Police Officer Interview Essay

Finding a career in which you feel personally rewarded by helping others and knowing that you are making a difference should be one’s main goal. Officer Mares, was able to achieve this goal when he joined the LAPD as a police undercover agent back in 1996 when he was only 21 ½ years old. Nineteen years later, he is going strong, satisfactorily performing his duties as an officer and serving the community of Los Angeles. He feels rewarded, with this career and loves his schedule, and he is happy when he goes to work. He focuses on knowing that he is making a difference one person at a time. He states, “ I may not change the world, but I am making a difference one individual at a time, which in turn makes a better community for our kids to grow in.” (Mares) Back in the days, around 1960 being a police officer or becoming part of a department that served and protected the public was highly regarded. However, that is no longer the case. Now the Police Department is an affiliation you almost do not want to be involved in.

A review of Nix and Wolf’s (2015) research revealed that officers have more incentive to perform well at their jobs when the public views them in a positive light. Through the use of past research, they found a correlation with their own data that suggested officers feel more solidarity with their community when they are being viewed in a positivistic format. Further expanding upon the previous statement, they examined another article suggesting that negative annotations toward the police created an “us versus them” kind of mentality within officers that causes strain between the populace and the law. As such, it is evident from this research that organizational justice is important to an officer’s sense of self-legitimacy, suggesting that

After reviewing the facts of the Rixton case study I assessed the primary issues were pertaining to the development of two distinct subcultures in the police department and lack of authority from the city’s police chief. Due to the police chief’s hands-off approach to leadership, officers are unaware of his policies and procedures, and they conducted police functions utilizing their own discretion (Cordner, 2016). Let us examine how the Rixton Police Department’s organizational dysfunction allowed for these actions to occur beginning with their chief of police.

When searching for an individual to conduct my interview I wanted to focus my selection towards the law enforcement field because that is the area of research that intrigues me. I first went to the Carlsbad Police Department and asked if there was anyone available to conduct an interview. I had the privilege of speaking with Officer Tony and I informed the officer that the purpose of my research is for my family violence class and if he knew anyone that I could interview in regards to this subject. Officer Tony informed me that it would be difficult to find an officer that would take the time to sit and interview due to work constraints and being on-call throughout the entire day. He suggests that I make an appointment for a ride-along with

I would like to briefly explain how my skills, abilities, and prior experience meet the requirements for a position as an Abington Police Officer. I am a hardworking, loyal, and clearly dedicated individual with an ambition to succeed in any given environment. I am always up to a challenge. I work well with others and can work just as efficient on my own. I am seeking a position where I can develop and excel. I have served eight years in the United States Army and the Massachusetts Army National Guard achieving the rank of Sergeant/E5. I have had the pleasure of served in Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Massachusetts, and various locations throughout the United States. After being honorably discharged from the United States Army I secured a position as

The analysis and viewing of these officers interviews was insightful, surprising and honest. It gives us the opportunity to hear answers to questions that create a human connection to the people who serve and protect our communities. As people are shown a particular role or attitude of police officers in media, movies or social media, this gives an individual look into why law enforcement workers choose this career and how they handle the two identities of carrying a badge and the person behind the uniform. One of the most intriguing questions from the interview for me, was “do you feel supported by the community?” To my surprise, most answers were that officers do indeed feel support from communities that they serve.

Also, the absence of any unifying theories that explain the change as a self-motivated systematic process might be acceptable, or at least explained, by the number, complexity and variability of the dynamics involved may create a problem with their reluctance to change (Hart, J., 1996). Futhermore, it was proposed each individual must understand and describe the process of change in police organizations, it is necessary to consider not only the human reactions to change, but also the mechanistic organizational functions and processes that bring about those effects in humans (Hart, J., 1996). Any attempt to unravel any function, process and structural issues from the social and psychological aspects of the work force will result in an incomplete analysis (Hart, J., 1996). Therefore, it is suggested that an integrated and all-inclusive approach is necessary in order to understand and explain the processes of change in police organizations (Hart, J., 1996). In addition, we must consider unplanned and unforeseen changes to the organization, especially when they do not have a sub-systems designed to monitor leading or key indicators of environmental activity that critically

