Week 4

Introduction to Police I

Beginning this week we start to look at the hiring and training process for new officers, referred to as the "hurdle process." The process may vary depending upon department,some use more of the methods than others. But consist of some of the following and the percentage of departments nationwide that use each step in the hiring process of new officers:

• Application 100% (obviously)
• Personal Interview 98%
• Medical Exam 85%
• Drug Test 73% (This is kind of surprising, one would assume 100%)
• Psychological Evaluation 67%
• Physical Agility Test 50%
• Written Aptitude Test 43% (This is primarily used in large departments)
• Personality Inventory 26%
  
• Polygraph Exam 25% ( This is really surprising, and we will discuss later why)
• Voice Stress Analyzer 4% (Have no idea what this means)
• Second Language Ability Test 1% ( Really only applies to specialized federal positions)
• Background Check 99%
• Background Investigation 98%
• MVR check 96%
• Credit check 55%
• Volunteer Service Check 8%

Now let's look at some examples of why polygraph's are a good idea and should be much more widely used:

• Applicant in PA came highly recommended by a police Lt. and his previous employer from a home for blind and mentally challenged children, admitted to 50 counts of sexually abusing the children under his care.
• Applicant in KS admits to burglaries and the police clear eight unsolved cases.
• Police officer in CA applies to transfer to new department and admits under polygraph to burglaries while on duty, and sex with underage girls in his patrol car.
• Another applicant to a CA Sheriff's office admits he likes to beats Blacks, Mexicans, and long haired pukes to release his frustration. (although he used some other terms)

Without the polygraph, these officers may be out patrolling the streets right now. For my assignment is class this week I wrote a report on the "hurdle process" of the Ohio Highway Patrol, and in class discussion we discussed the hiring process.

Introduction to Criminal Justice I


This week we began our study into crime, covering all sorts of crime. Part I and Part II offenses.
This was a very in-depth look at all sorts of crime, so I wont go into much detail about that. In the assignment for this week we took the crime of murder and compared it's results with the FBI Uniform Crime Report and the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics site. The UCR site basically takes each type of crime and gives and gives a total number for the year,regardless of factors. The SCJS site takes a crime and breaks it down into several factors, weapon,gender,age,size of city, etc. The discussion this week we discussed the influence of the media on the criminal justice system. In the journal entry I wrote about ethics.