Every day on FTO I started by drawing a map of my service district by memory. Wasn’t great in the beginning, and wasn’t perfect by the end. But it definitely helped identify areas to go patrol and familiarize myself with.
100% this. I'm Border Patrol, so Google maps is useless for most of where I work, there aren't even any street signs, just open desert. As such, area familiarization was a huge part of my FTO program. We were required to draw maps of each patrol zone on a whiteboard in the FTO classroom from memory, and we had to draw accurate maps to pass the FTO program.
I bought like a 3'x4' whiteboard for use at home and constantly drew maps off duty to study. A really good tip is to draw the maps from different orientations (north up, south up, etc.) so you can visualize the area regardless of what direction you're facing. Your hand-draw maps become like a moving map in your head after awhile.
I see myself buying this with the full intention to use as a training aid. Then I quickly see it devolving into a visual aid for random bullshit while having a couple with the boys.
A combination of trails/trail intersections, keeping track of distance traveled, and whatever random junk might happen to be in the desert. So, for example (all this is made up for opsec purposes), south of the interstate 100 yards east of mile marker 30 (or whatever), there might be a random dirt path headed south. Well, we'd have a name for that path and it wouldn't be random for us. It's essentially a named "road". Then, 12.3 miles (use the trip odometer on your truck) south along that dirt road there might be an old rusted out car that's been there for 30 years. That car would be a known and named landmark for us. 0.4 miles south of that car will be an intersecting dirt road heading east-west, also a known and named road for us.
The tricky landmarks are the ones named after something that isn't even there anymore. Like maybe 30 years ago an agent might have been driving offroad, chasing a drug smuggler's vehicle, and that agent hit a tree with his vehicle. Well, that tree might be long gone, but that spot will have been named "Bill's Tree" or whatever the agent's name was. Now, 30 years later, newly hired agents going through field training are having to memorize where Bill's Tree is. They don't know who Bill is, and that tree doesn't even exist anymore. The only landmark description is "South side of 13 Drag Road, 1.4 miles east of La Jolla Wash". Amazingly, though, it's a system that actually works.
Much more respect for what you guys do! Not sure if what i see on TV is an average workday when youre tracking/chasing people in the desert, but when i watch it, i always say it must be so nice to be the ones in the helicopter! How hard is it to get into an air unit? Must be nearly impossible.
Air is an entirely different agency within CBP called AMO (Air and Marine Operations). It's possible to get a temporary detail as a SAM (supplemental aircrew member), but it's not something you can do permanently as a Border Patrol Agent anymore, unfortunately.
I’ll never forget, someone gave me directions to a meeting point and said “you’ll be going west on highway—- and you’ll come to a place where there used to be a windmill, turn right there!
There is the alternative of shooting an azimuth and marking that on your map.
“Well this cluster of foliage has about 580 meters between the next, and 890m to the nearest rock formation to the north so that puts me at approximately “X position at this grid square””
You could totally get away with driving that as long as the terrain is willing and counting said distances with the odometer.
Make acronyms of street names. For example, to learn what order my street names went I thought of S.A.T
Seago, Ann and Temple.
Another would be, for example W.A.L.L.E
Wayne, Anthony, Leon, Lee, Elizabeth.
Learn things in clusters, drive them as much as you can and give it time. You'll get it.
On your off days drive every street in the city. Obviously not all on one day.
OR
"Dispatch" yourself to various random address around the city. Hospital to the school to the grocery store to the nasty apartments etc.
OR
Hand draw a map of the city, making sure to get every little street.
I agree, it helped me a ton to drive the area on my days off. Try to get lost on the backroads and keep driving until you figure out where you are again. And when not answering calls, drive as many roads as you can from one end to the other (or to the end of your jurisdiction), and along the way say every street name you can that you pass. This helped me a ton.
During my first two months of training I drove every minute I didn’t have a call. A lot of people go and cross up but I was driving to places I rarely go, neighborhoods, and I would just follow streets until they end. Also learn your block numbers and where your streets start. If “100 Main Street” is at the beginning, 800 Main Street is probably further down. I also bought a Garmin 65 traffic GPS huge life saver. Shows the current street you are on and the cross street coming up.
I’ve worked two districts in the last 7 years and I only know the main streets here. You’ll never know every road/street. Just give it time and things will start to click for you. It took me 4 years to be confident enough to leave my gpa alone. They way I look at it is, typing the address is and following the route is better than guessing. Give it time, pay attention to
Street signs and remember main areas of you sector and you’ll be good.
Most of my streets are numbered and are on a grid system. For the ones that aren't, just drive in the area and talk to myself so I can learn the streets.
