Friday, April 13, 2012

For Love Of.....Donuts


Law enforcement professionals from East to West have been plagued for ages with a bad rap; do cops love donuts?  Well, I have some experience in law enforcement and maybe even a bit of inside knowledge.  I hope to shed some light on this most egregious of accusations. 

First, allow me to validate the opinions that are to follow.  I worked as a 911 communicator for a local police department for a few years, mainly working the demoralizing "night" shift which was 7pm to 7am.  Now that I have proven a working knowledge of the topic at hand, allow me to continue with some observations. 

Try to count how many times your burglar alarm went off accidentally last year, probably two or three times, right?  Now take a rough estimate of the number of businesses in your town and multiply that number by 3.  Alarms are constantly going off and the police are constantly responding to check on the business at night, many times, entering with a key that is kept in a safe at headquarters.  Cops know exactly how dirty a restaurant is.  Generally, donut shops, especially Dunkin Donut stores are very well kept.  There was literally a list of restaurants that I would never eat at in the town I worked in for that very reason.  Cops always know the best spots to eat. 

Beyond this exclusive knowledge, there is one thing that keeps anyone working a night shift sane, its routine.  To survive my nights, I would structure my entire shift, from when I took breaks to when I completed paperwork.  Cops are very habitual and survive on this routine.  Obviously, coffee was integrated into that schedule for myself and everyone I worked with.  You would rely on this also if the only way to see your family was to sacrifice your own sleep hours when everyone else is awake.  Often times, Dunkin Donuts was the only clean restaurant that was open at 2 am, the bagel store doesn't open until 5:30 and by then, your already looking forward to going to sleep in two hours, so coffee is out of the question.  Donuts are the perfect partner to coffee.  How can you blame a cop who partakes in the enjoyment of a freshly made donut after walking into the shop, as the donuts are being fried, and gazes upon the most perfect display of portable enjoyment one could imagine.

My finial observation is that cops love free.  Yes, a shocker, when cops go to the coffee shop, it's almost always on the house.  Every cop I know would always throw the equivalent into the tip jar as a "thank you" or "you didn't have to, I wasn't expecting it", but in reality, it's just not about the few bucks in free stuff.  Cops just love the idea of free.  If Dunkin Donuts started selling whole Prosciutto di Parmas, cops would get a reputation for loving Italian, salt-cured hams.

I left the police department with a little less hair, a keen ability to leave emotion at home and focus, and a love of donuts.  My favorite donut of all time; a maple glazed donut from Tim Horton's.  Dunkin Donuts' maple glazed is good, when you can find it, but maple is in the blood of every Canadian.

Lately, I've been having a challenging time finding maple donuts, so today I took matters into my own hands.  My daughter and I have created the most amazing maple donut you could ever imagine.  Take a second and actually imagine the perfect maple donut.  Now then, take that donut and add apples, and maple glazed bacon, plus a bit of good old "homemade" taste.  Feel free to email me for the recipe. 

Lets also remember, cops didn't buy ALL of the millions of donuts sold at Dunkin Donuts last year, a few other people ate some of those donuts too, but we never hear of those teachers and their donuts, or those engineers and their love of Boston Cream. Maybe the next time we hear this true, but harsh characterization of police officers, we will remember that when they went to work today, they kissed their families goodbye, and told their children they would see them in the morning, knowing well that there was a chance they might not, so give them a break.

Disclaimer: I purposely chose the spelling of the aforementioned subject in order to pay tribute to my favorite coffee retailer.


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