JOY BEYOND EXPECTATION Inspired by father, Firearms Instructor Brad Penton shoots for more than hits
I was born and raised in Mobile. As a young child, my father was a reserve officer with the City of Mobile Police Department. At that time, they allowed civilians to complete a curriculum of training which occurred during the evenings and on weekends. I saw my dad put on that Mobile Police uniform and walk out the door to voluntarily go serve the citizens of Mobile. I looked up to him. I respected what he did. Because of my age, I didn’t fully grasp the dangers that he faced doing this. It was the 1970s and it was still a violent time in our country’s history. In my early 20s, I still hadn’t figured out what I wanted to do with my life, other than being a rock-n-roll drummer in a band. Lieutenant John Graham, then a sergeant, was a courtesy officer at the apartment complex where the girl I was dating worked as a manager. I ended up spending some time with Sergeant Graham and listened to a bunch of his cop stories. Coincidentally, the television show “COPS” had just started airing, and the rest is history. I just knew I wanted to do what Sergeant Graham and the officers in “COPS” were doing. This was a time in American History that kids still grew up wanting to be police officers. It was an honorable profession and the respect people had for law enforcement was palpable. The first time I took the test at the Mobile County Personnel Board was with over 2,000 applicants. I placed in the top 200, but still didn’t get hired. In the world we live in now we couldn’t even hope to get 200 applicants much less 2,000. I then found out about the Public Safety
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Officer Classification with the Mobile County Personnel Board. This was a law enforcement position, which also fought fires. One would drive to the scene, remove the gun belt, shirt and vest off, and put on the turnout gear which was kept in the trunk of the car. Fires were fought along one or two full-time firefighters, which were on duty. Afterward, you helped get the fire truck replenished for the next fire and then you went back on patrol. I ended up being hired by the City of Chickasaw and started my law enforcement career on Friday, September 9, 1995. I served 17 years there before coming to the Mobile Police Department. I never had any desire to be a firefighter, and it was while working as a Public Safety Officer I discovered how much I truly loathed fighting fires! I respect what firefighters do. They really work hard when they are fighting fires, and it’s exhausting. It is also something for which I wanted no part. My goal when joining the Mobile Police Department was always to obtain a training
