Douglas, Arizona

What town: Douglas
State: AZ
Station: Douglas
Population: 15,000

Telephone Co. Name: Qwest
800-244-1111

Electric Co. Name: Arizona Public Service
1-800-253-9405

Gas Co Name: South West Gas
800-675-2860

Cable Co. Name: COX Communications
800-751-9138

City Trash Name: Sanitation Department
520-805-4057

City Water & Sewer Name: Water and Sewer Department
520-805-4076

Hospital Name: SouthEast Arizona Medical Center
520-364-7931

Parks and Rec.: Parks department
520-805-4055

Newspaper Name:
Douglas Daily Dispatch 520-364-3424/
AZ Daily Star 800-695-4552

Chamber of Commerce: Douglas Chamber of Commerce
520-364-2477

Convention & Visitors Bureau: Douglas Visitor Center
520-364-2478

HELPFUL WEBSITES

Local Union's Web site:
Local Union's Forum:

EXTRA HELP -

Name: Venus
Name: April
Name: Crystal

Station type of work - As far as Douglas goes, 66% of the time you will be in the field, 33% of the time you will be in 'admin'. We rotate monthly from the eastside of the Area Of Responsibility (AOR) to the westside, to admin. Both east and west sides have line watch positions in town, but nothing like the Xs of old. The only true Xs are places that when you move, Mexico invades. A busy shift in 'local' may produce more apps than working a group for several hours out in the farther areas. Still, you will get assigned out to the farther grids. As long as you are willing to get out of your vehicle and walk, you can do the patrol work of old.

75-80% of the time will be doing processing or 'A' files. We were one of the first stations to get IAFIS, and we continue to get some of the new technology for processing. The nice thing about the 'admin' shift is that a field agent is not in processing the group that he or she caught. So endless hours of AUO due to catching a group at the end of shift is not a problem. The criminal alien that you caught in the field may require a simple narrative statement, but you won't be doing the whole file. The other 20-25% of the time, you may be working dispatch (running one of three radio nets, cameras, telephone calls), transporting aliens to and from the station and working control (overseeing the processing of aliens, opening the security doors on the cells remotely, etc).

Douglas has speciality units such as Horse Patrol, ATVs, Ranch Patrol, Disrupt, etc. Right now, it seems that most Agents are getting a speciality unit with about 3-3.5 years of experience under their belt. Bike patrol may also come back. Agents are becoming temporary supes with 4 years, and some are getting selected as supervisors with 4-5 years. Not as many 3 year wonders...

Shopping - JC Penny, Wal-Mart, Family Dollar, Radio Shack, Payless shoes, 99
cents store, Factory 2 u, Melrose, and many more local shops
Eateries - Burger King, Church's Fried Chicken, Dairy Queen, KFC/Taco Bell,
McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Sonic, T-Bone, and various other local eateries
Cellular Telephone -
Local Internet Providers - Digital Odyssey, C212, The River, Cyber trails, AOL
Other Services - Bank of America, Bank One, National Bank of Arizona, Huachuca
Federal Credit union, Wells Fargo Bank, & Southeastern Arizona Federal
Credit Union
Any other information that you would like to add: Bisbee, AZ is 25 minutes from the Douglas Station and Sierra Vista is 45 min. Sierra Vista is about 50,000, has plenty of social life, a military base (Ft Huachuca), some chain restaurants, clubs, etc. Tucson is roughly 70 miles from Sierra Vista.

There are hunting opportunities around Douglas. Lots of Forest Service and BLM land.

There are several options for places to live. Douglas, Bisbee or Sierra Vista are the most common. Both Douglas and Bisbee are smaller towns. Yeah, it is a commute from Sierra Vista (45 miles one way) but is isn't a bad commute.