Junior Year - Week Six

KANSAS CITY POLICE PREVENTIVE PATROL EXPERIMENT was an experiment to see if the public and citizens felt better and safer when a patrol car was driving through their development or down their streets. They had researchers and writers drive along with officers in a high crime rate area and record what they saw and experienced for one year. While they were out riding along with different officers in different areas they would randomly survey citizens off the street to see what they thought. Researchers had come back and reviewed all there data. In the end the only thing they had discovered was that the KANSAS CITY POLICE EXPERIMENT had not worked. When a citizen had seen more police cars patrolling they never felt safer, they feared that the crime rate was increasing.  The crime rate didn’t increase nor did it decrease it had just been a waste or resources for the police department. The tax dollars had been spent because some of the neighborhoods had said they wanted to see more police cars patrolling, when in reality it feared citizens more than calmed their feelings of crime.

PHILADELPHIA FOOT PATROL EXPERIMENT had occurred in Philadelphia and had happened after KANSAS CITY POLICE PREVENTIVE PATROL EXPERIMENT. In this experiment they had placed pairs of officers together in a target area. Along with the KANSAS CITY POLICE EXPERIMENT the officers were placed in high crime rate areas. These officers were on foot hence the name of the experiment and walked throughout their target areas, both shifts.  In the end of this experiment researchers had discovered that the officers were more approachable than the ones in police cars and less visible which is good and bad. But the experiment had worked increasingly better than the KANSAS CITY one.  The violent crime rate had decreased and the drug related arrest had increased. The officers saw where and when the drugs were being sold and to who. They patrolled and when an officer is walking around there are not going to be gang related fights or break ins. The patrolling actually worked in the high crime rate areas.

This week we got to take a field trip to the Olmsted Township Police Station, while on this visit we had the chance to ask officers and the lieutenant about the KANSAS CITY POLICE PREVENTIVE EXPERIMENT and the PHILADELPHIA FOOT PATROL EXPERIMENT. While at the police station we asked about the PHILADELPHIA FOOT PATROL EXPERIMENT and learned about that the lieutenant would like to use the foot patrol because he believes that the experiment is accurate and would actually help in the public.  While at the police station we learned about all the evidence and meet the chief of police and detectives.  Lieutenant Vanyo answered all the questions we had and allowed us to see everything that S.W.A.T would wear and weapons they would use.  We saw the dispatch center and the cruisers and I learned that the police department has a bicycle for police use and the officers need to take certification classes in order to patrol the neighborhoods.  The police department has a small station but a lot more stuff to deal with throughout the small community that I live than I expected.

When you have adrenaline running through your body it makes it slightly difficult to remember the training that we have had over the first six weeks of Criminal Justice.  Mr. Lavery allowed us to experience that. We were placed in the hallway while four students had stayed in the room.  The officers had or the students in the hallways had to do push ups and jog in place until their name was called. Once the students name was called the officer was placed in the room and had to do escort position without force and with little force. The next step was to do an arm-bar take down while a person was standing and with no resisting. The last step was the arm-bar take down while a person was sitting in a chair. While trying to do all of these it was slightly difficult because you have a reverse electrical stimulus which makes it hard for some to formulate a chemical stimulus because electrical over powers chemical. When it was all done the student realized that it is slightly hard to remember the English words that we have been speaking our whole life and the Spanish we just learned. It was a great experience for the student to have.

Junior Year- Week Five

                We started more take down techniques to prepare us for the real world of policing.  The arm bar take down is something we have reviewed and modified based on the situation.  Nerves are the primary focus for our take down techniques. When a nervous is hit it changes your thought process which than confuses the mind which results in the officer having control. We learned two place for nerves that will easily allow the officer to take control of the situation, one is the side of the leg, and the second is the side of the neck. To strike either of these places it takes some force but will never cause damage to the person forever.  We also learned how to take control from the wrist. The wrist is twisted and than pushed back towards the outside of the hand causing the person to lean forward which than allows the officer to take control. In the classroom notes were taken over World War II and the returning veterans. The Veterans had an effect on the policing community because they began to create police forces based on military tactics. They had also started joining police forces allow the cities departments to grow.

                In forensics we started learning about the spectcopy which is studying the density of unknown objects and what an object is based on the absorbance rate and other things involving light. But that unit won’t be started until later in the year. Before we are able to go into the lab we have to complete the lab safety test and must receive one hundred percent on it. This allows Mr. Mauser to know that everyone will be safe and will know what to do in the case of an emergency. Today we learned that we will start DNA and analysis of DNA. We learned about all the different tools and where everything is in lab. The fact that we are expected to be able to work alone like lab technicians is kind of exciting because it’s like real life experience.  Which is a great thing because forensics is the career I want to go into so being able to experience it in high school is something is a really cool because most kids in high school will never  experience this career field before college.

Junior Year - Week Four

  The begining of the fourth week we started working in the lab room. We went over things we learned from the weeks before like the arm bar take down and the proper escort position. After doing the escort position we learned how to take control of a person in order to place them under arrest and in handcuffs. We learned three different techniques, one was gripping the thumbs, another was gripping the fingers, another was going behind their back and pulling your arms behind them while pulling them closer so the officer can stay incontrol. The last technique will only work if the officer has a partner. We also learned how to do a take down if the perpertracter was in a car, bar or other place that you they were not standing.

