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Investigative Report on Interviewee Essay The interview is of a former police officer who is now undergoing a course in criminal justice psychology. The interviewee is a 57 year old separated man who has been a professional policeman with the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and has also had a second career as a laser technician. The interviewee has a strong experiential exposure to criminals during his career in the CHP. He is a multi dimensional personality pursuing art as well as computer 3D art and painting. Presently he is looking forward for a graduate degree in criminal justice psychology followed possibly by a doctoral degree in psychology. He thus has innate interest in human psychology and is willing to learn. The individual is concerned about the suicide rate for CHP officers and feels that by combining knowledge of psychology with practical experience in policing he would be able to contribute to improvement of quality of life and thus possibly bring down the suicide rate. The interviewee has a strong feminine bondage in the family being a father of four daughters aged 17 to 35 years and is also a grandfather of 5. Thus while he has been separated there is possibility of adequate empathy for women borne out of this innate connectivity. 2. Describe the elements the interviewee possessed. The individual has good knowledge of policing and is interested in psychology. Despite his relatively short tenure in the police due to medical reasons, he is committed to policing and criminology. The biggest asset of the person is his willingness to learn and experiment. Thus after his policing career he has been in a most unusual job as a laser technician and now is pursuing a career in criminal justice psychology. His interests in inter related fields of crime and psychology make him an ideal combination for mentoring and providing psychological assistance to police officers. While he has had a good exposure to policing, he has not had any experience with women officers as during his period of service, women police officers had not been inducted in the force. His knowledge of women police officers is thus limited to anecdotal inputs provided by his colleagues and short social exposure to daughters of police presently working in the force. There is thus a strong element of doubt of capability of women officers in the harsh environment of beat policing in the individual. He has on the other hand a strong sense of values and character, based on his experience in policing and he sees these as prime assets in a police personnel. He also tends to rely on experience and personal knowledge in making judgments. 3. Describe the elements that might lead to advantages or disadvantages for women officers. The interviewee has a strong female empathy factor in the family, being the father of four daughters and one who is open to the girl child take up a policing job; which will certainly work to his advantage. Another issue is his understanding of the criminal policing system and interest in psychology which will provide a strong backdrop to all aspects related to mentoring of police officers. He is willing to learn and is a multi skilled person interested in arts. These elements provide him the motivation as well as the ability to learn new skills and adapt to varied surroundings. The strong sense of values and character that he possesses will surely be an advantage. The interviewee has had no experience of working with women officers earlier which could be a serious disadvantage as he would not be able to correlate to problems, pressures and the difference in environment in which male and female officers in the force have to work. Being a separated person there could be a disadvantage of greater mistrust, though this will depend on intrinsic reasons for separation which are not known at present. The interviewee’s opinions of the competence of female officers is based on dated information when there were limited numbers and their role was also restricted, this may necessitate a longer learning period for him to adjust to an environment required to support women. The interviewee also is not confident of the role that women officers can play in the police force and honestly doubts their capabilities. However this may be due to lack of exposure to women officers during his career. He may be willing to change his opinion once he is exposed, given his family background and learning motivation. 4. Explain why these elements might prove beneficial or problematic when working with women officers. A general empathy for women in general which the individual possesses will prove beneficial along with basic grounding in psychology as well as criminal justice system. Adaptability and willingness to learn may also prove beneficial when working with women officers. His emphasis on values, character and respect will also be useful to motivate women officers as they are more idealistic and moved by demonstrated ethical characteristics. In working with women police officers, it would be essential to understand their special needs and differentiate the manner of their working with that of male officers. The interviewee lacks exposure and appears to be opinionated in this regard which would be problematic. The interviewee is also not very comfortable with the idea of women in policing which may again be due to his lack of experience in this regard and this would be problematic at least in the initial stages. Reference 1. Interview Record. (No Date). Copy of proceedings attached in original.