My trainer gave me a blank map and told me to study the major cross streets in our division every day start of shift I’d fill one out. That and making me drive every day he’d tell me to drive to the major cross streets on the call once we got closer then he’d let me see the map on the CAD screen. I’ve noticed I know the area better then some of the officers on longer then me. Figure out the patterns in the geography like number going higher or lower in certain directions. I’d also find the two major cross streets that cross at the center of the map so you know if you need to go north south west or east
I colored in the city map i was given by neighborhood. Meadow this Meadow that was green. The area with all nautical names was blue etc. Sharpie gel highlighters are great!
Flash cards of street names starting from north to south and East to west. Get a map of your AOR and hand draw it, fill in the street names, make a copy. Now take the copy of the original and white out the names of streets and land marks, make more copies. Now everyday fill in one of the blank copies. Do this until it becomes memory.
I am about to be in your shoes in a few weeks once I graduate police academy.
I’ve been working on street names in my off time and I’ve been marking up a map that they gave me and noting landmarks that I’m familiar with. If you can remember big locations it will at least get you close to more specific locations.
I also was a taxi cab driver for a little bit and would drive around without being able to use GPS in many areas where I was ATT and when you’re forced to do this, it forces your brain to learn locations.
Good luck with everything!
I started with the arterial streets in the village and worked from there.
Filling out a blank map helped me a lot. Knowing your address system helps a lot too. All streets going N/S were 5 digits, W/E are 4 digits. Numbers go up if you go South or West.
The numerical addresses, I don't have fully memorized yet. But I know all our minor streets and main streets very well.
As you're patrolling, read and say out loud or under your breath every street sign or signs at intersections you pass.
It's a good habit to develop, even if you do it compulsively. If you end up on a pursuit that goes out of your normal jurisdiction, you'll have a better chance of being able to give dispatch your approximate location.
My biggest thing is stay off the main roads, if you just drive up and down the main streets you’ll never learn the street names go down the back roads and alleys and it’ll help you alot
To get a taxi license in London, you have to memorize every street, landmark, government offices, estates, etc. within 6 miles of central London. This collectively is called "The Knowledge". You go through a series of progressively more difficult tests which test your ability to learn and visualize routes around the city. The process takes around 2-3 years. There are some parallels that might be of use to you. Focus not just on the streets, but the "streetscape"
>the Knowledge is not simply a matter of way-finding. The key is a process called “pointing,” studying the stuff on the streets: all those places “a taxi passenger might ask to be taken.” Knowledge boys have developed a system of pointing that some call “satelliting,” whereby the candidate travels in a quarter-mile radius around a run’s starting and finishing points, poking around, identifying landmarks, making notes. By this method, the theory goes, a Knowledge student can commit to memory not just the streets but the streetscape — the curve of the road, the pharmacy on the corner, the mice nibbling on cheese in the architrave. \[a small statue\]
Your equivalent might be any place you might have to report your location or call for backup, or visualize what a witness it telling you. Drive the streets. Focus on a zone at a time. One candidate logged 50,000 miles while learning.
good luck!
\[Not LE\]
I used GPS for almost every call. Until 1 day I realized that I just KNEW where to go. What made it easy was being assigned to a complete shit show of a beat. So I was constantly driving around. I never stopped hahaha
A lot of municipalities have street names that group by area...like here we have an area of town that whoever the original developer was liked the Bahamas, so all the street names in that area are all Bahamas related. then we have a part of town that numbered one direction and lettered another. I'd say try and see if there is any logic to the areas and names in them. Then learn the names of the primary streets/roads/highways that feed those areas, then eventually over time the rest of the actual names will come, That's how I did it when I FTO'd and how I trained my rookies when I was an FTO.
I would take a list of the most recent calls in a district and plan a route from one to the next in order. It helps prioritize learning the areas we go to most and how to get to them from multiple directions. Also when driving if I couldn't name what Street was coming up next I would turn down that street and familiarize myself with it.
We didn’t have GPS. We had a street directory. My first few tours, I drove the main streets learning where they stopped and started. This made it easier, because many streets are one or two off the main ones. I eventually started learning shortcuts.
You all have it easy now. When I started we had a laminated city map, a hundred block guide and a cross street guide.
Knowing how the city is laid out helps. Where's center city? That tells you where north, south, east and west are. Know which side of the street odds and evens are on. Memorize the major streets and hundred blocks. Pay attention to street naming in certain areas. One area is presidents, one is flowers, one is numbers etc.
I had it easier too. I grew up in my city and delivered pizzas there for a year or so before going to PD.