  Modern policing was the next topic we covered for our history of policing notes. The topic that we covered that was a big thing was the battle between two police departments in New York City. There had been fighting and a lot of violence, no one cared about the city anymore both police departments wanted to be an army of the mayor. This occured in 1857 and had forced state to make new laws,  but both police departments kept patrolling the city until the Pendleton Act became into an effect. Something I learend that was a shock to me was that criminals, gang related criminals had been appointed by the mayor as law enforcement. Why would they appoint people to protect the city who had hurt people in the first place. The policing areas had been changed and organized so that northern cities had police departments and southern had like police regions that army had patrolled. Later the army had left and the patrolling was left to county police. The Criminals had changed so the policing had to change as well because if the police had been a step behind the criminals the chance of catching them would be very unlikely.

  This week we watched a video about guns. The video taught about how they classify different guns. Different police departments use different guns as their choice concealed weapon. Some use a pistol and some use a shotgun. The department that uses the shotgun talked about how even the sound the shotgun makes is intimidating for the person being arrested at the time. Each of the guns has markings on the inside of the gun which marks the bullet every time the gun is fired. These markings can be matched to the gun which than the police can find who the gun is registered to. Each marking is specific to the gun , making it easier to trace back to a model of a gun and using it as evidence to the jury. There are special officers and labs that run test and double check that the bullet and the gun match.

  In room 203 we worked with nerve or pressure points. If the criminal is resisting arrest we learn a couple of different ways to make them comply with the officer. If they are resisting arrest we can knee them in the side of the leg a couple inches above the knee. It strikes a nerve and weakens the body which makes it easier to use one of the take down techniques to get them on the ground. I also learned that everyone is made differently so one persons nerve may not be as close to the surface of your skin as another. Therefore you may have to strike a person more than once while trying to take them down to bring the nerve to the surface of the skin than hitting it again. Another way to make a person comply with the officer is to pop there shoulder. If you do this it's a warning that farther action may take place if they do not start to comply with the officer.

  During forensics this week we learned new things and got a hands on experience with certain things. We learned all the safety for the lab and what each number on the chemicals mean.If we can not pass the safety quiz we are not aloud to work in the lab because everything is very crucial to the safety of others in the lab. We learned that the fumes from one chemical can still react with another even if the other chemical is in a bottle or container. Like when the ethanol was made into a gas state and the plastic wrap was taken off of it the flame that was placed near it created a reaction in the air and made it catch on fire. The reaction was from the ethanol being oxidized which is a really bad thing when it comes to fire and chemicals. We watch CSI for two days because Mr. mauser's wife was having a baby but the point of watching CSI is to see the "effect" and than the real thing. It slowly puts us into our evidence bagging and tagging quarter and everything like that. But my favorite day so far was Friday, we go to turn pennies silver and than burn them into a gold coin if we wanted to. Everything in that lab has to do with chemical reactions that occur because of the solution the penny is placed in and than heated over.

Junior Year - Week Three

 Junior year started at the end of August which makes September 11th only a few weeks away. Going into the Criminal Justice field it sort of takes on a new meaning for that awful day. Ten years later we see what law enforcement officers saw and how they felt about this day. Ten years later makes everyone my age and a few years older see the real effects and how this changed America forever since we had been below the age of ten when this event occurred. It made me realize that America will be forever changed because of it and I realize how sad and horrific it really was now that I'm 16 year old. After we talked about this and explained if we remember what happened or where we were we went back to this history of policing. The american colonies was were we restarted our lesson of policing. The colonies were created by the british therefore britian law enforcement had been brought into america. Throughtout time the paid police forces started to show up in new cities. But the police forces weren't always protective and caring for the public as some are today. Example the NYPD cared more about themselves than the public they were suppose to be serving. That's why I think the fact that law enforcement has been changed makes it way better at protecting and serving our cities.

Junior Year - Week Two

History of Policing was the new topic for our second week of school. We learned that the first forms of policing had come from Europe and policing wasn't always the way it is today. Policing was the form of protection from harm, animals, and eventually people. The streets were walked to patrol for safety and to protect the goods that were being sent into the country. But most were not paid police officers or police forces. Some countries you could buy your position as an officer, lieutenant, or chief. Other places that were more uniform had created a police force that had certain procedures or rules they had to follow. In Britain and Ireland the "Peel Principals" had been created to maintain trust between people and officers. We learned all seven of the Peel Principals and why they had been important to the country and how some form of them still exists today. We learned how the history of all these different countries had traced back to America and how the American police forces derived from ancient times. Along with deriving from different countries we learned that people we encounter as officers may not always be American and be able to speak English. So we started learning Spanish commands that would help us communicate and command a person in need who did not speak English. But beyond the criminal justice part of school here we started our forensics class during our second week. We saw a lot of chemical reactions and began problem solving skills that involved water, air and pressure. In forensics I learned that it is not always about how you find evidence and how it's collected but how you present it in class, that's considered forensics. Week two was the week we learned that we have to take everything serious that we learn, and how to present yourself as an officer.

Junior Year - Week One

At the beginning of my junior year I started school at Polaris Career Center and my home school Olmsted Falls. It was a scary experience being 16 and having to start a new high school all over again, especially when I barely knew anyone in class with me. Our class started introducing everyone to each other and to the teacher, Mr. Lavery, also explaining what kinda of career we wanted to go into after high school and what we wanted to get out of the Criminal Justice program. We went over the things we would learn throughout our junior year and than had a lot of meetings to explain how this school was different from our home high school. Almost everyone knows each other to some extent in our classroom or at least what school is their home school. I've made new friends and that's a relief because I don't go into school everyday scared that I will have no one to talk to or be partners with for activities. The first two days of school overall were kinda of scary but every ones starting to become more familiar and more comfortable around each other.