Police "Ride-along" Programs: Tips, opinions, experiences requested from LEO perspective?

I like your question! I find ride alongs annoying only because I have my own routine at work and when I have a ride along, I have to "alter" my routine and I feel obligated to show the person around ... however, I have found that as long as the person is not a complete imbecile (people who ask, "can I touch your gun?" or "can I handcuff somebody?") I actually end up enjoying it. You are well educated and the fact that you were in the military will make you seem more on "the cops level" (than a lawyer necessarily would...most of us don't like lawyers...which is kind of funny cause I'm actually in law school myself...I digress...). So you should be fine. Questions I enjoy answering are situation questions, like when people ask me, if this is what happened, what would you do, and why? The questions I end up getting annoyed with are questions related to the 10 codes (everytime I get on the radio and someone asks me, what does 10-6 mean? what does 10-11 mean? gets REALLY old) or anything like that...you just have to remember...things like that are everyday for us and its kind of like having to explain to someone why you eat a certain way or why you do anything on a regular basis for that matter. Anyhow, hope this helps.