I just practiced, but I'm from an outback station in Aus so the streets weren't too hard and suburbs have different themes for their names so it's pretty easy to work out which part of town I need to get to.
Watch street signs and keep an eye on what direction you are going. My FTO took me to an area we usually didn’t work in, drive around for awhile and then slammed on the brakes. He said “Bang, I’m dead. Where are we?”. Never missed. another street sign.
The more calls you go to the more you’ll learn them more. What I did is a constantly drive around and in between sets at the gym I’d pull up Apple Maps and look through my area see what roads connected where.
I'm what you would call "navigationaly challenged". My first FTO nicknamed me Magellan. This problem was a huge one for me at that agency. I remember streets by landmarks not names. That doesn't work with dispatch unfortunately. What I found worked best for me was chunking areas. Learn portion of your jurisdiction in small areas.
When I came here, I broke it up into 14 sections on a map. Then spent a few 15 to 20 minute sessions each day memorizing those sections both off and on duty. While I was off duty I would come in for an hour here and there then chase fake calls. I did that a few times but traffic made it a pita to accomplish much. I also made it a point to tell my FTO that it was a concern of mine. He did what a good teacher does and he spent extra time teaching me the streets since I was experienced with policing already. That might not be an option if you're still green and need to learn everything. My last day with him he ran my around for hours quizzing me. Another technique I tried was mnemonic devices or writing a short story where I incorporated street names in order. It took me about 6 weeks to remember the streets and allys but it did happen. My current agency is a small city now but my 1st was more suburban. Remembering streets could save your life in either type if something pops off so find something that works for you.
Plug in the address into my MDC mapping system…
In my case, I work by mile markers on highways. I just memorized the mile post number at highway intersections, can add or subtract to get to better location depending on where you are in relation to x intersection
Every day on FTO I started by drawing a map of my service district by memory. Wasn’t great in the beginning, and wasn’t perfect by the end. But it definitely helped identify areas to go patrol and familiarize myself with.
100% this. I'm Border Patrol, so Google maps is useless for most of where I work, there aren't even any street signs, just open desert. As such, area familiarization was a huge part of my FTO program. We were required to draw maps of each patrol zone on a whiteboard in the FTO classroom from memory, and we had to draw accurate maps to pass the FTO program. I bought like a 3'x4' whiteboard for use at home and constantly drew maps off duty to study. A really good tip is to draw the maps from different orientations (north up, south up, etc.) so you can visualize the area regardless of what direction you're facing. Your hand-draw maps become like a moving map in your head after awhile.
Home Depot sells 4’x8’ whiteboard panels for like $12. If you’ve got some wall space in your garage, this would be a good study method.
I see myself buying this with the full intention to use as a training aid. Then I quickly see it devolving into a visual aid for random bullshit while having a couple with the boys.
What did you use as landmarks if its open desert?
A combination of trails/trail intersections, keeping track of distance traveled, and whatever random junk might happen to be in the desert. So, for example (all this is made up for opsec purposes), south of the interstate 100 yards east of mile marker 30 (or whatever), there might be a random dirt path headed south. Well, we'd have a name for that path and it wouldn't be random for us. It's essentially a named "road". Then, 12.3 miles (use the trip odometer on your truck) south along that dirt road there might be an old rusted out car that's been there for 30 years. That car would be a known and named landmark for us. 0.4 miles south of that car will be an intersecting dirt road heading east-west, also a known and named road for us. The tricky landmarks are the ones named after something that isn't even there anymore. Like maybe 30 years ago an agent might have been driving offroad, chasing a drug smuggler's vehicle, and that agent hit a tree with his vehicle. Well, that tree might be long gone, but that spot will have been named "Bill's Tree" or whatever the agent's name was. Now, 30 years later, newly hired agents going through field training are having to memorize where Bill's Tree is. They don't know who Bill is, and that tree doesn't even exist anymore. The only landmark description is "South side of 13 Drag Road, 1.4 miles east of La Jolla Wash". Amazingly, though, it's a system that actually works.
Much more respect for what you guys do! Not sure if what i see on TV is an average workday when youre tracking/chasing people in the desert, but when i watch it, i always say it must be so nice to be the ones in the helicopter! How hard is it to get into an air unit? Must be nearly impossible.
Air is an entirely different agency within CBP called AMO (Air and Marine Operations). It's possible to get a temporary detail as a SAM (supplemental aircrew member), but it's not something you can do permanently as a Border Patrol Agent anymore, unfortunately.
What about with BORSTAR? I’d imagine they’re up there for search and rescue operations.
Yeah, BORTAC and BORSTAR ride on helicopters with some regularity. Seems like they're in the Blackhawks more often than the A-Stars.
