Wednesday, December 2, 2015
The Holidays
The CDI gets holidays off which allowed me to spend extra time with my family this year. For thanksgiving I went to my Girlfriend's family for dinner which is the first time I have been to any other thanksgiving dinner that was not with my family. My family spent this year in San Diego because my little brother had a soccer tournament so it was unavoidable. I would say it was a pretty good day I mean there was turkey, pumpkin pie, football, and favorable beverages, there was plenty to be thankful for. I look forward to Christmas and the new years celebration as well. With my current schedule I don't get as much time as I would like to spend with my family. The holidays are a good remedy for that. Spending time with my family is rejuvenating for me and a reminder of why I am working so hard to get where I want to be.
Free Write- Tempe
My internship has brought me back to my hometown of Sacramento, CA. It had been just about a year since I have been back to Tempe. I can honestly say I miss living in Tempe. I know many Californians that move to Arizona don't always share my opinion due to the weather but I grew accustomed to the heat, or at least how to handle it. It has brought thoughts of possibly moving back to Arizona some day in the future. But I begin to think what about Tempe do I miss. I know I miss my friends for one. Although I am in contact with a lot of my friends I met as a Sundevil, a majority of them have also left Tempe in search of careers. Another aspect I miss is the town atmosphere. My experience in Tempe was a that of friendly people and not much worrying about violence when out in public. Sacramento is not the same any aspect. Sacramento is better compared to phoenix in that it is congested and diverse, not everyone if friendly and helpful, and going out in public reminds me that I should be aware of my surroundings in certain areas. I think when its comes down to it I miss the college town atmosphere and the experience I had living in Tempe. I look forward to going back for a visit soon to see friends and catch a football game, hopefully when the team starts playing better though....
Free write - Memorial destruction
I am a little behind on posts due to the craziness of the last couple months so I will be posting a few extra posts. The first topic that came to mind was a very frustrating incident that happened back in October.
On Friday, October 27 2006 Sacramento County Deputy Sheriff Jeffrey Mitchell was shot and killed during a vehicle stop. The offender was never caught and the murder investigation is still open. Deputy Mitchell gave his life attempting to make Sacramento county a safer place to live. The ultimate public service in my opinion. In honor of sacrifice, a memorial was built in his name near his place of death which included an American flag and bench area.
This past October only a week before the memorial of his death, his memorial site was destroyed. The bench was uprooted and the flag destroyed. I'm not sure what kind of person does such a thing. I can't really put my feeling about the incident into words but they would bot be pleasant words if I could. I donated to the cause of rebuilding and improving the memorial before the anniversary of his memorial and was happy to hear the wife and son of Deputy Mitchell were pleased with the new memorial.
I don't really know the purpose of this post other than as I continue my pursuit of joining a law enforcement agency I am reminded of the family atmosphere of the job and how even officers who have never met each other would do whatever needed to look out for one another.
Fallen But Not Forgotten.
On Friday, October 27 2006 Sacramento County Deputy Sheriff Jeffrey Mitchell was shot and killed during a vehicle stop. The offender was never caught and the murder investigation is still open. Deputy Mitchell gave his life attempting to make Sacramento county a safer place to live. The ultimate public service in my opinion. In honor of sacrifice, a memorial was built in his name near his place of death which included an American flag and bench area.
This past October only a week before the memorial of his death, his memorial site was destroyed. The bench was uprooted and the flag destroyed. I'm not sure what kind of person does such a thing. I can't really put my feeling about the incident into words but they would bot be pleasant words if I could. I donated to the cause of rebuilding and improving the memorial before the anniversary of his memorial and was happy to hear the wife and son of Deputy Mitchell were pleased with the new memorial.
I don't really know the purpose of this post other than as I continue my pursuit of joining a law enforcement agency I am reminded of the family atmosphere of the job and how even officers who have never met each other would do whatever needed to look out for one another.
Fallen But Not Forgotten.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Report Writing
I am quickly learning that one of the most important tasks in law enforcement is writing a good report. Report writing is not something most people thin about when they think about a career in law enforcement. Every case or call a peace officer works must be properly and thoroughly documented. Reports that are done poorly can lead to violent offenders being freed and released back into the population, civil law suits against counties or police agencies, and even prosecution of officers if information was reported falsely on documentation.
