Maybe the first thing a ride-along learns when accompanying Officer K.C. Martin on patrol is the reluctance of Rio Rancho drivers to get out of the way for emergency equipment.

Twice during a recent outing, Martin was “running code” (lights flashing, siren sounding) and drivers on Northern Boulevard and NM 528 were either oblivious to his speeding patrol car or thinking the lane they were driving in was for them.

Never mind that they didn’t know whether the “10-45” (accident with injuries) he was headed to on NM 528 was serious or the domestic violence call with a drunken family member holding a knife in Enchanted Hills would turn deadly. That’s not the point.

“This is unbelievable,” Martin said, displaying the patience of a saint as he zigzagged his way through traffic, occasionally using some left-turn lanes to get past drivers in the fast lane and running red lights — without a scratch on the car.

Martin is in his second stint on the force. He graduated the police academy in 2002 but later decided his talent was in teaching, so he taught special behavioral students at Rio Rancho High School.

“I loved ‘em,” he said of the students, adding he might want to teach again someday.

But he couldn’t love the paycheck and although he doesn’t have an ostentatious lifestyle, it wasn’t enough.

“I had a lifestyle set,” he said. “I’m a single guy who looks to the future.”

Martin professes a love for kids. Heck, he’d like to even have some of his own someday.

For now, he’s content to coach a U-12 girls soccer team and assist head coach John Shepard with the RRHS boys soccer team. He also plays on a men’s indoor league at Blades Multiplex Arenas every Tuesday evening, and supplements his police work income with a job at Defined Fitness.

He recently served as the vice president on the Rumble in Rio board of directors and trained hard for several months to represent the police department a few weeks ago in Rumble V, where he made short work — one punch — of a firefighter in his bout.

About 18 months ago, he returned to the police department, where he’d lost his seniority as a corporal, and started the climb again.

Martin, 31, works four 10-hour days in Beat 2, basically patrolling west of Unser and between Southern and Northern boulevards, from 2 p.m. until midnight.

On the day his ride-along (a 10-12 in police talk) climbed into his car, it was easy to see the roller-coaster shift from boredom to an adrenaline rush and back to boredom for a police officer.

For a while, Martin (Officer 130 to the dispatcher) points his car toward a three-way stop at 5th and Tarpon, watching for motorists who can’t be bothered stopping for the stop sign.

It doesn’t take long to see a few scofflaws, with Martin ignoring some “California stops” and pursuing two blatant sign-runners. He issues both warning citations, after making sure their licenses, registrations and proofs of insurance were all in order and there weren’t any warrants for their arrests.

Martin’s presence in the older neighborhood, hopefully, could deter some offenses. He’s not a hard guy, a Joe Friday, looking to take down “perps” all day.

“Most of our areas are quiet,” he said, hoping to eventually be assigned in Beat 3, pretty much the heartbeat of the city. “Once I have a family, this is where I want to live.”

“K.C. Martin is a go-getter,” said deputy chief Scott Kellogg. “There’s no doubt about it. He’s been gone and away from us. We were happy to rehire him and we’re happy with work he’s done in the community, like youth soccer. He sure puts a great image on our department,” Kellogg added. “We’re proud of him for this Rumble in Rio, and the officer he’s become.”

If you get pulled over by Martin, there’s a chance you won’t even get cited. One of the stop-sign offenders, Martin said later, had become complacent.

“A lot of times it’s (their) attitude),” he confides. Writing tickets and making arrests isn’t what the job is all about, at least in his mind. “We are in customer service,” he said.

He knows “you always get respect to your face — till you walk away, (when they’re thinking), ‘Don’t you have anything better to do?’ ”

After a slow drive through the neighborhood, with a few waves at youngsters on bikes and skateboards, Martin is dispatched to a larceny.

It’s nothing serious, other than to the residents who have had some John McCain election signs stolen from their property.

Martin speaks with the victims, hands them some self-reporting forms and lets a little boy sit inside his unit and turn on the siren, horn and emergency lights.

