Chesterfield County Police Department

Did you ever wonder about the police department and how cyber security and information technology comes in handy? Apparently cybersecurity and Information Technology is used at the police department. I will be talking about my full experience from start to finish in this internship I did. For this cyber security internship class I chose to do an internship with the Chesterfield County Police Department. The police department exists to preserve life, protect the vulnerable, provide problem solving partnerships, recruit and retain top tier-talent. The Chesterfield County Police Department was founded in 1914. Back then the police department only had 8 police chiefs. The police department has a playbook. This playbook is the police department’s motto or objectives. The playbook explains why the police department exists, how they behave, what they do, how they will succeed, what’s the most important right now and who must do what. The behavior is hungry, humble and smart. They serve, protect and lead. The only way they succeed and will succeed is together. Smart goals are most important right now. They must be dependable and depend on one another.

When I was a child I wanted to become a police officer when I grew up at one point of my life and on Halloween I used to buy and wear a policeman costume to go trick or treating. I used to watch shows and movies about police officers. I was and still am pursuing a career in Information Technology and Cyber Security. I have now decided to take Information Technology and Cyber Security into law enforcement. I had this school resource officer at my middle school that I went to back in 6th, 7th and 8th grade named Elizabeth Davis Middle School. She was my school resource officer for the majority of my middle school years. I happened to run into her at Food Lion one afternoon while I was shopping and I had spoken to her and asked her about opportunities in the Police Department specifically in Information Technology or cyber security as I was pursuing a career in both cyber and information technology. She was a police officer at one point. She said she recently had retired and that she advised me to call the police department internship area and contact the department who was in charge of the internships and opportunities for the police department. I had contacted the police department like I was instructed to and they told me I was gonna go through a curriculum which not only focuses on Information Technology but Information Technology and Cyber Security. These are both used at the police department. The three things I was hoping to learn going into this internship was seeing how cyber security was used in the different departments if it was used in any way. The second thing I was hoping to learn was how IT was used in the different departments. The third thing I was hoping to learn was about forensics. All three learning objectives were met and I did learn all three things that I was hoping to learn.

I will be talking about my overall experience at all the departments I visited and what I did and what my experience was at each and everyone of the departments I went to. My schedule was set up to go to a bunch of different departments and units. Some of the units I went to was the Data and Automation Unit, Analytic and Strategic Operations Center, Records Unit, training academy, training driving academy, K9 unit, school safety unit, property and evidence unit, animal services unit, police ride along at the appomattox area, aviation, traffic unit, forensics and cyber unit, violent crimes unit, property crimes unit, community policing, training division academy, ecc which is dispatch, crime solvers, police ride along at falling creek area, and last but not least another police ride along at the swift creek area. In all of these areas I went to I will be explaining about my experiences and telling about what I learned because all of these departments I visited taught me a lot of different things. Being in a police internship was a very great opportunity to see the perspective of all the departments from a good guys side instead of a bad guys side.

My first day at the police department was IT related. On my first day of the internship I visited the data and automation unit. This side was very cool as it involved computers and different technologies. I went to three different places in one day that all involved information technology. The first side I went to was where I was shown the different calls that came up and where the calls come as someone calls the emergency number. The platform that was also used along with this was lexisnexis. When the calls come in they are separated by the importance of the call and they call these priorities. It shows which calls require immediate attention and then it works its way down from there. I had mentioned about using the platform lexisnexis. Lexisnexis was used to look at the details of the call and what exactly happened. To look up a specific call you have to put the code number in the system and the system filters the call out and it shows the call that you searched up. It also lists the police officers notes and all the details. I then was taken to the second place where I was shown the same stuff but in this one I was shown the calls as well and to add on to the visit I was shown videos and pictures of things that were being looked for and wanted to catch someone through different technologies and was shown how each was used and in what scenario it was used for. The last place I went to was the records office where I was shown through excel and other technologies the reports of accidents through the dmv.

