Law Enforcement Career
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Prior to becoming a police officer, I had worked as a security officer while still a student a Valley Forge Christian College. Shortly after being hired, the head of security promoted me to Sergeant and I served in that capacity through the summer after I graduated. I was hired that summer as a loss prevention officer at Jamesway, Inc. At Jamesway, my job was to apprehend retail theft suspects, detect and apprehend employee theft (which by the way generally accounts for about 40% of theft in businesses) and to monitor the transfer of money and receivable goods throughout the store and the loading dock. Because the job did not pay very well, I also worked part-time at Wawa, Inc.
While working at Wawa, I often had conversations with police officers from the local departments, East Pikeland Township, Schuylkill Township, and Phoenixville Borough. Several officers recommended that I apply to local police departments. Prior to their advice, I had never even considered a law enforcement career. In fact, I had been applying to teach at Christian schools throughout the area. In the fall of 1989, one of the officers drew my attention to a radio advertisement for a test for police officer at Lower Merion Township Police Department in Ardmore, PA. I had never heard of Lower Merion Township and had never taken a test for police officer. On the advice of these officers, I took the test and ended up passing through a number of stages (written test, oral board, criminal records check, background check, polygraph, pyschological and physical examinations). In February 1990, I was part of a class of 17 individuals hired as probationary police officers, and the only female in the class.
During my career at LMPD, I obtained specialty training in a variety of areas. I took every opportunity that was available and actually sought out opportunities to be trained in special skills under the impression that this would make me more "valuable" to the organization. Here is a list of the training that I took advantage of while a police officer at Lower Merion. A few of these trainings were sponsored by the department; however, in many cases, specifically in the later years, I pursued the opportunities on my own.
- APCO Certification (Telecommunicator) -1993
- Intoximeter 3000 & Drager Alcocheck 7410 Operator-1993
-Crime Prevention/ Community Policing Officer Training (PCCD)- 1995
- Hate Crimes Investigation-1995
-Crime Prevention Practitioner Certification (PCCD)-1995
-Child Abuse Investigation-1996
-Interviewing the Sexually Abused Child Training-1996
-Homicide by Vehicle Accident Investigation-1998
-Advanced Collision Investigation/ Level I-1998
-Field Training Officer Certification-1998
-Pedestrian-Vehicle Accident Investigation-1999
-Platoon Investigator Training-1999/2000
-Domestic Violence Training (PCCD)-2001
-Platoon Investigator Training - RBT-IV Intoximeter Certification- 2002
I also had all the typical certificaton police officers have, including First Responder Certification, AED Training, Tactical Handcuffing, Verbal Judo, ASP Baton Training, P-24 Baton Training, Shotgun Qualified, and yearly tactical and firearms training.
In addition to the education and certification in a number of areas, I performed a number of specialty tasks for the police department. First, I was one of the first officers to be designated as a Community Policing Liaison. Superintendent Daly initiated a program where officers attended civic association meetings to serve as a liaison of the department. Our mission was to keep citizens informed and also to provide a way for citizens to communicate effectively with their neighbor police officer and the department. Since I was generally assigned to the Penn Wynne section of the township, I was given the Penn Wynne Civic Association. I excelled at the job, which prompted them to award me the Florence Lochel Community Service Award in 1997. This was the first time in the history of the Penn Wynne Civic Association that they had given the award to a police officer.
In the last three years of my career, I was trained as a platoon investigator. The platoon investigator is the officer in the squad that responds to the more serious crimes and generally performs more task specific duties, such as collection and analysis of evidence (particularly latent fingerprints at crime scenes), writing affidavits of probable cause and criminal complaints, processing prisoners (fingerprinting, photographing, etc.). Generally there is one platoon investigator per squad and a backup platoon investigator, who takes over when the PI is on vacation or has a day off. Obviously, if there is a major crime, the detective unit will be called on. However, at Lower Merion Twp. Police, the PI is trained to handle assaults, robberies, burglaries, thefts, suspect processing, and some of the more routine crime calls for his or her platoon. Even when it is a more serious crime (homicide, suicide, bank robbery, rape, etc.) the PI helps establish the crime scene and is usually the first investigator on the scene before the detective unit arrives. Because of their advanced training and experience that they obtain over the years, the PI is generally in line for transfer to the detective unit when a position becomes available.
I was officially trained as a Field Training Officer (FTO) in 1998. However, I had been used in that capacity for about two years before I was officially trained. I trained 11 officers, most of which are still with the police department. One is a Sergeant. Training officers are responsible for training rookie officers, generally in the first 6 weeks of their deployment to the streets. At LMPD, we generally had four training officers per platoon, so each rookie spent at least one week with each training officer to give them a broad perspective on how the job is done. It is an honor to be chosen by the organization to train future police officers, this generally means that you are doing your job correctly and are trusted by the organization to pass your skills on to the next generation.
