English 2010 Notebook Entry 2 (Prompt 3a) January 31, 2014

Tell the story of your research. What turns did it take? what were your missed opportunities and what were your unexpected scores? When I began researching police misconduct, immediately after you enter the words into Google thousands of results come up. That is not unusual, however, what surprised me was how many stories came up that were about the militarization of law enforcement, and the unnerving amount of deaths of innocent or not violent criminals. Radley Balko has done many stories about this topic, which has provided a very useful example of some of the different contributors to the causes of police misconduct and brutality. One of the best, and most unexpected resources I have had, was the story of a police officer, Frank Serpico (whom of which I did my Profile assignment on,) that was a known whistleblower for police corruption in New York, in the early 70s. This was a good source, because it gave me a perspective of someone who is a part of the demographic that is the subject of my writing, as well a well known person who, although not necessarily by choice, actively opposes the corruption.