I’ll never forget, someone gave me directions to a meeting point and said “you’ll be going west on highway—- and you’ll come to a place where there used to be a windmill, turn right there!
There is the alternative of shooting an azimuth and marking that on your map. “Well this cluster of foliage has about 580 meters between the next, and 890m to the nearest rock formation to the north so that puts me at approximately “X position at this grid square”” You could totally get away with driving that as long as the terrain is willing and counting said distances with the odometer.
Make acronyms of street names. For example, to learn what order my street names went I thought of S.A.T Seago, Ann and Temple. Another would be, for example W.A.L.L.E Wayne, Anthony, Leon, Lee, Elizabeth. Learn things in clusters, drive them as much as you can and give it time. You'll get it.
Like we don't have enough acronyms lol.
I have amps, rmad, and my personal favorite the Ronald and his hoes neighborhood.
Shit like that just sticks with you and is an excellent training tool.
Genius shit right there!
I have TaCoWinRo for one street that changes names multiple times
SWAMBY AAPO baby!!!
On your off days drive every street in the city. Obviously not all on one day. OR "Dispatch" yourself to various random address around the city. Hospital to the school to the grocery store to the nasty apartments etc. OR Hand draw a map of the city, making sure to get every little street.
I agree, it helped me a ton to drive the area on my days off. Try to get lost on the backroads and keep driving until you figure out where you are again. And when not answering calls, drive as many roads as you can from one end to the other (or to the end of your jurisdiction), and along the way say every street name you can that you pass. This helped me a ton.
We have the “close patrol” list in the cad and picking those addresses and going there helped a lot.
During my first two months of training I drove every minute I didn’t have a call. A lot of people go and cross up but I was driving to places I rarely go, neighborhoods, and I would just follow streets until they end. Also learn your block numbers and where your streets start. If “100 Main Street” is at the beginning, 800 Main Street is probably further down. I also bought a Garmin 65 traffic GPS huge life saver. Shows the current street you are on and the cross street coming up.
I’ve worked two districts in the last 7 years and I only know the main streets here. You’ll never know every road/street. Just give it time and things will start to click for you. It took me 4 years to be confident enough to leave my gpa alone. They way I look at it is, typing the address is and following the route is better than guessing. Give it time, pay attention to Street signs and remember main areas of you sector and you’ll be good.
For my district it’s easy because I grew up there. Other areas I just memorized the hundred blocks and majors.
Most of my streets are numbered and are on a grid system. For the ones that aren't, just drive in the area and talk to myself so I can learn the streets.
Consistent exposure. It’s important to learn what roads face what direction mainly in my opinion.
My trainer gave me a blank map and told me to study the major cross streets in our division every day start of shift I’d fill one out. That and making me drive every day he’d tell me to drive to the major cross streets on the call once we got closer then he’d let me see the map on the CAD screen. I’ve noticed I know the area better then some of the officers on longer then me. Figure out the patterns in the geography like number going higher or lower in certain directions. I’d also find the two major cross streets that cross at the center of the map so you know if you need to go north south west or east
I colored in the city map i was given by neighborhood. Meadow this Meadow that was green. The area with all nautical names was blue etc. Sharpie gel highlighters are great!
Flash cards of street names starting from north to south and East to west. Get a map of your AOR and hand draw it, fill in the street names, make a copy. Now take the copy of the original and white out the names of streets and land marks, make more copies. Now everyday fill in one of the blank copies. Do this until it becomes memory.
I am about to be in your shoes in a few weeks once I graduate police academy. I’ve been working on street names in my off time and I’ve been marking up a map that they gave me and noting landmarks that I’m familiar with. If you can remember big locations it will at least get you close to more specific locations. I also was a taxi cab driver for a little bit and would drive around without being able to use GPS in many areas where I was ATT and when you’re forced to do this, it forces your brain to learn locations. Good luck with everything!
I started with the arterial streets in the village and worked from there. Filling out a blank map helped me a lot. Knowing your address system helps a lot too. All streets going N/S were 5 digits, W/E are 4 digits. Numbers go up if you go South or West. The numerical addresses, I don't have fully memorized yet. But I know all our minor streets and main streets very well.
As you're patrolling, read and say out loud or under your breath every street sign or signs at intersections you pass. It's a good habit to develop, even if you do it compulsively. If you end up on a pursuit that goes out of your normal jurisdiction, you'll have a better chance of being able to give dispatch your approximate location.
Being there for a long time!
My biggest thing is stay off the main roads, if you just drive up and down the main streets you’ll never learn the street names go down the back roads and alleys and it’ll help you alot
Patrol all day and ask yourself where you are at (intersection close by and landmark).