In addition to the above listed specialty tasks, I was the first Web Master of www.lowermerionpolice.org. In 1996, I approached the administration with the idea that the department should have a public face on the internet. I had previously designed a website for a non-profit organization, Camp Dreamcatcher. I received permission to develop the departments first webpage and in 1996 LMPD was one of the first department in the area to have a website. I constructed it in Microsoft Frontpage and it was uploaded to the township's server by the IT department. It has changed over the years, improved, and is now maintained by IT professionals, but there are many text portions of the website that were written by me. Based on my technological skills, around 1998 or 1999, I was one of four officers asked to review and test new mobile data terminals the department was looking to implement. In 2000, the transition from paper reporting to computer-based reports was made and from what I understand the mobil data capabities have expanded greatly since that time.
Also, while a full-time police officer, I decided to pursue a Master's Degree in Criminal Justice at West Chester University. I attended WCU from 1996-1999 and graduated as the Outstanding Graduate Student in 1999. While at WCU I won two Criminal Justice Paper Awards (1998 and 1999) and had two articles published in police trade magazines. "The Militia Movement and Law Enforcement" was published in Police Beat Magazine (October, 1998). I was inspired to write that article after looking at America's Most Wanted page earlier in the year and finding that a number of the most wanted were members of the Militia. The Militia serves as a specific danger to law enforcement as they do not recognize the authority of law enforcement and are often heavily armed. The second article published was "Controversial issues concerning Megan's Law". This article was published in 1999 in Police Magazine. The artilce reviewed the Constituational issues surrounding Megan's Law type legislation, law enacted to protect children against predators, but had (at that time) failed to meet Constitutional tests. Since then, the laws have been rewritten to ensure that they stand up to Constitutional review.
In 1997, I was awarded an Official Commendation for the caputure and arrest of two armed robbers. On March 6, 1997, myself and Officer Craig McGowan responded to the report of the armed robbery of pedestrians in the Bala-Cynwyd area of the township. Subsequently, we confronted and disarmed two female armed robbers who had commited four robberies of pedestrians in the area.
In December 2002, I ended my career with LMPD after a 2 year EEOC complaint and legal battle over the issue of gender discrimination (very, very long and drawn out story). I left with a sizable settlement. I concentrated on Steel City Coffee House for about a year. I then worked briefly as a Philadelphia University bicycle patrol officer and a Cheyney University police officer. In 2004, I started my teaching career at Kutztown University (see teaching career). In 2004, I started taking graduate courses at Temple University and was accepted into their Ph.D. Program in 2005.
While working at Wawa, I often had conversations with police officers from the local departments, East Pikeland Township, Schuylkill Township, and Phoenixville Borough. Several officers recommended that I apply to local police departments. Prior to their advice, I had never even considered a law enforcement career. In fact, I had been applying to teach at Christian schools throughout the area. In the fall of 1989, one of the officers drew my attention to a radio advertisement for a test for police officer at Lower Merion Township Police Department in Ardmore, PA. I had never heard of Lower Merion Township and had never taken a test for police officer. On the advice of these officers, I took the test and ended up passing through a number of stages (written test, oral board, criminal records check, background check, polygraph, pyschological and physical examinations). In February 1990, I was part of a class of 17 individuals hired as probationary police officers, and the only female in the class.
During my career at LMPD, I obtained specialty training in a variety of areas. I took every opportunity that was available and actually sought out opportunities to be trained in special skills under the impression that this would make me more "valuable" to the organization. Here is a list of the training that I took advantage of while a police officer at Lower Merion. A few of these trainings were sponsored by the department; however, in many cases, specifically in the later years, I pursued the opportunities on my own.
- APCO Certification (Telecommunicator) -1993
- Intoximeter 3000 & Drager Alcocheck 7410 Operator-1993
-Crime Prevention/ Community Policing Officer Training (PCCD)- 1995
- Hate Crimes Investigation-1995
-Crime Prevention Practitioner Certification (PCCD)-1995
-Child Abuse Investigation-1996
-Interviewing the Sexually Abused Child Training-1996
-Homicide by Vehicle Accident Investigation-1998
-Advanced Collision Investigation/ Level I-1998
-Field Training Officer Certification-1998
-Pedestrian-Vehicle Accident Investigation-1999
-Platoon Investigator Training-1999/2000
-Domestic Violence Training (PCCD)-2001
-Platoon Investigator Training - RBT-IV Intoximeter Certification- 2002
I also had all the typical certificaton police officers have, including First Responder Certification, AED Training, Tactical Handcuffing, Verbal Judo, ASP Baton Training, P-24 Baton Training, Shotgun Qualified, and yearly tactical and firearms training.