The second area that I went to was the training academy where they train people to become police officers. I got to meet with a bunch of instructors. I also got to see the classrooms, gyms, and other areas the new upcoming police officers train at. One of the areas I got to see that I thought was interesting to see is where they have the tasers. They showed me the room where they work with tasers. The same day I went to the driving facility which is part of the police academy where they teach the new upcoming police officers how to drive police cars. In the driving training they train police officers on how to drive on slippery surfaces and different situations. They also train them on how to pit maneuver cars in a high speed chase if there is a police chase. A pit maneuver is when during a chase a police officer will drive up to the back of the other car and ram the back either left or right and get it out of control so that the cops can stop the car from running. To be able to pit maneuver I was told that officers had to go through a test and pass the test before they are pit certified. If cops are certified they will have a cage on the front of the police car. They also have an obstacle course set up to teach and train the newly upcoming officers to back up and drive and go around cones and different things like that. Usually when the recruits do this obstacle course they have to do it in a timely manner.

The third area I went to was the K9 unit. I was told that under the K9 unit there are 3 types of dogs. The first type is the patrol dogs which are used to run after people and bite them who run away. The second type of dogs are the drug dogs who smell for drugs. The third type of dogs are the bloodhound dogs who smell for people who run away or hide somewhere. While I visited this area I got to see the drug dogs and how they train and smell for drugs. The drugs will get hidden in a spot and the dogs have to go and smell and find the drugs that are hidden. Once the dog finds the drugs the dog will sit next to the area they found the drugs in. Another thing I was told and got to see was they train a complete new dog they got from the pound to become a drug dog. A lot of the officers had labs and shepherds as their dogs.

The fourth area I went to was the school safety unit. I basically got to go to a school in the county and spend the day with a school resource officer. A school resource officer is a police officer who is assigned to patrol a school. While I was at the school I was told that the school resource officers overall just make reports about any fights or anything that goes on around the school. They are professionals trained to protect vulnerable populations. Other than this the school resource officers walk the halls and monitor the school to make sure everything is good and then at the end of the day will be at the bus loop where they will monitor and make sure all students safely get on the bus. School resource officers will also direct buses out at the time of dismissal if the main road is busy when buses are leaving.

The fifth area I went to was the property and evidence unit. In this unit they gave me my vest I was gonna wear and had to wear when I was with the patrol officers when I did my ride alongs with them later on in the following weeks. The vest that I was fitted in was bullet proof. Once I was fitted into my vest they showed me where they keep peoples evidence from crimes that were committed to store for court or in case it is needed in the future while doing an investigation on something. After visiting the property and evidence unit on the same day I was sent to the animal services team. The animal services team basically works at the dog pound or shelter. When I was there I got to see a cat, a few dogs and puppies, and two bunny rabbits for the first half of the day. They let me pet them and spend some time with animals. They showed me how they give animals medicine and treat the animals they get in case they need some treatment. The second part of the day, which was after lunch, I got to ride with an animal patrol officer. An animal patrol officer responds to calls about animals such as runaways, strays, and different types of things. While I was with the animal patrol officer we went to Mechanicsville to pick up some dogs that were at the vet. Once we picked them up from the vet we took them back to the animal shelter and gave them food and water.

The sixth area I visited was the Appomattox area. In this area I did my first ride along with a police officer during the day and I got to ride in the car with the cop and take calls. Majority of my day we did traffic stops for expired state inspections. In this visit I got to see what a traffic stop looks like from the cops perspective and how they pull someone over if necessary. This was definitely a learning experience where I learned a lot. Along with the traffic stops we went to a few calls as well such as disturbances and other traffic stops to assist other officers that needed possible assistance.

The seventh area I visited was again the Appomattox area. In this area I did a ride along at night time. This was from the late evening into the early morning time frame like around 4am. In this visit I got to go to multiple calls with the officer and then towards the end of the night I got to do some more traffic stops. This time the traffic stops were for speeding and I got to see what a radar was and got to hold the radar and check speeds and every time someone went speeding by we pulled the car over. Having the experience of holding a radar taught me a lot as well. This taught me how cops see your speed and how much distance the radar can see speed. Overall in the Appomattox day and night ride along I learned a lot of new things I did not know.

