In the following days, Jimmy and Noah maintained the same routine, patrolling in the mornings and practicing shooting in the afternoons.
Jimmy distinctly felt his affinity for the revolver was bordering on abnormal. For someone who had just started learning to shoot, he adapted incredibly well to the revolver, as if it were muscle memory. Even when fatigued, he could maintain substantial accuracy: hitting a 10-meter chest target with six bullets was almost no problem, and his hit rate in the lethal zone also exceeded 50%, which was not novice level at all.
Noah had also noticed this, expressing more than once that Jimmy indeed had a natural talent.
As he continued practicing, Jimmy had essentially adapted to the recoil of the M686. During his longest session, he practiced loading over ten times with a total of 60 bullets, and it seemed this was not his limit, but merely fatigue.
Now that Jimmy's skills with the revolver had met Noah's expectations, Noah paused the shooting range plan and started driving training.
For police officers in the United States, high-speed chases are a critical skill. Precision Immobilization Technique (PIT) is a professional skill — one may not need it, but must know it. It involves the police car's front bumper striking the side of the back bumper of the vehicle ahead, causing the latter's rear wheels to skid and forcing it to stop. PIT is an advanced technique and extremely dangerous, as it could easily cause the front vehicle to skid and flip over while the police car might flip due to an inability to correct the steering post-PIT due to high speed. Thus, this technique requires repeated practice before being authorized for use. Usually, Senior Agents perform the PIT when multiple police cars are involved.
At a secluded training field, Noah drove a few times and then let Jimmy take the wheel, observing from the passenger seat to ensure Jimmy's actions met the POST committee's standards.
Jimmy was not unfamiliar with driving, though he had mainly driven fire trucks before, which are classified as trucks and require a special driving license. Now, switching to a sedan like the Victoria Crown was just a matter of adjusting habits rather than starting from scratch as a driver with no license.
As a staple in the police force, up until 2022, some police departments still retained several Victoria Crowns as patrol cars, a testament to the model's adaptability and operational excellence over more than 40 years.
With quick starts, emergency stops, sharp turns at intersections, serpentine driving, specific-position PITs, and various other driving techniques and skills, Noah taught Jimmy hands-on without holding anything back. Within just two days, Jimmy was able to patrol the streets as a driver.
Nearly two weeks later, Jimmy had basically met Noah's requirements and at least appeared to be a qualified police officer. The remaining aspect was handling real cases. As for the legal knowledge, emergency medical skills, and combat, etc., that an officer needed to have, Jimmy had already undergone one round of police training when he served as Auxiliary Police. Given that Jimmy was the only one recently participating in patrols, Noah was naturally aware of Jimmy's capabilities.
"Jimmy, starting tomorrow, you will take charge of the patrol. I'll just be a ghost, responsible for assessing whether your case handling is up to standard,"
"So soon? New cops usually have a Field Training Officer guiding them for six months of training,"
"You don't have that much time, so let's start tomorrow. It's FTO plainclothes day,"
"What's an FTO plainclothes day?"
"It's exactly what I just said. I'll wear regular clothes, follow you, assess how you handle cases, but I won't interfere with your cases, unless there's a life-threatening situation."
"OK, I can definitely do it."
The next day, Jimmy arrived at the station early, suited up, and waited for his shift to start. At 8 a.m., Jimmy and Noah collected their gear and left the station in a police car.
"Jimmy, you're driving too slowly." It was his first time patrolling by car and his nervousness was apparent in his driving, prompting Noah to make a comment.
"There's no call-out now; just take it slow on the road, we're not on a time crunch," Jimmy replied, and then continued to slowly move along the roadside.
"Adam47, traffic accident, intersection of West 10th Street and Fairpark Avenue, caller reported casualties."
"Adam47, copy that." Dispatches were made based on the proximity of the police car to the incident, so even with a different driver, the call sign was still the vehicle's A47.
Jimmy turned on the siren and lights, making a U-turn in the middle of the road and raced toward the scene. With the siren on, he completely ignored the traffic lights, merely slowing down slightly at each intersection to check for other vehicles before rushing through—a thrilling experience indeed.
Upon arriving at the scene, they found a sedan that had crashed into a roadside utility pole, which was now leaning over the street. The lines were still connected so the pole hadn't completely fallen. The front of the crashed vehicle was dented, and the driver was unconscious on the airbag.
Jimmy parked at the roadside, walked over to the car, and tugged at the door, which didn't open as it was locked. He took out his baton, smashed the window with the handle, opened the car door, and released the driver's seatbelt to pull him out from the driver's seat.
He placed the driver far from the utility pole, checked his breathing with his hand—fortunately, he seemed to have just passed out, not requiring urgent CPR.
"Sir, wake up." After Jimmy patted the driver several times without a response, he directly picked up the radio and called dispatch. "Adam47 calling, the driver is unconscious, please send an ambulance. The vehicle is damaged and needs towing. The utility pole is damaged and needs power company maintenance. Over."
Jimmy waited by the roadside for the ambulance and tow truck to arrive, while Noah watched from the side, not saying a word, leaving everything to Jimmy to handle.
"Noah, did I do anything wrong?" "I'll tell you after it's all over,"
Jimmy shrugged, walked back to the police car, took out an accident report form, and began to fill it out on the spot, recording the accident circumstances, vehicle information, location, property damage, etc., finally signing it.
Once the ambulance and tow truck had completed their tasks, Jimmy and Noah returned to the patrol car to continue patrolling. "Noah, tell me what I did wrong just now. From your expression, I must have made a mistake."
"Alright, I planned to summarize it all at the end of the day. Three mistakes. First, you should have called out to the driver from behind the driver's seat side, not directly approached the window. Second, you should have called an ambulance or fire truck to pull the driver out of the seat. Third, you didn't search or verify the person's information until it was all over."
"But he was already unconscious; I couldn't verify that."
"When you pulled him out of the car, you should have conducted a basic search to eliminate dangers and secure an ID. Only then should you have administered first aid."