Joshua Jones

Internship Paper

Internship

August 8, 2021

CRO Program Internship

The Dubuque Police Department (DUPD) has the best internship there is to offer. The

time I spent there and the experiences I was able to be a part of are going to be extremely

beneficial to my policing career. This program opened me up to what policing is actually like. It

has allowed me to determine if policing is truly the profession that I want to pursue. The key

points I will address in this paper are the role of the department, the culture of the department,

criminal patterns observed, some issues that the department has, the application of prior

knowledge, and a summarization of my experience. The program and the department have a

major role in the community. I would explain the police department and officers as the jack-of-

all-trades. The department is involved with a lot of different events and incidents all around

Dubuque. The culture of the police department is overall pretty much what anyone would expect

from a police department. A hierarchy is in place, but still pretty a light atmosphere. Throughout

the internship, I did happen to notice a few patterns or behaviors that increase someone's

likeliness of committing a crime. There are a few issues that do occur inside the department that

should be addressed. Most of them are minor and pretty typical. Some of the knowledge I

obtained over my college career was able to be applied during my internship. Lastly, a

summarization of the best and most beneficial learning experiences I had throughout the

internship.
 First, the DUPD plays a major role in the community and other branches of the criminal

justice system. As I mentioned before the DUPD and the officers of the department could be

explained as a jack-of-all-trades. This may be a weird explanation of an officer for some people.

I call the department a jack-of-all-trades due to the number of events, activities, and duties the

department has. The obvious duty that the department and the officers have is to protect and

serve the people. They make sure the community is safe by citing, arresting, and talking to the

people causing problems. They are the ones that are the first on the scene of a terrible accident,

shooting, etc. That duty is the obvious and the most important role of the department to the larger

community. A secondary role would be community involvement. The police department puts on

events and is involved in city events to try to get the community involved. For example, earlier

this summer the department hosted a camp for kids ten to eighteen years old. This camp was

broken up into two different sections. Overall, the camp lasted a week long. This camp is

important and helpful because for one it gets kids out of the house and teaches them some cool

aspects of policing. For two, it strengthens community relations between the police and the

community. The kids are learning that police are normal, good people. The parents are thankful

that we are teaching their kids something helpful and getting them out of the house. Overall, it

strengthens the tie between community and police. Another example of community involvement

that the police help with is the firework show. The Dubuque firework show could not exist

without a police or security presence! Most people are calm, but some people love to cause

chaos. The people that cause chaos are the ones who ruin the fun for everyone. My point is

without the department there is no firework show. The firework show brings in what appears to

be half of Dubuque. So, the police department is the glue that allows this event to happen. The
main role that the department plays in the community is to protect and serve the people, but there

are a few minor roles that the department plays that go unnoticed.

The department also plays a role in the criminal justice system. The police as a whole are

the beginning place of the criminal justice field. For someone to be involved with the criminal

justice field a crime has to be committed. I call the police the beginning place because the police

are the ones who show up to the scene and investigate, talk to witnesses, talk to the victims, and

gather all the information needed. The DUPD plays this role in the criminal justice system inside

the jurisdiction of Dubuque. The DUPD is important to the Dubuque County Sheriff's Office

(DCSO) because the DUPD brings criminals to the DCSO. The DCSO controls and maintains

the jail, so whenever the DUPD arrests someone they turn them over to the DCSO. The DCSO

then holds or releases them for court. Speaking of court, the DUPD plays a role in the court

system also. I was not exposed to the courts and court system at all during my internship, but I

know some roles the department has with the court system. Being that the officers of the DUPD

are the first ones on the scene in the case of a criminal offense, the DUPD is responsible for

providing the courts with records of the incident. By records, I mean evidence and reports of the

incident. Since all criminal offenses get a court date, the DUPD is one of the reasons people have

to go to court. Another role the DUPD has with courts is that sometimes the officers of the

DUPD have to go to court to testify. If someone is fighting a case and believes they didn't do

anything wrong or the officer did something wrong the court may subpoena the officer to testify.

Next, there is a culture that exists inside the department. In my opinion, it is a pretty

typical culture and one that would be expected out of a police department. There is a clear

hierarchy that exists in the department. From bottom to top it goes, new or inexperienced officer

to senior officer to corporal to lieutenant to captain to assistant chief to chief. That is how the
hierarchy is set up inside the department. As someone works their way through the hierarchy, the

higher someone gets the more freedom and voice they have. The new or inexperienced officers

don't have much say when it comes to the department issues. It is almost a keep your head down

and do your job type mentality. Which, is the case if someone is new anywhere until they feel

comfortable. The difference with the department is that the keep your head down mentality is

there until the other people of the department are comfortable with the young officer. The senior

officers have more freedom inside the department. By senior officers, I mean the officers who