A peace officer is responsible for being as detailed as possible in his reports including the times and locations of events, accurate reporting of statements taken, observations of the scene or injuries if relevant. Police reports need to be accurate and thorough because it could be years before the officer is called to a stand to testify on a case and the only thing he has to remember the incident is the report he wrote. Another reason reports are so important is that they document the justification of an officers actions. If an officer is going to arrest someone and in essence remove their freedom by taking them into custody, the officer must properly document the probable cause that lead to the arrest. The same goes for if an officer uses force on ay suspect. You wouldn't be able to just write "during a conversation with john doe, I placed him in handcuffs to talk to him." If you were to read this statement you would have no idea why the officer believed it was necessary to place the individual in handcuffs. To be more efficient you would say something like "during my conversation with John Doe about a recent robbery involving a knife that had just occurred in the area by a man matching his description, Doe began to shift his body weight and clench his fists as if he was ready to fight. For my safety as well as that of Doe, I placed him in handcuffs to detain him to search for weapons and for further investigation of the robbery.' The amount of detail in both statements is noticeably different. You know exactly what happened and why the officer took the actions he took.
In summary, to be a good peace officer one must possess excellent writing skills in order to properly perform his/her duties.
A peace officer is responsible for being as detailed as possible in his reports including the times and locations of events, accurate reporting of statements taken, observations of the scene or injuries if relevant. Police reports need to be accurate and thorough because it could be years before the officer is called to a stand to testify on a case and the only thing he has to remember the incident is the report he wrote. Another reason reports are so important is that they document the justification of an officers actions. If an officer is going to arrest someone and in essence remove their freedom by taking them into custody, the officer must properly document the probable cause that lead to the arrest. The same goes for if an officer uses force on ay suspect. You wouldn't be able to just write "during a conversation with john doe, I placed him in handcuffs to talk to him." If you were to read this statement you would have no idea why the officer believed it was necessary to place the individual in handcuffs. To be more efficient you would say something like "during my conversation with John Doe about a recent robbery involving a knife that had just occurred in the area by a man matching his description, Doe began to shift his body weight and clench his fists as if he was ready to fight. For my safety as well as that of Doe, I placed him in handcuffs to detain him to search for weapons and for further investigation of the robbery.' The amount of detail in both statements is noticeably different. You know exactly what happened and why the officer took the actions he took.
In summary, to be a good peace officer one must possess excellent writing skills in order to properly perform his/her duties.
Friday, November 20, 2015
Why I want to be Join Law Enforcement
Being in an academy, I am constantly asked and instructed to remember why I want to be in law enforcement. The first reason would be the obvious choice in that I like to help people. I was raised by a family that believes if you have the means to help someone, you should. Not for a reward or a favor in return but because it is the right thing to do. Now I know I won't be able to help everyone I deal with on the job but helping even one person who needed help is worth it to me.
Another reason I want to join this career field is my family. Now I do not have a whole lot of family in law enforcement but those that are have helped in my decision but it is my family members that are not in law enforcement that really influenced me. I am aware that bad things can happen to the best of people because there are bad people out there willing to hurt good people. I know that is a broad statement and the typical "I want to catch bad guys" speech you would normally here but its true. I want to do my part in taking those that have no regard for the rest of society off the streets and put away so they can get any help they may need to become better themselves or just stay isolated away from the rest of the populace, especially my family.
Speaking of family leads me to my next reason and the last I'll talk about, the family atmosphere and teamwork of law enforcement. When you work an extremely stressful job were at times your life is in danger and your depend on you coworkers to make sure you get home every night, a pretty strong bond is formed. Growing up playing soccer, I have been part of a team my whole life. I wanted a career that would allow me to continue being part of a team in which I could depend on others who could depend on me as well. This type of atmosphere helps drive you to get better and be better. I am a pretty loyal person and there isn't much I wouldn't do to help my family and friends.
These three reasons are only three reason I would like to join law enforcement. There are many other reasons that are a little more selfish like driving a car with sirens, chasing people, good benefits, and all the cool gear. Those are perks to look forward to but I wouldn't be honest if I said I wasn't thinking of them.
