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.

Harvard Debate Team Loses To Prison Debate Team

The article that I read for this week's blog was about how the Harvard debate team lost to a prison debate team. It gave them an opportunity to learn about different things and to challenge themselves. That goes against the stereotype that prisoners were not very bright. Also by the prisoners participating in things like that it shows that prisoners are actually smart. To beat a Harvard debate team is not a small task. The stereotype is that prisoners are not smart, but this goes against that. In the article many of the people said that they were caught off guard on how good the inmates actually were. Overall I think that this is a great opportunity for the inmates and I am happy they are participating in it.

Notebooks

If I needed to take notes at a crime scene I choose a specific type of notebook. The notebook would be slightly smaller than the regular paper size notebook. The reason I would have it smaller would be so I would be easier to carry around. Also because when you take notes at a crime scene they should be short and concise. This would help me make sure that my notes would be short. It is also important to keep your notes neat, organized, and easy to read for when I have to refer back to them. Therefore I believe a lined notebook would be best with space at the top for a title and date. I would want it to have pockets so I would be able to put any papers I need in there. I would also want there to be a place to keep a pen or pencil. This could mean a notebook with a special spot for a pen or a spiral notebook that would be big enough to fit a pen. The pictures below give some idea to what I would want my notebook to look like.

Kindness

The Twitter post about a Chicago police officer and a homeless man was moving. In the news today one will read many bad things about cops. This post however changes the mood. In this article it explains how a Chicago police officer spent his time and money on a homeless man. The article explains that the police officer saw a homeless man digging through the garbage and decides to buy him a meal. After that they shook hands and went their own direction. This is something that almost everyone can do for someone in need, but often times we choose not to. This article shows that there is still good in the world. It is very refreshing to see something noble about police officers after the most recent headlines.

Summary Writing

This past week I have learned many important things that will be useful for summary writing. The first thing that I learned was how to properly introduce a film or documentary into a summary. Before I did not realize that there was a certain method to it. I also did not know that that the director needs to be added when introducing the film or documentary into the summary. The second thing that I learned was that when writing a summary one cannot use opinion words such as fantastic, wonderful, or brilliant. I was completely unaware of this before this week and I know that I have put my opinion into the first draft of my paper. The third thing that I learned when writing a summary is that I cannot use the phrase “we get introduced” instead use the phrase “the film introduces.” During this week I have learned many important facts about summary writing that will be useful to this class and my career in law enforcement.

The Usual Suspect

I watched the film The Usual Suspect for extra credit. At first I thought that it wasn’t going to be that great because it was an older movie, but I was wrong. In the beginning of the movie I was a little bit confused because so much was happening, but once the movie got going the movie was very good. The Usual Suspect was about the police questioning a man, who they had thought was Roger “Verbal” Kint. They were trying to get as much information out of him as possible about what had happened the night on the pier. He told the cops the story about what had happened on the pier and why he and his friends had to attack the men on the pier. He kept a very smooth and calm demeanor until the name Keyser Soze was mentioned. He went on to tell this story about who this terrible man was and how scared everyone was of him including himself. The last twenty minutes was by far the best part of the movie and I won’t ruin the end of the movie for those who haven’t seen it. All and all I would strongly encourage everyone to watch the movie just because of how great the ending was.

After Innocence

I have not seen very many documentaries. Most of the ones  that I have seen have been for a history class. History does not spark my interest so it was hard for me to find many documentaries interesting. However I did watch Blackfish a year ago and it changed my mind about them. I found Blackfish to be very interesting and saddening. Overall my view on documentaries has not been very good, but there is a select few that will spark my interest.

One key way that documentaries can help a writer is because it gives the writer a different perspective. Documentaries tend to show a view that is not common to most people and it tends to open the viewers eyes about things that are happening in our world. Another key way that documentaries can help a writer is because documentaries are full of important information that can be used to have a strong paper.

I watched the documentary After Innocence. It was a full of useful information that I can use later in my job in the criminal justice field. It was very moving and taught me many things. It showed me that just because an eye witness can seem to be 100% positive that the suspect in question committed the crime doesn’t mean that the suspect actually committed the crime. I found this documentary to be very sad because in some of the cases some of the legal teams realized that one of the prisoners were guilty, but the process to release them seemed to be so slow. One would think that the process would be fast, but this is not the case. I also found it very sad that some of them still had their record even though they were exonerated. Also the wrongfully imprisoned seemed to struggle so much once they were released. I felt so bad for them because so much of their life was wasted in prison and then they get out and then they continued to struggle with things.

This documentary will help me as a writer because showed me that there are different sides to every story and I just need to take the time to listen. Too many times I just want to hear the part of the story that I think is right without hearing the other side. I think this is one reason why some of the people were wrongfully imprisoned. I know that now things are different with DNA and how it can be used now and is more effective and that eye witness accounts are now known to be inaccurate, but it is always good to keep in mind that some people are truly innocent and to make sure all the right steps are taken before imprisoning someone.

Memory

          Memory is a very important tool in the law enforcement field. One of the points that the article made was that memory is not always accurate. It can change the way one remembers something. That is one reason why it is important to take notes when investigating a crime scene because one could think that he or she will remember everything, but in fact he or she can forget vital details that could lead to a conviction. Another reason why memory is important, but can be tricky in the law enforcement field is because if two people witness a crime occur they could disagree with how the offender looks. This can lead to the police officer to be unable to catch the offender because the witnesses did not agree with how the offender looked. This has occurred many times. Even though there are many things about memory that can be tricky, in the TED talks video it explained how it can be easier to retain more in one’s memory. He was saying that it is easier to remember things when you associate something that you will remember with it. This can help many people and maybe even help law enforcement officers remembering the order that a crime occurred.