have been with the department for multiple years. The senior officers are allowed to police the

way they believe is best. They have more say in what is happening inside the department. The

next step up the hierarchy is corporal. The corporals are the beginning stages of the

administration. These guys are halfway administration and halfway patrol officers. They are

essentially the middle man for the patrol officers and the officers in the administration. The

corporals monitor the patrol officers and help them when needed in the field. If the officers have

a problem they will ask the administration for advice. Lieutenants are the next step up the

branch. Lieutenants are the administering duty of each special unit. The department has few units

such as crime scene investigation (CID), patrol, and community policing (COP). Each unit has at

least one lieutenant. The lieutenant’s role is to make sure the officers are doing what they are

supposed to. I would say this would be where problems arise amongst officers and

administration inside many departments. Luckily, most of the lieutenants at the DUPD are

understanding of the officers, so there isn’t a lot of problems. The next step up the hierarchy is

the captains. The captains are the people in charge of each unit. They determine how each unit is

set up. They almost set the culture and environment for the unit. After captains the assistant chief

is the next highest on the hierarchy, then it goes chief. I was able to observe all the levels of the
hierarchy besides assistant chief and chief. I assume they set the culture for the entire department

and deal with the bigger picture problems. The culture is a hierarchy, but it is still a good

atmosphere. Everyone for the most part respects each other unless there is a reason to not respect

each other. There isn't a lot of tension amongst the different levels of the hierarchy, which one

would expect there to be tension. I didn't observe any during my time at the department. For

dealing with intense situations day in and day out the atmosphere was pretty light. Officers are

always cracking jokes and trying to make each other laugh. Overall, the department has a good

culture.

Throughout my internship, I noticed a few different factors that correlate to crime. One

factor I noticed during my time with the department was intoxication. Whether it was

intoxication from drugs or alcohol it seemed like the majority of the people we arrested had some

level of intoxication. Now, this could be because if someone is intoxicated in any location

besides their private property they could be arrested. Being too intoxicated is a crime itself. Also,

alcohol and other drugs impair the brain's ability to think and make logical decisions which also

contributes to other crimes. I somewhat focused on intoxication a little bit during my time with

the department because last semester during research methods my topic was, does intoxication

increases the likelihood of criminal activity. So, from my own experience in the field, without

cold hard numbers just observations, I would say yes. Another factor that seemed to contribute to

crime was homelessness or poverty. The majority of the people that I dealt with during my time

were not wealthy citizens. If a higher socioeconomic class individual did need the police it

typically was for something minor or civil. The vast majority of the major crimes were amongst

the lower class and homeless population. I have come to know some of the homeless individuals

by name in my short time with the department due to the number of times I have encountered
them. Most of the homeless individuals get in trouble because they steal or trespass for basic

human necessities, such as a shower, food, shelter, etc. Another main factor I noticed that

contributes to crime is mental health problems. It seemed like a lot of individuals we dealt with

had some sort of mental health problem or were in a mental health crisis. There were multiple

calls while I was at the department for standoffs with someone because of a mental health crisis.

There were multiple calls of someone threatening to hurt a loved one, but that person is known to

have a mental health problem. I mentioned three separate variables that I observed correlate to

the increase in the likeliness of crime. The real problem is that majority of the people that we

deal with at the department have a combination, if not all three, of these variables that increase

the likeliness of crime. For example, one individual that I have come to know by name is known

for meth consumption. He has been placed in 2 North multiple times because he has said that he

wants to kill himself. He has been diagnosed with mental health problems. On top of those two

variables, he is homeless. This is not an exaggeration when I say this, at least one officer would

have to talk to this man once a day because someone called on him because he was doing

something wrong. He was put in jail a handful of times just while I was at the department. The

true problem is figuring out how to deal with that individual and get him and people like him

help, so they don’t continue to be arrested. The last variable that I find important to mention is

reoffending. Rarely, someone is arrested if they do not have at least a minor criminal record. The

three variables, intoxication, mental health, and poverty, all increase the likeliness of crime, but

it also contributes to reoffending. Overall, I realized that there needs to be better opportunities

for individuals to better themselves and not have to rely on crime to survive.

Overall, the DUPD has very minor problems and none that are with the community. The

DUPD seems to have a very good relationship with the public. This is most likely because of all
the events they are a part of. Of course, there are always some people that have a grudge against

police, but the majority of the Dubuque population is supportive of the police. Which the

community relation is important because I realized the better the relationship the easier it is to

deal with individuals in a tough situation. One minor problem that could potentially turn into a

major problem is the computer system. The system is called SunGard and it assists the officers

with everything. SunGard allows the officers to see where each other are at, at all times. It allows

them to send direct messages to each other. It is what all the reports are done on. It has all of the

records and anything else an officer would need to fulfill their duties. I say SunGard is a problem

because I witnessed multiple of the officers having complaints about the system. Not only were

there complaints, the last week of my time at the department the system crashed at least once a

day. When the system would crash it would be offline for thirty minutes to an hour. So, for thirty

minutes to an hour officers could not see the calls they needed to respond to. They could not look

up prior cases, run plates, or even make a traffic stop because of the system being down.

