Area native to appear on A&E show

Michelle James

The first day on a new job is not known for being stress-free.

Add a uniform, handcuffs, gun, some bad guys and throw in a camera team for good measure and the stress moves off the charts.

That might sound crazy to some, but when Fayetteville native Amy Hess hit the streets Sept. 11, 2007, for her first day as a police officer, that was exactly the scenario as she, other members of her Tampa Police Department rookie class and rookies from Jefferson Parish, La., were filmed for the new A&E; documentary “ROOKIES,” which premieres at 10 p.m. tonight.

“It caused a lot more tension than the typical training program would,” Hess said of the filming. “It’s already intense and it kind of added some more intensity.”

For the first two months of Hess’ six-month departmental training, which followed a six-month police academy, a two-to-four-person camera crew rode along in the backseat of the police cruiser as Hess learned the job from her field training officer (FTO).

Participation in the series was mandatory, Hess said.

“They didn’t give us much of an option,” she said. “I met my FTO and they (television crew) said, ‘OK, we’re filming you today.’ They mic’d me up and we went.”

Although Hess says she’s not sure exactly what to expect when the show airs, she says she expects it to be interesting and somewhat embarrassing.

“Everything I did was videotaped,” she said. “I’m not looking forward to seeing myself on film at all but there were a few entertaining calls I went to.”

One of those calls involved a drug bust with the SWAT team during her first week on the job.

“It was pretty high intensity because the subject we focused on that day had a lot of weapons in the house and was known to be violent toward police,” she said. “I had fun doing that.”

Hess says she expects to see a good deal of the calls to which they responded when the show airs, but she says she also expects to see several moments she doesn’t wish to relive.

“I had a lot of problems most trainees have and I’m sure they’ll accentuate those in their final cut,” she said. “I made some officer safety mistakes and things I’m not looking forward to seeing again.”

Also, Hess said she expects to see footage of the officers being disciplined for making those rookie mistakes.

Although she says the cameras definitely added stress to her first two months on the job, she says they also helped make her a better police officer.

“It really made me stronger because there were things I had to face not only being on the streets for the first time, but having the cameras with me too,” she said.

Hess’ husband Matthew Evans, a crime scene technician in Tampa, whom she met while studying forensics at Mountain State University, might also pop up in a few episodes as he was filmed as well.

One instance she says she is certain will make the cut is when crews filmed them at a shooting range.

“I outshot him by a long shot,” she said, “So they’re probably going to eat that up, I’m sure.”

Hess, who worked as a clerk at the Fayetteville Police Department following her 2001 graduation from Fayetteville High School, says she isn’t so much worried about what her friends in West Virginia and her parents Alan and Susan Hess will think after watching the show, but instead is more concerned with the opinions of her colleagues.

“I have to work with them every day and the true scrutiny you get is from the people who know and can say, ‘Oh, that’s a really bad mistake as a rookie,’” she said.

“We’re a pretty tight squad right now and everybody picks on everybody so I’m kind of hoping a few of them forget to watch.”

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An A&E.com; teaser for the show’s Oct. 28 episode refers to Hess’ first experiences on the job as well as to her small size.

“Petite rookie Amy Hess may look like the girl next door, but after a week where she pushes a car, tests crack for the first time, and participates in her first SWAT hit, will she be able to prove ‘size doesn't matter’?”

That question is one Hess says shouldn’t be asked.

“Size doesn’t matter,” she said, adding she often notices people judging her based on her size alone. “I get sized up a lot. You can just see their thoughts that they can outrun me or they can outfight me but I have just as much training as anybody else.”

Hess said she hopes viewers get to see all that goes into becoming a police officer and also realize that police officers are normal, everyday people.

“We all come from normal backgrounds and we all come from seemingly normal lives,” she said. “We’re people too and (during the training) you get to see that sometimes you’re just not cut out to do it and sometimes, if you really want it, you can do anything.”

— E-mail:

mjames@register-herald.com