Introducing Our New Drama Series: The Oceanside Chronicles

Welcome to the fictional city of Oceanside, Virginia.  Meet new police officer Maximillian (Max) Breaklin (Break) and his Field Training Officer, Cpl. Edward (Eddie) Presser.  Both are service veterans. Both are hard chargers.  Both need more filter between their brains and their mouths.

In a new creative effort, Officer.com is launching The Oceanside Chronicles – PD.  Oceanside is a medium sized city on the east coast in Virginia.  Not too far south is a Navy base.  Not too far northwest is an Army installation.  Like any similarly sized city, Oceanside has plenty of schools, colleges and a university.  It has malls, marinas, decent transit systems, a medium sized regional airport and a heavy tourist population in the summer months.  It has an all-volunteer fire department and a growing dedication to search & rescue, spawned by the emergency medical services making an effort to separate from the fire services.

If all goes well with The Oceanside Chronicles – PD, there may someday be cross-pollenation efforts with our sister properties, Firehouse.com and EMSWorld.com.  In the meantime, here’s what you need to know about The Oceanside Chronicles if you choose to check them out.

First, all of the stories told are based on actual events.  What’s that mean? It means that there is some reality built in but enough of the factual reporting of actual events has been modified to protect locations, identities, etc.  If you’re a police veteran, you’ll know exactly what’s missing and what you’re reading.  You’ll likely have memories similar to the scenes set in the stories.

Second, the stories are going to be laid out as weekly episodes, just like a television series.  Each Monday morning at 0900 eastern a new episode will be published. Every “season” will be comprised of 13 episodes, and the thirteen episodes, a single season, will align with the calendar year quarter, i.e. first quarter (January through March), second quarter (April through June), etc.  That will hold true of each season with the exception of this first season since we’re already behind for this quarter. The first season may only be ten episodes unless our writers get hot.

Third, the stories are being written to serve two uses for the reader:  The first purpose is pure entertainment.  Just like some people like to watch crime dramas, some people like to read them.  While there won’t be the intentional cliff hangers and often absolutely ridiculous dramatic twists, we hope that there’s enough excitement, adventure, action and human interaction (otherwise called drama) to pique your interest.  The second purpose is a bit of education built in.  Some of the stories – every one of them if we can manage it – will contain a piece that describes a challenge that our law enforcement professionals face and will display at least one potential solution for the challenge.  The solution may be training; it may be policy; it may be a product.  Whatever the case may be, this is one of those things police veterans will recognize.  You’ll think, “Yep.  Been there, done that.  That solution worked for me,” OR you might think, “I never heard of that solution. Let me go check it out.”  Of course, there’s also the possibility that you might think, “That’s a stupid solution. I know one WAY better.”

If you fall into ANY of those three categories, we’d appreciate your feedback.  Each week, when a new episode is published, a link for it will be put into our forums.  That means each episode will have its own thread discussion.  In some cases, an episode might end with a character in a precarious position and a poll will be put up in the forums to let our readers/fans decide what direction the story goes in.  The bottom line is that we want your feedback; we want your involvement; we want to leverage the high level of law enforcement experience (and the sick twisted sense of humor veteran cops have) by engaging our readership to help direct the story.

This is a new and unique effort for Officer.com.  It’s not one that, as far as we know, anyone else in the law enforcement industry has tried before.  We don’t know if it will last for one year or ten.  On the one hand we don’t want to draw it out so long that the readership gets bored with it.  On the other hand, an officer CAN have a 30 year career and Season 1, Episode 1 introduces Ofc. Max Breaklin on the day of his graduation from the academy.  How far we go and what direction we go in (at least sometimes) will depend on our readership.

Thanks for checking this out.  I hope you like it.  If not, I’m sure I’ll get that feedback too.  :-)

Stay safe!