College Daze: 'Students witness more than bookings' (Catalyst, November 27, 1985)

Image by Angela Yuriko Smith from Pixabay 

Students witness more than bookings

Alex Diaz-Granados

Copy Editor

Miami Vice it isn't, but criminal justice majors can actually ride in a Metro-Dade patrol car and observe officers as they follow their daily routine.

These students will fill out evaluation reports, evaluating what they've seen and turn them in to their professors. Then the reports will be discussed in class.

Not only do these student evaluators gain a first-hand look at police work, but they also receive $7 an hour.

"Most people get their ideas of what law enforcement officers' work is supposedly like from such television shows as Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice," said criminal justice professor Ron Stearns. He said people see real police officers when the media get hold of something they did wrong or a heroic act.

"An average police officer's day is filled with unexciting duties that the cops on Miami Vice would never do," Stearns said, "like settling domestic arguments or doing daily situation reports."

According to Stearns, the object of the evaluation program is to "show students who are in the criminal justice program the many things that police officers do in the course of their active duty hours."

The evaluators will sit in the patrol car and go along with the officer on most of his calls, Stearns said. If the situation is a potentially hazardous one, "the student is required to stay in the car until the danger has passed," he said.

Criminal justice students should talk to Stearns for details on the program.