ladyd10
Police Officer
just a quick question that i have been thinking about recently that i am sure has already been asked but anyway...
How old is Calleigh?
If I remeber correctly she was born in february 1974, so she's 35 now.
I know that's the in canon thing that was in her original profile, but the numbers don't really add up with what we know about her. At the end of the fourth season (and they screwed up last year with it again) she was supposed to have been part of the Miami-Dade Lab for ten years. That would have put her at 23 when she was recruited from the New Orleans P.D., where she was not only a police officer that no longer walked a beat, but had gotten herself a heck of a reputation as a ballistics expert in the crime lab. So, when did her physics degree from Tulane come into being? In the States, most teenagers graduate from high school at 18. It takes, typically, four years to get a degree in anything, if not more. The earliest she would have graduated from college would have been at 22. Then there is the application and acceptance to the Police Academy. I couldn't find info on the timespan for New Orleans, but the standard training course seems to be about eight weeks, although most run in "seasons" and an accepted trainee could have to wait up to eight weeks to get into a program, if not more, depending on the amount of applications. Let's just say she was able to get in and out of her Academy class in six months. She's already 23 and a fresh new beat cop with no reputation anywhere. It takes a couple of years for a reputation to grow outside one's own shift, station house and city. We'll give her the fast track and say it took her two years because she's just that amazing. So, Megan doesn't hear of her until Calleigh is 25 and has been a member of the NOPD Crime Lab for a little while. She recruits her and Calleigh starts at Miami-Dade. Ten years later, at the end of the fourth season, she's already 35. Three seasons later makes her 38, which I can just barely swallow as straining real time. I know it's all a T.V. show, but some things need to come out as believable. Now, if it had been mentioned somewhere that she'd graduated early from high school and did the same in college....it still doesn't compute because no Police Academy will accept a candidate under the age of 21. So, I think that Calleigh, despite the original character profile (which also had her dad beating the snot out of her while she was growing up, and that changed within the first season), is closer to Emily's own age.
Just my take on it. I'm a teacher so I deal in fact and the fact is, if Calleigh was born in 1974 then I can't believe the character at all. It doesn't make sense.