Rhino