We’ve all seen the movies or TV shows that feature a police officer and a civilian out in the community together, patrolling, rolling, riding clean for all to be seen.
These are called a ride along. Many law enforcement agencies and local police departments have them. And, so long as you jump through a few hoops, meet a few requirements, and get it approved by the policing authority that conducts the ride along, you might be able to do one, too.
But, is it really that simple to go on patrol with the police? Personally, while I *really* don’t want to do that, I thought I might explore what it would take for a citizen of Mac to be able to do one with the local PD. And what I thought would be a fairly open paperwork process turned out to be a bit more convoluted. And not at all straightforward.
So, I started off by searching the local municipal website for information, or anything, about the process. Nothing popped out. I couldn’t even find the McMinnville Police Department’s website.
Upon doing a web search, I found, on Google, that the Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office offered a ride along program, but only for Deputy candidates as of March 2025. And it looks like the Newberg Police Department has an active program. Cool, but not what I’m looking for today.
However, let’s do a comparison, yeah? Take Newberg and Dallas. These two cities are relatively close to McMinnville in the valley and both are smaller than the city of McMinnville when it comes to outright population (Mac- 35,000 people, Newberg- 27,000 people, Dallas- 17,000 people) and the number of sworn officers. (Mac- 38 officers, Newberg- 35 officers, and Dallas- 23, according to available data, city websites, and proposed 2025/6 budgets.)
However, both of these smaller but similar cities have ride along programs that you can find online. And both Newberg and Dallas clearly outline how to access the program, what documentation is needed, where to return the forms, and who to talk to about the program. Something, McMinnville seems to be lacking.
So, I decided to reach out to the McMinnville Police Department to get some guidance on where to find this info and how to move forward. They were kinda, maybe helpful.
In fact, when I went into the Mac PD office to get help, they kept insisting the information was on their website and that’s all they knew. They directed me to MacPD.org, their official website according to the front office staff, and told me the ride along info was located on the left side. And that if I needed any more help or information, the Support Services officer would be able to help in a few hours.
So, while waiting for the department to get back to me, I decided to do a deep dive on this MacPD.org. Turns out, the website they gave me was not an official website… it’s a domain name that redirects to McMinnvilleOregon.org, the website I had already unsuccessfully been scouring for info about the ride along program.
While on this site, I start clicking on things that don’t even mention Ride Along or anything about community engagement. And, finally, after levels and levels of clicks on the McMinnvilleOregon.org/police, I was finally able to get to what they were **probably** referencing… and it’s located on a completely different website.
It takes four levels of clicking off of the main page, with the links never once mentioning ‘Ride Along’, before I even get to the link that redirects me to *another website entirely*. It takes me to https://public.powerdms.com/MMVPD/tree and that’s not even the end. Once on this new site, there are two subsections to choose from, then 42 sections to read through *before you can see and click* on “Policy 410 – Ride-Along Policy”.
After thoroughly reading all three pages of Policy 410, I come to understand that… I didn’t need to find this page at all. In fact, Policy 410 seems like it’s more for the police and the city to have an official policy on file than it is a resource for citizens. If anyone wants to do a ride along, all they have to do is fill out a waiver and be approved by the Field Operations Supervisor. But, there doesn’t seem to any waiver or form provided in this policy and there was no mention of this when I was at the office earlier asking specifically about this. Hmmm. Dead end, I guess.
Later on, I get a call from the Mac PD Support Services officer, Mr. Galloway, and he asks how can he help. I tell him that, while I don’t have the website in front of me, I wanted to talk about the Ride Along program and the absolute only thing I could find anywhere online was a policy in what looks to be a Mac Police Department handbook, Policy 410.
He said that was correct and asked what questions I have about it. So, I mentioned the policy, while not actually on the city’s website, mentions a form/waiver. But, there’s no form/waiver anywhere to be found in this policy or handbook. None was mentioned when I was at the actual Mac PD office earlier that day.
The Support Services officer is very nice and helpful, but in this matter, he didn’t have much to say beyond confirming that there’s not a whole lot of publicly available information. However, he was able to confirm that the front office has the forms for the Ride Along program.
If Mac’s Ride-Along program is available to eligible citizens, employees, volunteers, and students living or studying in McMinnville, like Policy 410 states, why isn’t it more accessible? Many smaller cities, as listed above, offer these programs through municipal websites, making it easy for interested individuals to find the necessary information and forms. McMinnville’s own Policy 410 states that ‘Every attempt will be made to accommodate interested persons…,’ yet our police department does not seem to list the policy, or the needed waiver, in a way that truly serves the public. Instead, they direct people to websites that lack the relevant details or the forms needed to participate. Or worse, the staff pleads ignorance when asked directly for more information. In short, the McMinnville Police Department’s Ride Along program seems to be ridin’ dirty.
-Andrew Brunello