In addition to the education and certification in a number of areas, I performed a number of specialty tasks for the police department. First, I was one of the first officers to be designated as a Community Policing Liaison. Superintendent Daly initiated a program where officers attended civic association meetings to serve as a liaison of the department. Our mission was to keep citizens informed and also to provide a way for citizens to communicate effectively with their neighbor police officer and the department. Since I was generally assigned to the Penn Wynne section of the township, I was given the Penn Wynne Civic Association. I excelled at the job, which prompted them to award me the Florence Lochel Community Service Award in 1997. This was the first time in the history of the Penn Wynne Civic Association that they had given the award to a police officer.
In the last three years of my career, I was trained as a platoon investigator. The platoon investigator is the officer in the squad that responds to the more serious crimes and generally performs more task specific duties, such as collection and analysis of evidence (particularly latent fingerprints at crime scenes), writing affidavits of probable cause and criminal complaints, processing prisoners (fingerprinting, photographing, etc.). Generally there is one platoon investigator per squad and a backup platoon investigator, who takes over when the PI is on vacation or has a day off. Obviously, if there is a major crime, the detective unit will be called on. However, at Lower Merion Twp. Police, the PI is trained to handle assaults, robberies, burglaries, thefts, suspect processing, and some of the more routine crime calls for his or her platoon. Even when it is a more serious crime (homicide, suicide, bank robbery, rape, etc.) the PI helps establish the crime scene and is usually the first investigator on the scene before the detective unit arrives. Because of their advanced training and experience that they obtain over the years, the PI is generally in line for transfer to the detective unit when a position becomes available.
I was officially trained as a Field Training Officer (FTO) in 1998. However, I had been used in that capacity for about two years before I was officially trained. I trained 11 officers, most of which are still with the police department. One is a Sergeant. Training officers are responsible for training rookie officers, generally in the first 6 weeks of their deployment to the streets. At LMPD, we generally had four training officers per platoon, so each rookie spent at least one week with each training officer to give them a broad perspective on how the job is done. It is an honor to be chosen by the organization to train future police officers, this generally means that you are doing your job correctly and are trusted by the organization to pass your skills on to the next generation.
In addition to the above listed specialty tasks, I was the first Web Master of www.lowermerionpolice.org. In 1996, I approached the administration with the idea that the department should have a public face on the internet. I had previously designed a website for a non-profit organization, Camp Dreamcatcher. I received permission to develop the departments first webpage and in 1996 LMPD was one of the first department in the area to have a website. I constructed it in Microsoft Frontpage and it was uploaded to the township's server by the IT department. It has changed over the years, improved, and is now maintained by IT professionals, but there are many text portions of the website that were written by me. Based on my technological skills, around 1998 or 1999, I was one of four officers asked to review and test new mobile data terminals the department was looking to implement. In 2000, the transition from paper reporting to computer-based reports was made and from what I understand the mobil data capabities have expanded greatly since that time.
Also, while a full-time police officer, I decided to pursue a Master's Degree in Criminal Justice at West Chester University. I attended WCU from 1996-1999 and graduated as the Outstanding Graduate Student in 1999. While at WCU I won two Criminal Justice Paper Awards (1998 and 1999) and had two articles published in police trade magazines. "The Militia Movement and Law Enforcement" was published in Police Beat Magazine (October, 1998). I was inspired to write that article after looking at America's Most Wanted page earlier in the year and finding that a number of the most wanted were members of the Militia. The Militia serves as a specific danger to law enforcement as they do not recognize the authority of law enforcement and are often heavily armed. The second article published was "Controversial issues concerning Megan's Law". This article was published in 1999 in Police Magazine. The artilce reviewed the Constituational issues surrounding Megan's Law type legislation, law enacted to protect children against predators, but had (at that time) failed to meet Constitutional tests. Since then, the laws have been rewritten to ensure that they stand up to Constitutional review.
In 1997, I was awarded an Official Commendation for the caputure and arrest of two armed robbers. On March 6, 1997, myself and Officer Craig McGowan responded to the report of the armed robbery of pedestrians in the Bala-Cynwyd area of the township. Subsequently, we confronted and disarmed two female armed robbers who had commited four robberies of pedestrians in the area.
In December 2002, I ended my career with LMPD after a 2 year EEOC complaint and legal battle over the issue of gender discrimination (very, very long and drawn out story). I left with a sizable settlement. I concentrated on Steel City Coffee House for about a year. I then worked briefly as a Philadelphia University bicycle patrol officer and a Cheyney University police officer. In 2004, I started my teaching career at Kutztown University (see teaching career). In 2004, I started taking graduate courses at Temple University and was accepted into their Ph.D. Program in 2005.