THE opportunity to go on a ride along with traffic police on Saturday night has left me with a new-found appreciation for the job police officers do on our roads.
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I knew it was going to be a late finish so earlier in the day I been trying to relax. But, while waiting in the station's foyer for 10 minutes beforehand I felt the nerves kick in.
Especially after the Sergeant who buzzed me in on the intercom told me I was in for a whole new experience.
"This could come as a bit of shock, you'll be without the blinkers this time," he said.
WATCH: See Andrew Elstermann's video report of the police ride along.
I always get like this when confronted with the unknown and my mind started to race as I thought about the questions I was hoping to get answered from the ride along.
How does the action of officers influence road safety? What are the public's driving habits really like - do the statistics tell the whole story? And, what is it like for traffic officers to have to deal with the consequences of road trauma?
When I was introduced to Senior Constable Lance Beynon and Constable Sarah Norman they told me we could see a lot of action, or we could see none.
So I was very grateful when they decide to take me out in an unmarked car to "give me half a chance".
I wasn’t expecting to see too many people doing the wrong thing – I thought we might catch a couple of drink drivers and one to two people exceeding the speed limit and that would be about it.
I certainly didn’t think that later that night I would be watching on as police caught a drug driver, arrested a man for possession of cannabis and helped locate a man who fled the scene after they crashed their car in to a house in Carey Park.
I watched all of this with interest however by far the most in interesting aspect of the night for me was the attitude of Lance and Sarah when dealing with drivers.
Throughout the whole evening they were calm, enjoying a laugh in the car and utilising their well-trained eyes.
They were very professional and dedicated to their duties regarding road safety and each driver who was pulled over, fined or charged was treated with respect and learned a valuable lesson.
Highlighting the importance of being alert behind the wheel and taking responsibility for both your safety and the safety of others was far more important to these police officers than hitting drivers with fines.