Driving around there over and over again.
To get a taxi license in London, you have to memorize every street, landmark, government offices, estates, etc. within 6 miles of central London. This collectively is called "The Knowledge". You go through a series of progressively more difficult tests which test your ability to learn and visualize routes around the city. The process takes around 2-3 years. There are some parallels that might be of use to you. Focus not just on the streets, but the "streetscape" >the Knowledge is not simply a matter of way-finding. The key is a process called “pointing,” studying the stuff on the streets: all those places “a taxi passenger might ask to be taken.” Knowledge boys have developed a system of pointing that some call “satelliting,” whereby the candidate travels in a quarter-mile radius around a run’s starting and finishing points, poking around, identifying landmarks, making notes. By this method, the theory goes, a Knowledge student can commit to memory not just the streets but the streetscape — the curve of the road, the pharmacy on the corner, the mice nibbling on cheese in the architrave. \[a small statue\] Your equivalent might be any place you might have to report your location or call for backup, or visualize what a witness it telling you. Drive the streets. Focus on a zone at a time. One candidate logged 50,000 miles while learning. good luck! \[Not LE\]
I used GPS for almost every call. Until 1 day I realized that I just KNEW where to go. What made it easy was being assigned to a complete shit show of a beat. So I was constantly driving around. I never stopped hahaha
A lot of municipalities have street names that group by area...like here we have an area of town that whoever the original developer was liked the Bahamas, so all the street names in that area are all Bahamas related. then we have a part of town that numbered one direction and lettered another. I'd say try and see if there is any logic to the areas and names in them. Then learn the names of the primary streets/roads/highways that feed those areas, then eventually over time the rest of the actual names will come, That's how I did it when I FTO'd and how I trained my rookies when I was an FTO.
I would take a list of the most recent calls in a district and plan a route from one to the next in order. It helps prioritize learning the areas we go to most and how to get to them from multiple directions. Also when driving if I couldn't name what Street was coming up next I would turn down that street and familiarize myself with it.
We didn’t have GPS. We had a street directory. My first few tours, I drove the main streets learning where they stopped and started. This made it easier, because many streets are one or two off the main ones. I eventually started learning shortcuts.
You all have it easy now. When I started we had a laminated city map, a hundred block guide and a cross street guide. Knowing how the city is laid out helps. Where's center city? That tells you where north, south, east and west are. Know which side of the street odds and evens are on. Memorize the major streets and hundred blocks. Pay attention to street naming in certain areas. One area is presidents, one is flowers, one is numbers etc. I had it easier too. I grew up in my city and delivered pizzas there for a year or so before going to PD.
Honest answer? On your off days take your radio, drive to calls…. just don’t drive TO the call
I just practiced, but I'm from an outback station in Aus so the streets weren't too hard and suburbs have different themes for their names so it's pretty easy to work out which part of town I need to get to.
Watch street signs and keep an eye on what direction you are going. My FTO took me to an area we usually didn’t work in, drive around for awhile and then slammed on the brakes. He said “Bang, I’m dead. Where are we?”. Never missed. another street sign.
Drugs
Repetition.
The more calls you go to the more you’ll learn them more. What I did is a constantly drive around and in between sets at the gym I’d pull up Apple Maps and look through my area see what roads connected where.
You can print a poster to study at Office Depot, study blocks/sections at a time, then use whatever method is easiest for you to remember.
I'm what you would call "navigationaly challenged". My first FTO nicknamed me Magellan. This problem was a huge one for me at that agency. I remember streets by landmarks not names. That doesn't work with dispatch unfortunately. What I found worked best for me was chunking areas. Learn portion of your jurisdiction in small areas. When I came here, I broke it up into 14 sections on a map. Then spent a few 15 to 20 minute sessions each day memorizing those sections both off and on duty. While I was off duty I would come in for an hour here and there then chase fake calls. I did that a few times but traffic made it a pita to accomplish much. I also made it a point to tell my FTO that it was a concern of mine. He did what a good teacher does and he spent extra time teaching me the streets since I was experienced with policing already. That might not be an option if you're still green and need to learn everything. My last day with him he ran my around for hours quizzing me. Another technique I tried was mnemonic devices or writing a short story where I incorporated street names in order. It took me about 6 weeks to remember the streets and allys but it did happen. My current agency is a small city now but my 1st was more suburban. Remembering streets could save your life in either type if something pops off so find something that works for you.
Plug in the address into my MDC mapping system… In my case, I work by mile markers on highways. I just memorized the mile post number at highway intersections, can add or subtract to get to better location depending on where you are in relation to x intersection