The eighth area I visited was the aviation unit. Aviation is the air team. I got to go to the hanger and got to see a variety of different planes they had. They showed me their transport planes where they transport criminals from other areas and states that they find are wanted and bring them back to the county. They also showed me the other planes they had as well and showed me the different technologies they use when on a call. They took me on a 45 min flight around the area. They took me around the county and around surrounding counties as well. They help out two other counties besides Chesterfield county as well. They explained to me that they help the ground team of the other two counties as well out when they have to find someone who is hiding and or on the run. They also help when the ground team is doing a pursuit and when that is going on they communicate and tell them which directions or way the suspect is going. I got to see their technology side where they showed me recordings of other calls they went to.

The ninth area I visited was the traffic unit. The traffic unit team usually handles the fatal crashes and also takes care of traffic patrol as well. This unit uses light r which is a type of radar and a regular radar a lot. They go around and do traffic stops when they are not at fatal crashes. During my experience with the traffic team I got to do a few traffic stops on the highway and other busy areas with the officer I was with. One of the traffic stops resulted in the person getting arrested and taken into custody and I got to go to the jail and see how they book someone in and see the process when someone is arrested. I definitely learned so much being with the traffic unit.

The tenth area I was with was forensics. While I was with them they showed me the office and the lab where they keep evidence as well. The forensics team also sometimes will get evidence from different crime scenes as well. Their main job is to go to crime scenes or calls that they are called to or needed at and take pictures of things that can be used in the court of law during a court case. With the forensics team I got to go to one call with them where they had to take pictures. While I was also with them I was told that the forensics team would go around to the different stations in the county because there are about three stations in the county and a few sub stations to check the forensics boxes. Sometimes what police officers will do is put some items for the forensics team to use for a case.

During my internship with the police department I visited the cyber department which was something I got to go to while with forensics. This department has a forensics unit as I explained above and then a cyber department. In the cyber department I was shown a variety of things. This specific department searches and cracks open through peoples phone information to see if the crime the person was accused of was actually committed comes true. They use dual monitors and use programs on the computer to do that. They use a program which allows them to download the entire phone and transfer all data and information to the computer. When the phone’s data and information is downloaded, then the information that is downloaded through the phone is visible and is able to be searched through. The information that can be seen through this program on the computer is messages which includes deleted messages so if someone deletes messages with someone it can be unencrypted and be able to be visible, phone calls which includes recent and past phone calls, activity on the phone like when you turn the phones display on and off, audio files, videos, locations your phone has been to and the times that the phone was there at the locations and so much more. This department has the ability to search through almost everything on the person’s phone and even some things you can not imagine can be looked through. It was a very interesting experience being in this department.

The eleventh area I visited was the violent crimes unit. This unit is the unit that involves detectives. During my visit with the violent crimes unit I got to go to a structural fire and a crime scene as well later on in the day. The detective I was with was also fire certified as well so we went to a structural fire call that he was called to. Later on in the day I went to a crime scene where we got evidence and information for the detectives for a crime so they can solve their case they were working on. I learned a lot with the detectives. They explained to me that the detectives will go to crime scenes after the crime has happened and go back and collect evidence and information. They will also go back and talk + interview people that they have to talk to get a solution on the case they are trying to solve.

The twelfth area I visited was the property crimes unit. This is also another unit that has detectives. During my visit with the property crimes unit I also learned a lot. The detective I was with specialized in stolen vehicles. The detective goes around driving during the day and finds stolen vehicles parked or on the move. The detective took me almost around the entire county and surrounding counties as well because he also covers and helps surrounding counties to look for any stolen vehicles. He had some technology that could tell him if a car was stolen so that is how he was able to tell if a car was stolen. Unfortunately that day we did not find any stolen cars while we were driving around. However, I did learn about what happens when a stolen car is detected. I was told when a stolen car was detected they will stop it if it is on the move or if it is parked they will get it towed by a company and notify the owner of the car that was stolen to tell them they were able to recover their property. Sometimes if they try to stop a car on the move that is stolen they usually end up getting into a police pursuit.

