Communicative Ethics

We can use communicative ethics in many ways as law enforcement officers. As a law enforcement officer it is very important to have both writing skills and verbal communication skills. During the career as a law enforcement officer, one will be asked to write a number of reports. In these reports it is very important to use the correct words to get the appropriate meaning across. As for verbal communication skills a law enforcement officer maybe called on the witness stand during court and the officer will need to act professional when he or she talks so that way the jury will believe that the officer is good at his or her job and is good at it. If the officer doesn’t have good verbal skills his testimony can be torn apart. Communicative ethics are extremely important in the law enforcement career and I believe that one would not get very far without these skills.

Interviewing

This week in Writing for the Disciplines Class, I learned many things about conducting an interview. The two groups in class had a different approach on how to conduct an interview. The two groups had different crimes that they were given. The first group to conduct the interview was more relaxed. That might have had something to do with the answers having nothing to do with what crime occurred. Therefore it was hard for the interviewer to ask anymore follow up questions. The other group had better luck. The interview caught the suspect in a few lies. Also a point that was brought up was during the first interview the suspect answered quickly and maintained eye contact. In the second interview the suspect was pausing a lot. Overall I think that this exercise was very helpful and I would not mind doing it again.  

The Interview

In the this week’s article called The Interview, by Douglas Starr explains about his experience at a basic Reid & Associates training course, in Boston. He went into great detail about his experience there. This training camp was to teach people how to properly interrogate someone. However, some of the points that this person made I felt went against what the book for the writing class was saying. For example the article explains that the key of the interview is to shut the client up and the book was explaining that the key is to get to the truth. How can one get to the truth if the client is supposed to be kept quiet? Even though this this was kind of confusing at times I still learned a few things. I learned that to get someone to confess often times you should downplay the offense. Even though the article went against some of the book’s teachings I still think there is much to be learned from The Interview.

Sweet Beginnings

In this week’s article called How Beekeeping Jobs are Giving Ex-cons in Chicago a Second Chance, by Casey Tolan explains how having ex-cons work for Sweet Beginnings decreases the recidivism rate. In fact the recidivism rate in Illinios is fifty five percent. The ex-cons that work for Sweet Beginnings only have a recidivism rate of four percent. After reading this article I realized that there are a lot of positive things about this program. Some of the ex-cons that work here have never had a job before. Putting Sweet Beginnings on a resume will help find another job. The employees feel like the other employees at Sweet Beginnings are like family. This is important because many people in jail feel like they do not have any family. When they get out of prison and work at Sweet Beginnings it is a good experience to realize that there are people that care about them. Another positive about Sweet Beginnings is that it is profit about. In fact it makes about nine thousand a year. I realize that nine thousand a year is not a lot, but at least it is something. Especially when most of the programs only spend money. There are so many positive outcomes because of the Sweet Beginnings and I believe that there should be so many more opportunities like that.

Criminal Minds

For this week’s guided reflection I watched the clip from the television show, Criminal Minds. I chose this one because I love Criminal Minds. There are many things that go right with this video. The man on the witness stand, Agent Hotchner, is one of the main characters on Criminal Minds. When the defense attorney was saying that Agent Hotchner’s job was just a bunch of guess work, Agent Hotchner did not seem phased by this. He was very calm and answered his question and then went on to explain the things that he had picked up on with the defense attorney. This shocked the defense attorney and showed the jury that his job was not just guess work and that Agent Hotchner is very good at his job. I honestly cannot really think of anything that Agent Hotchner could have done better. I really enjoyed this video and it was cool to see what criminal profilers can do.

Police Officers

In the video Do You Trust The Police, by VICE News shows a woman that had a bad experience with police in her city of Oakland, California. I would like to think that everyone thinks the police are there to help them when they need it most. However, after watching this video it is obvious not everyone feels this way. The woman from Oakland grew up in East Oakland, which had extremely high gun violence. She said that she would call the police many times and they would not show up. She also said that when she was driving she was constantly worried about being pulled over by the police. I can completely understand her frustration with the police and not wanting to trust them just because when she did call them they did not come on multiple occasions. However, many police departments are extremely under staffed and have to see which crimes are more important than others, especially in a high crime area. Many cities right now are having budget issues and have to find areas to cut. I wish things like this did not happen, however, they do. If she grew up in another city her view on police would be different. Majoring in the criminal justice field, I do not like hearing when someone does not like the police, however, I am finding than in many cities some people do not have a good experience with the police, which hopefully will change over time.

Height

As a class exercise I was asked to measure the distance from the ground to my waist, shoulders, and nose. This is a very good idea because it will help one know the approximate size of things, which will come in handy for just about any career in law enforcement. I am 5’2” and the distance from the ground to my waist is about three feet. The distance from the ground to my shoulder is about 4’5” and to my nose is about 4’9”. I think this is a very good idea to use as a reference for height.