Everyone in the entire department uses the system, including the dispatchers. It is a minor

problem currently that could turn into a major problem if it continues to crash. Now, if

something major were to happen the police department would still respond to it, but it simply

makes their life a whole lot more difficult. Another problem inside the department is the lack of

officers. The pandemic put a dent in the workforce of America. The DUPD can employ over 100

officers. Currently, the department is thirteen officers short. There was one retirement during my

time at the department and there were talks of a few more by the end of the year. The problem it

has caused in the department is overworking the officers by giving mandatory overtime. The real

problem is that they can only hire a maximum of four officers at a time. So, if there continue to

be retirements the department is going to be short for a while. It doesn't necessarily matter to the
community because there is always going to be the presence of officers, but the officers that are

present may be being overworked. From experience, it seems the longer the week gets for an

officer the less they want to do. An overworked officer could mean less production, which means

more crime may occur.

Next, during my college career, I have learned a lot about the criminal justice system.

Some of it in which I was able to apply during my internship. Some aspects of policing can

simply not be taught in a classroom and must be learned from experience. The first application

from my book knowledge would be the process in which an individual is arrested. I did not know

the minors of the arrest, but I knew the overall process. I believe I learned this process during the

introduction to corrections class. The process is a crime is committed. The person is charged

with the crime and accessed a court date. The person has an initial hearing. If the person pleads

guilty they will be suitably punished for the crime. If the person pleads innocent then they will

have a trial. Another aspect I learned during college and applied to my internship was the use of

force. Thankfully, no one that I was with or I had to use any level of force during my internship,

but we still talked about the use of force a few times. We addressed the use of force continuum in

a few of my classes, such as introduction to policing and introduction to criminal justice class.

On my fourth day at the department, we had to go over the use of force continuum. That

continuum goes from verbal to deadly force. Another aspect and probably the most important

skill that I have learned from college is writing. I had no clue before my internship how much

paperwork officers have to do. The college has a lot of writing assignments. The assignments

have increased my writing skills, which helped me while I was with the department. Now, the

college has taught me a lot about the overall premise of criminal justice, but my internship has
allowed me to dive deeper into what I am interested in inside the criminal justice field. The

internship opened me up to the minor detail that goes into policing.

My most valuable experience would honestly be a terrible accident had to encounter

while I was with the department. A few weeks ago, I was with an officer in which we were

dispatched to a single-vehicle, motorcycle crash. Traveling on an on-ramp off of highway 61, a

motorcyclist lost control and ran off the road. The driver was a male and he was accompanied by

a female passenger, which I can assume was his significant other. When the officer and I were

dispatched to it I had to mentally prepare myself for what I assumed I was about to witness. I

convinced myself this is the first dead body I will see. The firefighters and I arrived almost at the

same time. We blocked traffic with our car and ran over to the male lying in the ditch clutching

his face. For about five seconds, I believed I was staring at my first dead body. After about five

seconds I witnessed him take a deep breath. His bike was laying at the bottom of the ditch,

completely totaled. While I was staring at the man lying in agony on the ground he removed his

hands from his face. I encountered the most horrific scene I have ever encountered in person. I

will spare you the details, but I observed injuries that make stomachs turn. The man was

eventually put on a stretcher and taken to the hospital, in which he was eventually life-flighted to

a better hospital. Now, I call this the most beneficial learning experience because that confirmed

that I could do the job. Before that experience, I didn't know if I had the stomach to be able to

look at something as horrific as I did and keep my cool. It may seem a little sinister that I call

that a valuable experience, but it showed me that I can do what needs to be in times where others

may panic. Also, another valuable experience was learning the computer system of the

department. I was able to fill out reports and get them accepted by the commanding officer. It

showed me that I can successfully do the work of a police officer.

 All in all, the internship was extremely beneficial. I would recommend this internship to

anyone who thinks they want to become a police officer. During my time at the department, I

encountered experiences that cannot be matched in a classroom. I was opened up to the true day

in day out life of a police officer. I was able to witness the impact and role the police department

had on the community. I was allowed to observe and become a part of the culture of the

Dubuque Police Department. I witnessed the variables and factors that contribute to why people

commit crimes. I was opened up to some issues that police departments and officers have to face

during their careers. I was able to apply some prior knowledge to my experience with the

department. Lastly, I was able to share some of the experiences that I believe to be valuable to

my learning through this paper. Overall, the internship was a success and allowed me to assess if

a career in policing was truly what I wanted to do.