The thirteenth area I visited was the community policing department. In this department they usually interact with the community. What this means is they will go and talk to people about different things and interview them. They will go to public events with the public and tell them about the police as well and set up a table. They will also give community members advice on things as well if needed. This department also works with SROs. as well. SRO’s are school resource officers. In this department they had a bilingual officer who spoke spanish and english that can talk to the families who do not speak english and only spanish. My overall experience with the community policing unit was very interesting and I learned a lot about this unit. I did not know who this unit was before I went to it.

The fourteenth area I did was back at the academy. In this area I was a volunteer helping the new and upcoming police officers with scenarios. They had multiple volunteers helping as well along with me. The scenarios that we helped were with traffic stops and high risk traffic stops. For the traffic stops as a volunteer helping, we got to drive around a certain area in a real car and the new and upcoming police officers would pull us over and practice traffic stops on us and for this specific scenario we were told that this was gonna be a regular traffic stop. Each recruit police officer was assigned one volunteer and they had to keep pulling that same person over again and again. This taught me from a citizens perspective what it feels like to get a ticket, warning and summons because they had to do all types of things during the traffic stops. They had to write a warning, a ticket and a summons. I learned so much from this experience as well. This experience taught me not to get pulled over because I can get a ticket, summons, or a warning and know what it will be like to get either one of those. The next scenario we did which was the next day was the high risk traffic stops. This was basically showing us and teaching us what it is like to be arrested when a situation escalates at a traffic stop. In this scenario we were basically a felon that got pulled over and arrested and then we were taught what happens. You get a real feel about what it is like to get handcuffs put on you while doing this scenario. You are commanded out of your car with a series of steps and then arrested. In this I learned a lot as well of what it is like and the lesson I pulled from this is to never get arrested and do anything bad.

During my internship I visited the dispatch unit. This was the fifteenth area that I visited. At the dispatch unit I was introduced to a variety of technologies that they use. They use quad screens which are connected to one computer screen. Dispatch told me that they receive all types of calls. Examples of calls they receive are emergency calls and non emergency calls. Some examples of emergency calls they receive are accidents, medical emergencies, domestic violence calls, robberies, missing people, mutual aid calls, homicides and shots fired. Examples of non emergency calls they receive are legal advice, pets, out of state calls if they can’t call 911 and other jurisdictions calls. When they receive a call they have to put the information they receive on the computer into a catalog and log all information they get. When they put the information in from the call it sends the information to the unit that is needed at the time. They will also put in comments and ask a variety of questions to the caller to make sure things are okay or if immediate attention is needed. Everything they get they send it through so that the specific unit knows if it’s priority 1 which means immediate assistance needed, they will go quickly. Everytime they do put in comments it will send it straight to the Police, EMS or Fire whichever is needed at the time live and they will get it right away. I was also shown a list of call channels they have. They have 4 regional channels plus 4 tac channels. Tac channels are a channel where units can go offline from the original channel and talk. They also have an animal services channel and a pursuit channel. They also have a VSU channel and a statewide emergency which means the flight channel if they have to get helicopters to an EMS call. If they have to get aviation to a Police call they have a channel for that too. They also showed me another screen with additional mapping in case they need to get directions or locations of things. These were all the experiences I had with IT and Cyber Security at the police department.

The sixteenth area I visited was the crime solvers unit. In this unit I learned about crime solvers. This unit specifically is a unit that is another unit that investigates and collects evidence for crimes that happened. I was told in this unit that people anonymously report crimes or information about crimes that they know about and when they report something they are kept anonymous. Anonymous means where they do not release any information about you or anything they keep the information that is given to them and use it silently to solve crimes. This unit also not only does that but they go to schools and different areas and give presentations and tell people that if a crime happens and they know information about it and they afraid to report it because someone will find it they reported it that they will be kept anonymous and that no one will know they reported the crime if they do call. They also give an overview of the police in general as well.

