Real Life Police Story
So I ran into a police officer that I have met on several occasions and I asked her if she would come and speak to my ROP Legal Occupations Class. We are studying the constitution and several of the students shared their experiences of being stopped by the police and having their cars searched without a search warrent. Silly me, I heard all this negativity about police and thought that if they could only meet police officers in a non-threatening environment, that my students would love and respect them the way that I do. Well, anyhoo, Sue couldn't come to my class, so I asked if we could go to her and have a tour of the police station. She agreed.
To say that I was very excited at the prospect is an understatement. My students, maybe not so much. The time came and Sue first took us to the roll call room (she called it line up I think). She only had about 15 minutes, but she packed so much information into that 15 minutes that we were reeling. My students asked her very good questions and they were attentive and great (only 2 at this point, because one was very late). Then we were handed off to a volunteer officer to continue our tour (and my late kind of grumpy "I don't want to be here" student showed up).
Our tour progressed to forensics. It is not like television. It is incredibly not like television. The "lab" was a glorified kitchen looking room with very little actual equipment. They are expecting a grant to build a DNA lab, but the concern is that a DNA lab will take away a lot of space in the "lab" they have now. They have a dark room kind of area that is almost never used because now all the pictures are digital. They have a large photo copier to prepare exhibits for trial and they have one computer to help analyse fingerprints. They described that the computer gives them a number of possible matches and then they have to manually cull through all the possibles--not like tv where one match is spit out by the computer. We were asking the requirements to get a job in the police department and they said that there was no actual requirement for a college degree, but that the competition was so tough that the last three hires had post graduate masters degrees.
Next we went to the detective offices. It is not a bullpen design, like on tv--it was more cubicles. Then we went to communications. Now I am somewhat familiar with communications, because that's what Michelle does. She told me some wild stories about when she was training to become a 911 operator. Anyway, Glendale has a very nice communications department and a reserve officer gave us a very detailed description of his job and the requirements of the job. I was so impressed. Then we went by a wall of photos--Lief was in several of the photos and I recognized some of the cases, so our guide and I discussed them to try to impress on the students the scope and importance of police work. Even my yawning student asked a few questions. I was happy with the field trip and it could have ended there a complete success.
But then our tour guide took us past the Captians offices. Lief was in his office and since I know him from Kiwanis, he came out to speak with us. My students asked good questions and then Lief went into a speech of sorts as to why he became a police officer. It was so moving. He described the feeling about being called to a dangerous situation and saving someone--protecting someone. He said there is no greater feeling in the world than being so important to society and making such a difference in peoples lives. He described that many people cannot handle the pressure and risk of being a police officer and that it makes some people heavy handed to be in such a dangerous job, under so much stress. He told us that for every 100 candidates for the job of police officer, only 1 will successfully make it their career. I was blown away, but as I sneaked a peek at my students I realized we were losing their interest and I really wanted to get them out of there before they embarassed me.
So I was super impressed, but it didn't seem like my students were. Now I need to send a thank you present to Sue and Lief and the volunteer officer (whom I was so stupid not to write down his name), but Lief told us that it was unethical for the police to accept gifts. A civilian police force allows a free democracy to run and I'm sitting here trying to decide if I can send Sue and Lief a edible arrangement (you know one of those fruit bouquets that is cut friut to look like flowers). They are getting the fruit. If they are not allowed to accept it, then they will probably give it to their volunteers and that is all good.
To say that I was very excited at the prospect is an understatement. My students, maybe not so much. The time came and Sue first took us to the roll call room (she called it line up I think). She only had about 15 minutes, but she packed so much information into that 15 minutes that we were reeling. My students asked her very good questions and they were attentive and great (only 2 at this point, because one was very late). Then we were handed off to a volunteer officer to continue our tour (and my late kind of grumpy "I don't want to be here" student showed up).
Our tour progressed to forensics. It is not like television. It is incredibly not like television. The "lab" was a glorified kitchen looking room with very little actual equipment. They are expecting a grant to build a DNA lab, but the concern is that a DNA lab will take away a lot of space in the "lab" they have now. They have a dark room kind of area that is almost never used because now all the pictures are digital. They have a large photo copier to prepare exhibits for trial and they have one computer to help analyse fingerprints. They described that the computer gives them a number of possible matches and then they have to manually cull through all the possibles--not like tv where one match is spit out by the computer. We were asking the requirements to get a job in the police department and they said that there was no actual requirement for a college degree, but that the competition was so tough that the last three hires had post graduate masters degrees.
Next we went to the detective offices. It is not a bullpen design, like on tv--it was more cubicles. Then we went to communications. Now I am somewhat familiar with communications, because that's what Michelle does. She told me some wild stories about when she was training to become a 911 operator. Anyway, Glendale has a very nice communications department and a reserve officer gave us a very detailed description of his job and the requirements of the job. I was so impressed. Then we went by a wall of photos--Lief was in several of the photos and I recognized some of the cases, so our guide and I discussed them to try to impress on the students the scope and importance of police work. Even my yawning student asked a few questions. I was happy with the field trip and it could have ended there a complete success.
But then our tour guide took us past the Captians offices. Lief was in his office and since I know him from Kiwanis, he came out to speak with us. My students asked good questions and then Lief went into a speech of sorts as to why he became a police officer. It was so moving. He described the feeling about being called to a dangerous situation and saving someone--protecting someone. He said there is no greater feeling in the world than being so important to society and making such a difference in peoples lives. He described that many people cannot handle the pressure and risk of being a police officer and that it makes some people heavy handed to be in such a dangerous job, under so much stress. He told us that for every 100 candidates for the job of police officer, only 1 will successfully make it their career. I was blown away, but as I sneaked a peek at my students I realized we were losing their interest and I really wanted to get them out of there before they embarassed me.
So I was super impressed, but it didn't seem like my students were. Now I need to send a thank you present to Sue and Lief and the volunteer officer (whom I was so stupid not to write down his name), but Lief told us that it was unethical for the police to accept gifts. A civilian police force allows a free democracy to run and I'm sitting here trying to decide if I can send Sue and Lief a edible arrangement (you know one of those fruit bouquets that is cut friut to look like flowers). They are getting the fruit. If they are not allowed to accept it, then they will probably give it to their volunteers and that is all good.
posted by KathrynVH @ 12:28 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home