Another reason I want to join this career field is my family. Now I do not have a whole lot of family in law enforcement but those that are have helped in my decision but it is my family members that are not in law enforcement that really influenced me. I am aware that bad things can happen to the best of people because there are bad people out there willing to hurt good people. I know that is a broad statement and the typical "I want to catch bad guys" speech you would normally here but its true. I want to do my part in taking those that have no regard for the rest of society off the streets and put away so they can get any help they may need to become better themselves or just stay isolated away from the rest of the populace, especially my family.
Speaking of family leads me to my next reason and the last I'll talk about, the family atmosphere and teamwork of law enforcement. When you work an extremely stressful job were at times your life is in danger and your depend on you coworkers to make sure you get home every night, a pretty strong bond is formed. Growing up playing soccer, I have been part of a team my whole life. I wanted a career that would allow me to continue being part of a team in which I could depend on others who could depend on me as well. This type of atmosphere helps drive you to get better and be better. I am a pretty loyal person and there isn't much I wouldn't do to help my family and friends.
These three reasons are only three reason I would like to join law enforcement. There are many other reasons that are a little more selfish like driving a car with sirens, chasing people, good benefits, and all the cool gear. Those are perks to look forward to but I wouldn't be honest if I said I wasn't thinking of them.
District Attorney's office
On of the things I have noticed during my internship is the fragile but important relationship between law enforcement and the DA's office. Sacramento county is backed up in case work and the DA's office wither not taking certain cases or pleading out with almost no punishment for certain offenders. This pertains to the insurance fraud division as well. Because there are so many cases of insurance fraud, not all cases are pursued and people simply get away with it. Putting it as simple as possible I would say that as long as a person doesn't commit a major case of insurance fraud they will not be prosecuted and even then some of the larger cases are turned down because the DA will say there is not enough evidence. There have been incidents where detectives have been working a case for a over a month and believe they have all the evidence they need to make an arrest and the DA will deny a warrant request because the case wouldn't be an "easy" win. Now I say these things based on my perspective of listening to the detectives. I do not believe the DAs are just looking for easy wins to boost their resume, I believe the issue again lies in the amount of cases that are being tried and the courts being backed up. To be cost efficient with the budget, only bigger cases with strong evidence are being considered for pursuit.
Part of my duties as an intern is too look over fraud claims sent in from Insurance companies. reading through the claims I am able to tell which claims the department will be able to pursue and which will be turned down due to the amount of loss related to the claim, no injuries, or lack of evidence to investigate.
Too many criminals, not enough good guys.
Part of my duties as an intern is too look over fraud claims sent in from Insurance companies. reading through the claims I am able to tell which claims the department will be able to pursue and which will be turned down due to the amount of loss related to the claim, no injuries, or lack of evidence to investigate.
Too many criminals, not enough good guys.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Down Time
When I first started the internship I was lucky enough to join when there were multiple field operations I could help with such as the search warrants. The last couple of weeks have been a little slower around the office as the detectives wait to chase a new lead or gather more information. Usually this allows me the down time to catch up on other assignments such as creating evidence boxes and writing "fake" reports off of cases that aren't being worked yet.
If it gets really slow I try and ask the detectives to fill me on one of their cases that they are working and listen to how they plan on pursuing it and if they think they can get a conviction or not. I was surprised to find that there are quite a few cases in which a detective and his/her partners will spend a lot of time investigating just to have the case rejected by a District attorney or not even reported to the district attorney cause there was not enough information or evidence gathered to make an arrest. This doesn't happen because the detectives did anything wrong but simply there wasn't enough evidence to prove anything. It is not like the television shows where they catch the suspects almost every time or find some sort of evidence with every lead they follow. A majority of the work being done is from a desk or a phone.
If it gets really slow I try and ask the detectives to fill me on one of their cases that they are working and listen to how they plan on pursuing it and if they think they can get a conviction or not. I was surprised to find that there are quite a few cases in which a detective and his/her partners will spend a lot of time investigating just to have the case rejected by a District attorney or not even reported to the district attorney cause there was not enough information or evidence gathered to make an arrest. This doesn't happen because the detectives did anything wrong but simply there wasn't enough evidence to prove anything. It is not like the television shows where they catch the suspects almost every time or find some sort of evidence with every lead they follow. A majority of the work being done is from a desk or a phone.
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