The seventeenth area I visited was the falling creek area. In this area I got to do another police ride along with an officer. This ride was a night time ride along. It was in the hours of 2pm to 11pm. During my time in the falling creek area I got to go to multiple calls. This day it was raining and the weather was rainy and stormy almost the entire time I was in this area. Although like I mentioned I got to go to a bunch of calls. The first call I got to go on was a crash. After the crash call we went to a traffic stop to assist another officer and then we did go to disturbances and a suspicious person call. During this visit I learned about what some of the calls I went to were because I did not know about some of the calls we went to. I definitely learned a lot with the falling creek officer I was with. We also got to do one traffic stop as well towards the end of the night as well.

The last area I visited was the swift creek area. This visit was an early morning visit. It started around six in the morning and went until three in the afternoon. During my time with the officer from swift creek I got to do something I have never done before which was go to court. The officer I was with had to go to court because some of the people had traffic court for different traffic violations they had done. This was my first time going to court ever. I had never been to court and so this was a great learning experience. I learned what it was like to go to court for a traffic violation. After the court visit we went to a crash and the officer showed me what it was like to write a ticket because he had to write two tickets at this crash. After the crash we went to some more calls that came out such as disturbance calls and different calls like that. This visit with the officer at swift creek taught me a lot as well.

The police department overall has a chain of command everyone has to follow. What this means is that there are certain people that everyone must go to for advice or help on things. Being introduced to this for the very first time was completely new to me and getting to know about this chain of command aspect of the company was very informative to me. I got to learn who has to report to who and how important it is to report to the proper person and how now to report to anyone over anyone. One thing they emphasized to us interns was to not go over anyone and that if we need to talk to someone about something we need to report to a specific person and if there is necessity to keep it going then they will go up the chain of command.

The learning objectives I named in the introduction of my paper all the objectives I named and I was hoping to learn it fulfilled all the goals. As listed above my first objective I listed was being able to see how cyber security is used in the police department in general. I was able to see how cyber security was sort of used because I did go to the phone department while I was up in forensics and I got to see a little cybersecurity used. The second objective I named was being able to see how information technology was used in the police department in the different departments I visited. Information Technology was used in basically every single department I visited. They use their computers and different programs in almost all departments I visited. The last objective I named was about forensics. I definitely learned about forensics while doing the internship and what they do as a unit.

I am going to school for cyber security and pursuing a bachelor’s degree in cyber security. I got a degree in information technology from Bright Point Community College. After doing this internship it motivated me even more to take the IT degrees and go into law enforcement. I now want to work in the FBI stopping the cyber criminals from hacking into our personal information such as people’s social security numbers, addresses and bank account information. In this internship there were no discouraging aspects of the internship. There were rather more encouraging aspects of the internship. A lot of encouraging aspects of the internship was when everyone was asking me and telling me to join the police force. They were also telling me that the way I want to go with the FBI is a really good idea after college. I had told them that I had applied for an FBI internship for the summer that I was able to use this internship on my resume when I applied for the FBI internship to possibly help me get a better chance to get selected. I was rather motivated to do everything I was wanting to pursue with law enforcement. There were no challenging aspects of the internship either.

Doing any internships in law enforcement will make anyone and everyone have a lot of takeaways. There are a bunch of takeaways I can say after doing this internship in particular that I did. I have learned a lot of new things I had never known. This internship has taught me a lot about the law. It has taught me about the do’s and don’t of the laws. It taught me a lot of life lessons as well. I overall would recommend this internship to anyone and everyone that wants to pursue a career in law enforcement and in IT. There are a lot of things someone can learn like I did going through this internship. Having this internship as well will help get experience in law enforcement especially for the students who are pursuing a career in law enforcement. Another great thing is this internship is also good for someone who wants to pursue a career in IT and then take it to law enforcement like me.

For the rest of my time at Old Dominion University I will be looking for more internships related to IT and Cyber Security and also internships related to Law Enforcement as well since that is what I would like to pursue with both my bachelors in Cyber and my associates in Information Technology. Having an Information Technology internship will and can help me as well going forward even though I would like to work in law enforcement going forward. Having the experience in information technology working with computers can always come in handy later on if needed in the law enforcement world.