10. It’s big. It’s easy. It’s NOLA.
So I’ve got a friend who’s a Captain in the New Orleans Police Department - what, hasn’t everyone?
I was always going to catch up with with my Tami on my travels when I got to New Orleans. After many years working her way up through the ranks, being undercover, working in the narcotics department - you name it, she’s done it - she’s now the Command of Communications at the 911 call/dispatch centre, and she gave me a tour - followed by a drive around one of the worst hit areas of the city from Katrina.
A couple of additional things to note which aren’t in the video. When the 911 operators answer the phone, they just hit a button. But to save them from repeatedly answering “Police Operator - What is your emergency?” every time, they’ve all recorded themselves saying that into the system, so when they press the button to answer the phone, they don’t have to say it and the computer system just plays out that initial response/greeting! I wonder if it’s the same for 999 centres in the UK?
My most memorable part of the day was when driving through the 9th Ward/District, I got out to take some shots as you see in the video. But it’s in this area that you might not want to go at night because drug related crimes & murders do take place. We wern’t taking any chances during the day either.
“Hang on moment”, said Tami as she saw me undoing my seatbelt and readying myself with my camera to get out of the car, and leans over to her glovebox, gets out her Glock 23 .40 caliber pistol, places it on her lap and then said “Ok, now you’re good” and proceeded to keep a close eye on me as I shot my footage.
(To summarise: Tami first got in touch with me back in 2004 when she contributed to my 50p for an iPod adventure. We then stayed in touch, and because she loves England and London so much, she came over in 2005 to take part in the Tube Relief attempt, a charity all-tube-stations run to raise money in the wake of the 7th July terrorists attacks earlier that year. We’ve stayed in touch ever since, and when I came to the USA in 2006, it was only a matter of time before our paths crossed again. She’s a Captain in the New Orleans Police Department, and yes I seem to have inspired her to think about doing a 50-town tour around the UK that share names with town in the USA - one for each state!)
After living in London for the first 33 years of my life and working for the 
So for ten weeks in June, July and August 2009, I drove 20,000 miles around the the lower 48 contiguous states of the USA visiting towns and places that shared the same name as places on The London
July 12th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
‘NOLA’ incidentally, is short for “New Orleans, Louisiana” (LA is the two letter code for state). I had to have it explained to me the first time too, so don’t feel bad if wondered what the heck that meant. As to why it’s called the ‘Big Easy’? Duh … here.
July 13th, 2009 at 12:05 am
I adore Tami’s wonderful N’yawlins accent. The accent is so atypical of the South. Many people think it sounds like the Big Apple’s accent! It’s so much softer, though. I’m thinkin’ Harry Connick, Jr.
I cannot believe she can retire in 278 days?!?!? Did she start working at age 2?
So was her family all right in Katrina?
July 13th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Great work Geoff (and Tami) can’t decide now between this video and the first one as to which is my favourite so far.
Geoff, you need to watch snatch wars on you tube a few times and get your swearing (cursing?) up to scratch, I’m not a fan of it so far and would prefer bleeps or proper full on cockney swearing!!!
July 13th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Hey Geoff! I am so jealous that you got a backstage tour of the Police Dept! I would love to do something like that!
Love Tami’s idea and am thinking of organising a massive UK road trip myself to raise funds for charity - if we do it at the same time we should meet up somewhere random!
Keep truckin .. Loving the blog!
Emma
July 14th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Nice video - and you’re dead right about Hull. Still, Tami might want to take the rough with the smooth…
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:21 am
So cool that you connection in New Orleans after meeting in England. That must have been seriously difficult for her to watch her town be destroyed by Katrina and not being able to do anything. Can’t wait to see Tami’s video of her trip to England. Where did she get that countdown clock?…that’s cool!~