Sparta Police Internship Final Week (6/25-6/29)

This was my final week as an intern with the Sparta Police Department. On monday I went with Cpl. Takacs to the Department's firing range to shoot some guns. This was my first time shooting a gun so Cpl. Takacs instructed me how to load a gun, how to stand, how to load and reload, and when a gun is hot or not. I was able to shoot a pistol, shotgun, and a sub. It was a great experience because I had never shot a gun before so I thought it'd be a lot more complicated than it was. On my last day I rode with Officer Carbery and it was a quiet day overall. i expalined that even after i was done interning I'd still like to come into the department every so often for the rest of my summer and ride along with patrol some more and work with the detectives. Overall I have enjoyed my experience interning with the Sparta Police Department and my time here has given me vauable experience and insight into feild of police work.

Sparta Police Internship Week 7 (6/18-6/22)

This week we were with patrol again and on Monday I rode with Patrol Officer Joe Antenello. We pulled over a driver for speeding and when we ran the plates it came back the woman had a suspended license in the state of New Jersey. Driving with a suspended license is a arrestable offense, but because she was driving with her friend and her brother who was a Student at Pope John High School Officer Antenello decided to drive them to the students football practice and write the woman for a suspended license. The woman's car was left on the side of Highway 15 North. Other than that the day was pretty quiet. On Wednesday I was assigned to do a night shift with the Patrol Division and to start the night I rode with Patrol Officer Mastandrea and we patrolled on highway 15 and around the town. For the first half of the night it was quiet and I switched and rode with Patrol Officer Carbery and towards the ed of the night we had an emergancy medical call for a women who was having chest pain. We responded and recommended that she be transported to Newton Memorial Hospital to get looked at, so the ems squad came and took her. On Friday I was once again on the night shift and to start the night I rode with Patrol Officer Pensado and the first half of the night was once again quiet outside of a noise complaint. Later in the night Officer Pensado would pull over a van for driving in the median and the driver had an expired license. He also had a warrant from East Orange, NJ for failure to appear in court so Officer Pensado arrested the man and brought him to the station for booking. This was the first time I got to see the booking process. Starting with bringing the arrested man into the salley port garage and shutting the door before taking the man out of the patrol car. Then writing all the paper work that goes into processing and booking. The man would be let go that night with a couple of tickets that he would have to appear in court for. Because I was unable to go to the shooting range this week my last week will be Week 8 and on Monday we would go to the shooting range.

Sparta Police Internship Week 6 (6/11-6/15)

This week started with us sitting in court to learn about court proceedings. Patrol Sergeant Beebe was the officer who was on guard while court was in session. Since this was traffic court the majority of the charges and fines wee speeding and drive recklessly. The judge spent a lot of time lecturing to the drivers with provisional licenses about the dangers of speeding and reckless driving. The rest of the week was spent with patrol and for the most part the week was pretty quiet. Outside of one animal complaint in which a squirrel broke into a woman's home, there was really nothing going on in Sparta this week. I rode with Patrol Officer John Fraser on Wednesday and Patrol Corporal Adam Smetana on Friday. Week 7 will be my final week interning with the Sparta Police Department and I still have to work a night shift with patrol and go to the dept. firing range.  

Sparta Police Internship Week 5 (6/4-6/8)

