Criminal Justice Paper

4

Assignment 1

Orquidea Quinones

Nova Southeastern University

CRJ – 2220

PART 1

My current status is what I guess would be my Junior year at NSU, with only six semesters left (not that I am counting). I am pursuing a Bachelors in Science in Information Technology with a Minor in Criminal Justice. I transferred from Miami Dade College to continue my education at NSU as an employee for the Miami Campus. This decision to return to school was a difficult one because I have two children ages 5 and 10.

My future goal is to be able complete my bachelor’s degree at NSU. I have always had a passion for technology and the criminal justice field. Like my coworker like to say, “I am the go to person” at work with any assistance in computers. I have a job offer upon my completion of my degree working as a computer programmer. There is also the possibility of joining MDPD as a civilian working for the computer forensics department.

At this time, I am not working in any criminal justice field. My dream job has always been to work for the police department. Back when I was younger, I applied for the Miami Dade Police Department, and made it all the way through and was dismissed due to my credit. I was very disappointed that my young mentality could ruin my chances of one day becoming a police officer. Back then, I was not thinking about my future, now that I am a mother, I don’t think I would be able to become a police officer. My fear of becoming a police officer as a mother came the day I lost my female cousin in the line of duty. It was a difficult time for my family and I, considering there are more than ten family members that are LEO’s. So, I decided to take on my next passion for technology.

In 2002, I graduated with an Associate’s degree in Private Investigation. I was in this field for about four years, but realized that the toll on myself and my car was not worth it. I loved the job and all the fun things that came with it. There were several different types of jobs from surveillance to undercover jobs. It was so much fun but still didn’t completely satisfy the thrill to become a police officer. Shortly after my life as a Private Investigator, I started working in school settings because I had a beautiful baby girl to think about. The first school that I worked for allowed me to start creating the school website and all spreadsheets used by the school. We didn’t have a full time on site computer tech so I was the person that would help most staff members to the capacity that the school board would allow me.

Part 2

For the second part of this assignment I was asked to write about an event having to deal with the criminal justice system that I feel has caused the greatest controversy in our criminal justice system. I chose to write about Justine Damond case. This concerned civilian, reported what she thought was a crime being committed and ends up shot by a police officer while the officer was still sitting in the police vehicle. The criminal justice system has neglected to arrest him only because of his place of employment. If it was a civilian he would have been arrested and allowed to post bond pending the trial. It has been over a month and still no formal charges have been charged against the police officer. Although I can also see the view from a police officer’s view. The police officers have a split second to make decisions about what to do if they are startled or hear a noise that catches them off guard. The officer is also executing his fifth amendment right to not speak about the shooting to incriminate himself.

I think that the police officer should have pulled out his weapon and pointed it at her without firing his weapon until he truly felt a threat or established who she was. If the caller called about a potential rape it could have been the actual victim. There were several instances that could have happened and this officer reacted to quickly to truly prove that his life was in jeopardy. He did no offer the victim a chance to state who she was and why she was walking through a dark alley at night.

If I were in the position to make changes then I would charge the officer with at least second-degree murder or if not involuntary manslaughter. The example needs to be set starting from the top. This is the reason that most Law Enforcement Office and people in high political positions are being disrespected these days because what they have done in the past has been overlooked and now that everyone has cameras on their phone, the proof is being brought to light. I don’t think Police Officers are bad, but I do think that there is that bad apple in the group that gives them the bad name.

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