Martin hasn’t solved the case of the missing McCain signs, to be sure, but he’s made a favorable impression on the victims and a child.

“If you can get the public on our side, our job is so much easier,” he said.

After a short pursuit of a possible DWI driver, soon pulled over by another officer, Martin takes a call on a three-car accident on NM 528 between Rockaway and Sundt. It’s rush hour, naturally, and Martin winds up spending an hour at the scene.

“Tell ’em it’s a 44 (accident without injuries),” a State Police officer, the first at the scene, tells Martin when he rolls up behind the accident impeding southbound traffic.

One person is issued a warning for careless driving in the paperwork completed by Officer Melanie Foster, a 2002 graduate of RRHS.

The woman who caused the accident — no skid marks are present — was inattentive and plowed into the van in front of her, which then struck a pickup truck ahead of the van.

Foster, celebrating one year of duty on the force, said Martin “is a great officer. He’s a team player.”

Even before the 46 — tow truck — arrives to haul away two of the three vehicles involved, another minor mishap occurs on the frontage road and Foster has more paperwork to fill out.

Martin, meanwhile, starts to respond to the domestic violence call in Enchanted Hills, once again switching from lane to lane as he speeds up NM 528, where, again, drivers don’t seem to realize they’re slowing his response time.

“What is wrong with people?” Martin mutters in frustration.

Once near the incident location on Bismarck Hills, Martin turns off his headlights and waits for a backup unit. Domestic violence calls can turn deadly, and woe be to the officer trying to break one without help.

“What they teach us is ‘make sure you go home,’ ” he said.

Soon, his backup arrives: It’s Foster, and the two drive to the home, where the drunken uncle props himself up by the automobile door in the driveway — and Martin learns the knife he was armed with is a butter knife.

No surprise, alcohol is involved, and after nearly an hour to remedy the situation, the officers leave the scene.

“He’s an old guy, too drunk. He peed himself. He’ll sit there till his pastor comes to get him,” Martin said, noting he heard “two different stories” at the scene and neither convincing enough to act further.

It’s too early for dinner, so Martin heads to station one to refuel his car, then he cruises some neighborhoods for “police presence.” People feel reassured when they notice patrol cars driving in their neighborhoods. It gives them a good feeling.

Next, Martin is sent to a call in a neighborhood near Sara Road and Meadowlark Lane, where a suspicious person has been seen near a new home.

Martin speaks to the person who called, gets a brief description of the subject and a vehicle he was seen driving away in, when surprised by the caller, and calls the dispatcher on his cell phone so as to not take up what could be valuable air time for an emergency dispatch.

After another neighborhood appearance, this time using his spotlight so residents would know police were in the area, it’s time to meet Foster at Dion’s.

It’s been a fairly uneventful shift so far, and the 10-12’s seen enough.

It’s time for him to head home and get some sleep, after spending nearly eight hours in a squad car.

It’s been enough to determine that the police department would be better off with more guys like Martin and more women like Foster on the roster.

It’s been easy to see they love their jobs.

Martin says being a cop is comparable to being a parent to a child growing up.

“You love ’em to death but they’re your worst enemies when you’ve done something wrong,” he explained. “We’re the first person called if someone’s breaking into your house. We’re easy to hate.”

Martin certainly isn’t hated by the varsity Rams.

Before a recent soccer game, nearly every player seems to come up to him, shake hands, bump fists or give him a hug.

They love the guy — and Martin loves these guys more than he loves soccer, although he confesses, “As a kid, I wanted to be a professional soccer player.”

“K.C. is our defensive coach, our fitness coach and often our motivator. I know the players like having him around and I know he is a great help to me as a coach,” Shepard said. “We had to rebuild the defense this year and much of their success is due to K.C. He sets a good example for our young men to emulate: He’s a police officer, he’s a good soccer player, he’s a tough guy, but he’s funny and caring as well.”

And that’s just the way he is on the P.D.