The Academy of Criminal Justice at Newberry High School has been my goal since 2nd grade. I have known since then I wanted to pursue a life long career in criminal justice. I feel being an officer in CJ will help prepare me for this goal. I believe as an officer you should be a good leader and everyday I work towards being a good leader by following the six pillars of character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. The trust character is number one to me because trustworthiness is important to each of the other pillars. I feel if you don’t have trust you have nothing because if you’re not trusted the other pillars mean nothing. Respect is also very important as

Becoming a sworn police department member means the person has taken an oath to abide the U.S constitution and are given traditional policing power such as arresting with probable cause. Police officers or detectives are responsible for protecting the lives and property of citizens in the community. Police officers conduct patrol around a geographic area, to maintain omnipresence, deter crime, and apprehending suspects in a crime. Detectives are responsible for solving reported crimes, follow-up investigation of past crimes by a police officer taking a report, and conducting preliminary investigation. To be considered a sworn officer, each state has their own specific requirement and phases to go through. They

Analyzing a problem and implementing a solution are both part of the decision-making process. Starling (2011) states, “Simon maintains that the ‘task of deciding pervades the entire administrative organization quite as much as does the task of doing’ – indeed, it is integrally tied up with latter’” (p. 252). Obviously, the City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department’s administration did not adequately address the steps necessary in effective decision making regarding this situation. When analyzing and identifying the problem, symptoms and root causes need to be identified. Citizens might wonder if the administration did not recognize that violent crime was rising because more patrol officers were moving to desk jobs. Several questions that remain unanswered include: Why are officers moving to desk jobs? Are desk jobs more desirable than street patrol? Are they a reward from middle management to favored employees? Are promotions as easy, or easier, from a desk position? Certainly, to get to the root of the problem, the underlying reasons for these actions must be determined.

In Julseth et al.’s (2011) article summarizes that the retention rate of patrol officers is in steady decline, and stated that different policing factors that include fatigue, stress, and workload, seems to be major reasons for high turnover rates. In this article, it was examined the perceptions and views of patrol officers on contemporary policing, and the issues that relate to job satisfaction (Julseth et al., 2011). Investigating job satisfaction in policing is important because some issues can affect the performance of officers, and on consequence, it will affect the entire department’s effectiveness. These studies can help police administrators to reduce stress, improve productivity, and decrease turnover by making them aware of internal

The decision to become a law enforcement officer came to me around age eighteen. Since then, my behavior has been appropriate, and of high standard. However, I did a few things during my teenage years that I am not proud of. When I was fifteen I stole an MP3 player from another student at my high school and then shoplifted a pair of earphones from a local Walmart. A year later I shoplifted a pack of condoms from the same Walmart.

As students, we sometime get “burnt out during mid semester, due dates are forgotten, test are not studied for and ultimately grade begin to decline. It is not because we are lazy or potentially trying to fail ourselves, but because we sometime begin to lose interest. Therefore, once in a while it is nice to refresh our interest with things such as guest speakers or events. On November 15th I had the opportunity to attend the Gwinnett County Police job fair. Going into the fair I had different expectations of how it would be and I left feeling very excited about possibly working for an agency such as Gwinnett.

As a result, of graduating the academy I was a police officer. After serving one night on the streets of Memphis I was a cop. Becoming a cop is a process that some officers will never understand, while other officers have this before ever joining a department. Above all, becoming a cop is to become a piece of the community which you serve and undertaking the responsibility of ensuring the safety of its members. Furthermore, I know it has been a rough journey for my wife, but she has been by my side when needed her the most, for 19 years of the biggest life changing moment of my life.

performance, Kingshott, Bailey, & Wolfe (2004) concluded that POs deemed psychologically entitled held lower levels of job satisfaction and more contempt toward supervision. Further, Osborne (2014) provided additional support for such findings in a study centering on police cynicism. It was determined that elevated levels of cynicism were retained by lower ranked, degreed POs assigned to patrol; however, the author also adduced that as lower ranked officers are promoted, the obviation of said feelings may occur. Forsyth and Copes (1994) discovered comparable interactions in a sample of 102 POs. In a related vein, an examination of self-performance ratings of POs demonstrated that degreed officers rated themselves significantly higher in key performance areas (e.g., stress coping and leadership qualities) (Kakar, 1998); reflecting educated POs’ confidence in their level of mastery and leadership capacity. While the author did not elaborate, it was also found that better educated POs reported less job satisfaction and more occupational frustration (Kakar, 1998).