This week I was riding with patrol again. Monday was a pretty quiet day, the only thing that came up was a warrant on a gentlemen who wasn't paying child support so we drove to his apartment complex to make an arrest but he wasn't home. On Wednesday we came in early because we were going to conduct a drug search at the Sparta High School at 8:20am. Before we wen't to the high school the detectives had me read the rules on performing a drug search with K-9s. For example, if the dog does detect drugs in a students locker the police cannot simply open the locker and rummage through it. The police need to acquire a warrant or get consent from the student's parents in order to access the students locker. The Sparta police were working with the New Jersey State Police, the Sussex County Sheriffs Office, and the administration of the high school. When the search began the school went into a lock down so that no one would leave the class rooms, we had two dogs that would search different parts of the school such as class rooms, locker rooms, lockers, etc. The dogs suspected 3 lockers but once the warrant was obtained and the lockers were searched, no drugs were found, the was rolling paper in one locker but you can't make an arrest on that. The search was a great way for me to see just how the dogs worked, and also to see how the different departments work together in order to make this search work, it took a lot of cooperation between the police and the school but this was a great way to build relations with the police and the community. On Friday I rode with patrol officer Adam Carbery and we responded to a car accident in which an elderly woman backed out of her drive way and went down a hill and was pinned in her car so we had to get her out of the other door. She wasn't injured. We also responded to a house fire in which these kids turned the oven on and they were storing towels in the oven and they burst into flames, no damage was done besides some burnt towels. I was able to get some good insight from officer Carbery on the military and how that plays a factor into being hired by a police dept. He's an ex army vet and since I have an interest in the Army Reserve I was able to get a lot of info from him.

Sparta Police Internship Week 4 (5/28-6/1)

I had off on Monday because of Memorial Day. On Wednesday I was once again with the detectives and it was a pretty quiet day. The detectives were waiting on calls about a 30,000$ fraud complaint. There has been many complaints of fraud over the past few weeks most notably from the town Burger King so I wen't with Detective Hannam and took license plates to see who was working there and run their plates. What I had learned today was that it takes a lot of time and thinking to solve a case particularly this fraud case because it's a lot of phone calls and thinking, and a lot of them lead to dead ends and sometimes they are passed off to the United States Secret Service. It's not like on television where you solve a case on a day and move on to the next one, sometimes it takes weeks or months to solve a case and many cases are put to the side for more critical cases that come in. On Friday I had to work a golf outing held by the Police Department which I had to prep the area with the help of Detective Mullegen and other officers.

Sparta PD Internship Week 3 (5/21-5/25)

This week was the week I was looking forward to the most because I had the opportunity to work with the detectives of the Sparta PD. Becoming a detective is my ultimate career goal so this was a great opportunity to learn about what it takes to be a police detective. The week started with watch interviews with suspects that they had on record, it was funny to see how many suspects lie in the beginning but change their story and slowly start to tell the truth throughout the interview. The second day was a day I'll never forget I had to go with one detective and one uniform officer to a gentlemen's home to inform him that his son had passed away that morning, it was suspected that it was a suicide and the father was devastated. This was something that I had never been exposed to so it was an eye opening experience. There is a lot of procedure that goes into informing  the surviving kin of a relatives passing such as, the victim can not be left alone till someone who can assist them arrives, such as a pastor or family member. There must be a uniform officer to present a professional appearance so to not confuse the victim, you must inform the victim of the passing simply and honestly and before you inform the victim the person must be seated because you don't know how the person will react to the news. Tomorrow I will be with one of the detectives going from school to school doing security checks. This week has not only showed me my favorite part of law enforcement but also the worst part by having to inform a father that his son has passed on.

Sparta Police Internship Week 2 (5/14-5/18)

Week 2 began with a ride along with the patrol officers, this being my first time in a squad car I was really excited to see what it was like to go on patrol. First we had to take a ride to the Morris County Corrections Facility to finger print and photo a 24 year old who had been arrested on charges of auto theft and possession of heroin. Unfortunately I had to wait in the lobby being the intern but I had the situation explained to me on the way back to Sparta. Once we returned to Sparta we took radar on highway 15 and patrolled some of the neighborhoods in the town for the rest of the day. I got to see how officers ran license plates and even got to run some myself, I also got to see how police officers use there discretion when it come to writing tickets, when it comes to township residents, officers normally won't write offenders tickets unless the offender was speeding well above the posted speed limit. I also got to see how much paper work police officers have to do, their job isn't simply done after they write a ticket or respond to a call, officers have to write numerous reports so that every offense is documented and checked out by the sergeants. For week three, I will be working with the Investigative Division of the department which I'm looking forward to because becoming a detective is what I want to pursue as a career.