Law Ride: Boots

During an event like Law Ride, you get to see lots of motor officers in tall black boots. Lots and lots of tall black boots. Two for every cop there! (LOL!)

My observations this year is that there were three types of tall black boots represented: engineer style, bal-laced style, and those with a dress instep (no laces.) Virtually all of the boots had buckle closures on the leg; very few had laces. (Laces on the leg tend to come untied quickly by blowing in the wind, and are a nuisance.)

I have blogged a lot about cop boots, so I won't repeat myself much. Here, though, are what eight officers said in response to this statement:

Tell me what you like about your boots

• Heck, boots are boots. If it's part of the uniform, it's what I wear.


• They give good protection from the crap that flies up from the road or vehicles in front of me.


• I like how they look with my uniform.


• I wish I had boots like him (pointing to a pair of dress instep boots on another cop)... without laces. Those damned laces are always coming untied, but the Sarge wants us to have all the same kind.


• I wish I didn't have to shine them as often. We used to have a kid who did that for us, but with budget cutbacks, he's gone.


• Not much


• They're comfortable. I wear them all the time!


• Huh?

You really get a mixed bag of responses when talking with cops about their boots.

In order to prevent the cops from thinking that I'm some kind of weirdo, my statement where I asked for their opinion about boots was part of an overall conversation I had with each officer with whom I spoke. I talked with a lot of them. Cops are trained to communicate with the public, so it was easy to engage them in conversation. While for the most part they hang out with each other, they're generally a friendly bunch, and will talk to us regular guys if we're not pushy and are genuinely interested in what they have to say.

Then, upon conclusion of the conversation, I always said, "Thank you. I appreciate your time, and thanks a lot for the service you provide to your community." I usually got a thanks for my thanks, and a warm smile. Awww... I'm a sucker for a smile.

Life is short: wear your boots!