Week 7

Intro to Police I

We discussed and read about the differences in police work from each shift,and what the advantages and disadvantages to working each shift are. In the assignments we were given a scenario of pulling a good looking man/woman over late at night for running a red light and listening to the story of the driver, then deciding how to use our police discretion whether or not to issue the driver a ticket, then we had to answer for a another possible scenario depending on our decision.

Scenario 'A': You use your police discretion give the driver a ticket, the driver becomes angry stating that you could have given me a break.” He/she continues by saying “I am going to file a complaint on you because the only reason you pulled me over was to try and hook up with me." Explain your actions and how you would defend yourself to the Chief.

Scenario 'B': You use your police discretion and don't give the driver a ticket. You let him/her go along his/her way. Upon his/her arrival at home their wife/husband is angry because he/she has come home so late. He/she then says, "I would have been home quite a bit earlier had it not been for that cop who pulled me over just to meet me. I would have been home on time. I know the cop didn't have a legal reason to stop me because she/he didn't give me a ticket. The wife/husband then calls your supervisor to file a harassment complaint against you. Explain your actions and how you would defend yourself to the Chief.

In which I respond with A, The vehicle was observed running a red light, it was 2 am and they pulled over into a dark parking lot (this was part of the initial scenario) so I had no way of knowing what the drivers sex or looks were. I issue the citation so that there is no questions of ethics that would arise from stopping an obviously attractive woman,as would arise from scenario B.

This week was basically dedicated to the patrol function of policing, the "backbone."

Into to Criminal Justice I

Basically another cross over week with the other course, going more into the community policing styles, and looking at older methods of policing that existed before the 1980's when community-oriented-policing-program (COPP) began. For the assignment this week we had to take the community policing plan of the Chicago police and contrast it with the plan of another department. For this I worked with my friend in the Denver police department who provided me all the guidelines for DPD problem-oriented-policing model (POP) We will discuss POP more in week 8. For the journal exercise I explained why my interest in criminal justice is to be a state police officer.