Week 5

Intro to Police I

This week we continued to study the new police officer. We read about training programs and academies. We then looked at the field training officer (FTO) program, which a good friend of mine happens to be an FTO ( Hi Eric!) In the class discussion we talked about whether or not the amount of training an officer receives is enough to prepare them for the streets as a fully functional officer. The truth I believe is no, just like in trucking, training program does not make a good driver, it takes time and experience on the job to develop that professionalism. The written assignment this week was on something called "Police cyncism" which is basically something that can happen when new officers come into the career with the misconception that their job is filled with lollipops and happiness and "helping" people all day long. When they are faced head on with the reality of the streets, and this applies mostly to the days before the wide acceptance off the community police tactics (COPPS) which we will get into in another week.

Anyway the fact of the matter is cops had to deal with the "bad guys" most of the time and begin to drift away from their fantasy world and develop an us vs. them attitude and assumes that everyone is bad except their fellow officers. It can lead to depression, seperation from family and society, divorce, and even suicide. It's not a good road to go down. The days of community policing are here now, the police get to deal a lot more with the good people in a proactive manner, which I believe helps to level out the emotions a little bit and keeps the officers perspective a little more balanced in the good.

Also took the mid-term exam this week.

Intro to Criminal Justice I

This week we studied criminology theories. This is all different sorts of studies on reasons that lead to crime from hereditary, biological, to social status. This is such an in-depth study that I wouldn't even know where to begin to blog about it. It would go on forever, but you get the basic idea. In the discussion we also discussed theories. In the journal entry I wrote about physical fitness preparation for a law enforcement career. The truth of the matter, I believe, is their is no one certain reason that leads to crime, most the theories make good points, and a few are just absolutly ridiculous. But it is a combination of factors that can lead people to crime, either one time, or a life long career.