Oscar
Charleston, SC
Male, 31
Spent a bit over four years (2006-2010) serving as a Border Patrol Agent in Tucson Sector, AZ: the busiest sector in the country. Worked numerous positions, and spent the last year and a half operating/instructing ground radar installations. Duties included: field patrols, transport, processing, control room duties, transportation check, checkpoint operations, static watch duties, etc.
Very often, but this depended very much on the season - needless to say, summer months were the worst. I could not give you a percentage, but my station would find perhaps 50+ bodies a year. Add another 100+ in serious physical distress.
Many of the causes of death could not be determined by a simple glance. In AZ a body will be taken down to bones in less than 72 hours. When encountering a dead body we would refer it to the local Indian Police who would call their detectives etc. We were not trained in that stuff, so we'd simply secure the scene.
With all the crime in the desert it was anybody's... Read More +
While I never looked too hard into it, we had a couple of options. Each station would have a handful of specialized units: Horse Patrol, Bikes, ATV's, Radar Operators, EMT's, first responders, etc.
Then each sector (which consisted of 4-6 stations, sometimes more) would have an SRT team, and a BORSTAR team. These teams would draw agents from the stations, and you'd work out of the sector headquarters. These teams deployed throughout the sector and also worked a lot of local stuff with other law enforcement agencies and local police departments.
You had some national level units such as BORTAC which would deploy... Read More +
The cartels are so busy - they have much bigger fish to fry. That being said, any LEO should always be on their guard. You're definitely not the most popular person. As far as Mexico for vacation - I'm not that gullible. Any country that suffers 60,000 people killed over a five year span along the border doesn't get any tourist money from me. It's on the State Department's "not recommended" list, but it won't stop Americans from trying to save a buck on liquor etc.
I was and still am rather scrawny, so the academy was tough - but if I made it through, anyone should be able to. Regarding Spanish, they have eased the requirements significantly - but this is a bad move in my opinion. They teach very compartmented spanish in small blocks...so you learn commands vs. actually learning the language. You could always grab Rosetta Stone and start learning Spanish. It wouldn't hurt. The other alternative is to get a feisty Spanish-speaking girlfriend/boyfriend and learn the hard way.
CPR Trainer
Farmer
Programmer
It's simple night vision and FLIR as carried by the military and other law enforcement agencies. Also the "midnight sun" or ridiculous huge powerful flood lights.
Nope. Horrible. We had more issues, pursuits, assaults etc. from the Tohono O'odham people than we did from Mexican illegals. I'd say 75% of my encounters with TO's were negative. The vast majority of U.S. citizen smugglers we arrested were TO's. There is simply massive amounts of criminal activity on the reservation. Even some of the police and rangers were up to no good.
A drunk TO ran one of my ex-trainees off the road and killed him. We had numerous incidents where TO's would apprehend Mexican females and sexually assault/abuse them for weeks before someone found out.
There were... Read More +
I'm not entirely sure what happened to you. However, if you've been caught (by any law enforcement agency) with illegal substances it's often recorded by dispatch officers/personnel. If your license plate is run by other law enforcement officers/agents this information will pop up. This assists officers and agents in knowing what they're dealing with when they do a traffic stop. Prior arrests, detentions, and warnings etc. are noted in the large database.
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