Week 6: A Breakthrough in Reasoning
Hello everyone! Hope you all had a great Spring Break! This week, as well as part of last week, was spent doing much of the same as I have said before. However, I have reached a breakthrough regarding my research that has made the goal of my project much more clear, and that I am excited to share to you all!
First in the week was my time at Prescott Valley Police Department. On Tuesday, I was, again, working with Community Services. This time, I was helping prepare their Badges and Bobbers event , which is scheduled for Saturday. This is an event where officers meet with community members at a local park or lake, and fish together, with the goal of making the police feel even more as part of the community. My job in this was to help untangle and organize the fishing rods that the department keeps for this event, as most of them are kept in cardboard boxes with fishing line still in them, causing them to tangle with one another. This was not a painless process, as there were quite a bit of fishing line that still had hooks on them. I will admit, I got hooked a couple of times, which was not fun. However, doing this just reinforced the point that much of the events that the police department plans require quite a bit of work to set up, thus showing Community Service’s utility. Plus, none the hooks got deep enough to bleed, so that was nice.
The next part of my week was spent at the Records at Prescott Police Department. As you all probably expect right now, it was much of the same, meaning lots of printing on my end. I will say that I was also interning at Prescott PD last week, during Spring Break, which is interesting since the Records and Community Services at Prescott Valley PD were closed that week. Yet another difference in department procedure, I suppose. To wrap up, I would like to clarify a statement I made earlier in my project. About a week or two ago, I talked with you all about what Sheriff’s department is, and the basics on how it functions. Well, I forgot to mention one crucial part in that explanation: the Sheriff’s department’s jurisdiction is the entire county, while the police just handle their city or town, as well as the surrounding area. So, when talking about the Sheriff, they are not the Prescott Sheriff’s Department, but instead the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Department. Just wanted to clear that up!
Finally, in terms of research, it has been progressing quite smoothly. I have been able to watch more episodes of Hill Street Blues, and get a sense of how they are portraying the functions of the police. But, you may be asking, what is the point of this, Theo? What are you hoping to make from this project? In essence, what is your Final Product? Well, as the rest of my fellow seniors have done before me, I met my college councilor this week, mostly for the purpose of catching up on how my internships are going. Now, before meeting with him, I was unsure, to say the least, on what my Final Product may be. Sure, I said that it would be a review of the show, or shows, I was going to watch, but how that would look, and how would I do it? None of that was clear to me. Yet, after meeting Mr. Holder, I was given an idea that would work so well, I am still kicking myself for not coming up with it earlier. For some context, when watching my shows, a lot of the time I would get to certain scenes that were, perhaps, unrealistic or not up to general police procedure, and I would take note of them. However, when thinking about these scenes, I could only make assumptions on whether or not they were realistic, and not anything definitive. This was, and will continue to be, due to the fact that I just do not have enough experience at these places, and so I cannot know if what the show is depicting could happen, might happen under the right circumstances, or is just totally unrealistic. So, who would know these things? The answer: actual police officers. My Final Product for my Senior Project will be both a survey of police officers at both the departments I intern at, as well as the data I will compile from this survey. While not made yet, (that will be my job for this weekend), I know that the survey will mainly be about if the officer watches police procedural shows on their own time, and if so, what they find most and/or least accurate. It will also be quite short, only three or four questions, to save time for both me to compile the data, and the officers to fit in their busy schedules. I already have both my advisors’ approval in this process, so all that I need to do is make the survey!
Sorry for that long last paragraph. I am just so excited to finally have a clear goal on what I want to do with this Senior Project in regards to my Final Product! Next week, I have no exact idea on what I am doing at Prescott Valley, though I do know that the week after will be my second ride-along! And at Prescott, expect more of the same next week. See you all then!
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