True Detective Stories
By Wyatt Earp | August 5, 2009
“Man it’s hot. It’s like Africa hot. Tarzan couldn’t take this kind of hot.” - Eugene Morris Jerome, Biloxi Blues
The next time someone tells you that the powers-that-be in Philadelphia government really care about police officers, please refer them to this post. I can almost guarantee that after reading it they will shut their collective pie holes. Come to think of it, you can show it to the powers-that-be in the Philadelphia Police Department, too, since they obviously don’t give a rat’s ass about their employees.
Yesterday, I was working the 3pm-11pm shift. It was a hot day – Philly in August is always hot with oppressive humidity – but we have to dress in a professional manner. Long-sleeved shirts, ties, and khakis are the norm. So imagine my surprise when I walked into the division and was punched in the face by brutally hot, stale air.
The air conditioning was out again. Joy.
Now, mind you, this is a common occurrence in our division. The a/c rarely works in the summer, but really pumps out the cold in October. We try to manage the best we can, but it was especially difficult today. According to the thermostat, the temperature inside the squad room was 85 degrees . . . at 9pm. Luckily for us, it only hovered around 83 degrees for the first part of our work day.
So, there we sat, with our long sleeves and ties, sweating into our seats. During the course of the tour, we lost our primary printer, secondary printer, and Xerox machine due to the heat and humidity in the room. It was hardly the best working conditions. The captain, for his part, sent a maintenance requisition to the city, so we should be in air-conditioned comfort by, oh, December!
Update: Here are the high temps in the office for the two days after the one referenced here. Wednesday, August 5th – 86.6 degrees. Thursday, August 6th – A “chilly” 80.2 degrees.
Topics: True Detective Stories | 7 Comments »
time to go follow a few leads somewhere in that air conditioned cruiser.
This all comes along with the new super-duper office re-organisation you were telling us about?
Your union contract should have a clause that addresses extreme climatic conditions in the workplace, that necessitate release of the workers until a fix is made. Usually there is a temperature above which workers go home or management takes immediate action to fix the problem. On the other hand, you could suck it up, stop whining and deal with it ;>).
I feel for you, Wyatt. My old high school was like that. The AC went on full blast from November through March. Then the heat turned on until June.
This of course also means that the heating system at the precinct will keep temps in the station house in the 30s in January and February.
I worked in a factory like that in Phoenix, Hot in the summer and freezing in the winter.
Smite – If our unmarked cars had a/c. Most of them don’t. Broken.
Alan B – Yep. it wasn’t spectacular before, but now the air rarely works.
Mike47 – The FOP heard about it and bought us fans for the office. All it did was recirculate hot air. Our building has no corridors for air to pass through. One side of the building has windows, and that’s it. Nice, huh?
Raptor – It might be less hot if the heater was on.
Bob – There was a day last winter where we were typing with gloves on. It was that bad. Seriously.
Admiral – Just the perks of the job, I guess.