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Rio Hondo College
Department of Public Safety
3600 Workman Mill Road
Whittier, CA 90608

Course Description: This course discusses the history and development of Police Field Operations. Particular emphasis is placed on the planning of field activities which include the functions of patrol, traffic, and other preliminary investigative duties of the field officer. The techniques of planning for patrol operations, handling of requests for service, and civil and domestic disturbances are also presented in this course.

Course Assignments 

Unit 1- email your instructor and acknowledge due dates for completed work and final exams. 

Unit 2 - Basic Field Procedures.  Analyze the concept of patrol as a resource to reduce crime and serve the community.

• Unit Overview: BASIC FIELD PROCEDURES.
  The job of being a uniformed patrol officer is one of the toughest and, at the same time, one of the most visible jobs in the country. The demands on a police officer are many and varied:
  Administration wants the officer to always act ethically and obey the rules and the regulations of the department;
  Field Supervisors want their people to respond to calls for service in a timely and professional manner, and to complete their paperwork neatly and thoroughly; members of the general public expect that officers will always be polite, responsive, and take their side in disputes.
  
  The keys to successful patrol operations, as you will discover in the first two chapters of the textbook, lie in preparation and training. There is no room in law enforcement, especially in the 1990’s, for the untrained or unprepared police officer. Police officers today need to be street-wise and computer-literate. Officers need to have an understanding of the needs of their community, especially that portion that is their responsibility, and a sense of how they can provide as safe a community as possible, using ever-dwindling resources.
  
  The primary purpose of this course is to discuss the history and development of police field operations. We will examine such facets as interviewing techniques, observation skills, arrest and search techniques, and community-oriented policing.

Unit 3 - Observation, Perceptions, and Reporting.  Describe the basic factors involved in perception, the ability of a witness to provide accurate information, and how to translate this information into an accurate police report.

• Unit Overview:  OBSERVATION, PERCEPTION AND REPORTING
  Accurate and thorough information is critical to the success of each and every investigation, arrest, and prosecution. Information on crime patterns can assist departments in developing crime prevention strategies. Most of this information comes from field patrol officers.
  
  Paperwork has been a part of police work since the beginning. While computers have made this task a bit easier, it is of no less importance today than it was more than 100 years ago.
  
  The simplest police document can unravel the biggest of cases. In the early 1970’s, a terrorist organization called The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) kidnapped the daughter of a wealthy publisher. The gang began committing other crimes, including murder, and law enforcement officers across the country were looking for them. After abandoning a van they had used in an armed robbery, Los Angeles police officers impounded the vehicle - and found a parking citation written just a few days before. The officer who wrote the citation carefully noted the exact address where it had been parked, and this citation led officers directly to the SLA hideout. A shootout ensued and several of the terrorists were killed. The heiress was later found in San Francisco. A kidnapping, robbery, extortion, murder, and terrorism case solved - and only because a patrol officer took the time to accurately record information on a parking ticket.
  

Unit 4 - Routine Assignments.  Describe the day-to-day field duties of uniformed patrol officers and have an understanding of discretionary decision-making.

• Unit Overview:  ROUTINE ASSIGNMENTS
  Police officers are frequently portrayed in the media as uniformed officers braving continual danger as they rush from major incident to major incident. The truth is, much of a police officer’s daily duties are taken up by "routine" calls for service, with the occasional response to a crime in-progress.
  
  The purposes of this lesson are (1) to familiarize you with the wide variety of "routine" calls for service you may encounter as a police officer, and (2) to provide you with information on the types of responses available to you when handling the not-so routine calls, such as in-progress crimes.
  
  Most police officers come out of the academy excited about working the streets and handling serious offenses such as burglaries and robberies. Many are a bit disillusioned when they discover that the average patrol officer spends most of her or his time handling the not-so-exciting types of calls such as business disputes, abandoned vehicles, and noise complaints. These calls, however, are just as important to the community, as they relate to the "quality of life" issues that affect the majority of residents and business owners.
  
  Crimes in-progress, though not as common as "routine" calls for service, require that police officers bring their normal states of caution and awareness to higher levels. Police officers are killed and seriously injured each year responding to crimes in progress such as domestic assaults, burglaries, and armed robberies. These critical responses require that officers exhibit caution, excellent tactics, and superior teamwork. There is no room for "John Wayne" when it comes to handling dangerous, in-progress calls for service.
  

Unit 5 - Preliminary Investigations; Interviewing Techniques.  Explain the basic factors involved in perception, the ability of a witness to provide accurate information, and how to translate this information into an accurate police report.

• Unit Overview:  PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATIONS
  The most important document in any police investigation is the original report taken by the first responding patrol officer. All aspects of the subsequent investigation are based on the thoroughness of that initial investigation. More crimes have been solved (or not solved, unfortunately) because of the way the first police officer on-scene wrote the preliminary investigative report.
  
  Along the same lines, the best time to identify and collect evidence is during the preliminary investigation. The more time that passes, the more the liklihood that evidence will be overlooked, damaged, or destroyed. In one case, a police detective received an anonymous tip that a certain "John Jones" had committed a burglary at a business three years ago. The detective went to the original report and learned that fingerprints had been located and recovered by the original responding field officer. The detective found out also that "John Jones" had a criminal record so it was no problem in locating a set of his fingerprints to compare. The fingerprints matched and "John Jones" was arrested and convicted of a three year-old burglary, all because the patrol officer took the time to look for and collect fingerprint evidence.
  
• INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUES
  Police officers talk to dozens of people each day. Most are honest, law-abiding citizens, but frequently officers find themselves speaking with criminal suspects. This section of the course deals with interviews and interrogations. You will learn that routine detentions on the street (traffic stops, pedestrian interviews) are covered by significantly different rules than are in-custody interrogations. You will learn about the famous Miranda v. Arizona case that established the Miranda Rights that just about everyone who has ever seen a police television show can recite.
  
  As a patrol officer, you will conduct a significant number of preliminary investigations during your career. The successful outcome of these investigations will depend a great deal on your ability to conduct information-gathering field interviews and interrogations. Think about the situation where an officer stopped a speeding Timothy McVeigh shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing. Had the officer not taken the time to conduct a through field interview and investigation, he might have released McVeigh with only a citation or a warning - the the suspect and valuable evidence might have been lost forever.
  

Unit 6 - Arrest, Search, and Custody.  Explain how a police officer can decide what the appropriate level of use of force can be utilized during an arrest situation.

• Unit Overview:  ARREST, SEARCH, AND CUSTODY
  Police officers conduct thousands of field detentions each and every day in this country and make hundreds of arrests based upon these detentions. Obviously, not everyone who is detained is arrested, but the arrests that are made are ultimately scrutinized by both sides of the criminal justice system. Errors that are made can lead to the release of guilty persons, the suppression of evidence and legal claims against the officer and his or her jurisdiction.
  
  Similarly, officers are faced each day with having to make the decision to conduct a search of a person, vehicle, or building based upon their understanding of what constitutes probable cause.
  
  During some arrests, it becomes necessary for officers to use various levels of force. They must understand both the law and their agency’s policies on the use of force or, once again, they can become the subject of lawsuits and/or disciplinary action.
  
  The purpose of this lesson is to introduce the concepts of detention, arrest, search and seizure, and the use of force. In your written assignment, you will be asked to evaluate hypothetical situations and provide your valuation of what was right or wrong. It only takes one misapplication of the law in an arrest, detention or search and seizure situation to invalidate an entire prosecution...or to make the eleven o’clock news and ruin the reputation of an entire law enforcement agency.
  

Unit 7 - Unusual Occurrences.  Explain the basic duties and responsibilities of a patrol officer who responds to the scene of a natural disaster.

• Unit Overview:  UNUSUAL OCCURRENCES
  Hollywood makes a significant amount of money each year by producing what have been called "disaster movies." While we don’t expect a volcano to erupt in downtown Los Angeles, or a meteor to strike Wisconsin, police officers must be prepared to handle both natural disasters and civil disturbances which do occur on an all too-frequent basis. Airplanes, especially small ones, are known to occasionally drop out of the sky (mostly because the pilot ran out of gas). When these air crashes occur, local law enforcement, fire fighters, and emergency medical personnel are immediately involved. Often the first person on-scene is a uniformed police officer.
  
  Police officers are also frequently called on to prevent or to stop civil disturbances. While most of these disturbances are fairly small ones such as labor disputes, the Los Angeles riots of 1992 involved over 80 law enforcement and fire fighting agencies county-wide within the first 24 hours.
  
  The purpose of this unit is to introduce you to the basics of disaster response for police officers, as well as to touch on subjects such as crisis intervention and handling the mentally and/or emotionally disturbed.
  
  While incidents such as the ones described in the textbook do not happen everyday (or even as often as Hollywood makes it seem), police officers must be thoroughly familiar with basic emergency response tactics to insure that when an unusual occurrence does happen, they will be prepared to take charge and minimize the threats to the community.
  

Unit 8 - Officer Survival.  Describe the basics for police officer survival tactics and the rules of self-defense.

• Unit Overview:  OFFICER SURVIVAL
  Law enforcement tends to impose a higher degree of stress and a multiplicity of stressful situations on the individual than do most other professions. Studies have shown those in law enforcement experience a higher rate of suicide than the national norm.
  
  People involved in law enforcement are constantly exposed to other peoples’ problems, as well as their own; separating their public and private lives is not always easy. In fact, it may grow more difficult as the law enforcement professional moves up on the career ladder. As responsibility for subordinates is added, his concerns are compounded by those of the people managed.
  
  The person opting for career advancement is faced with the stress brought about by protecting and serving the public, the private stress experienced in family or social life, and the institutional stress created in moving ahead. Much has been written about executive stress, and the rising young executive should avail himself or herself to this information. Stress - A Major Enemy of Law Enforcement Professionals by Lee Colwell, D.P.A. (FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, February, 1988, p.11)
  
  The Survival State of Mind
  The first step in surviving on the street is to adjust your mental attitudes, in light of the common patterns of encounter and the perspectives both you and the suspect are likely to bring to a confrontation. This involves reminding yourself repeatedly that:
  

  1.law enforcement is a hazardous occupation, demanding your constant vigilance;
  2.a suspect’s background, attitudes, motivation, willingness to reason and inclination to shoot may be quite different from your own;
  3.there are legal, moral, and psychological implications of shooting that must be anticipated and personally resolved before a confrontation;
  4.it may be necessary at any time to take a life to save your own or someone else’s;
  5.practical proficiency with firearms includes learning and practicing new techniques under stress in as realistic an environment as is possible to simulate, and
  6.with preparedness, pre planning and proper physical fitness, you can avoid mistakes of less fortunate officers and successfully conclude most suspect encounters.
  Street Survival: Tactics for Armed Encounters by Ronald Adams, Thomas M. McTernan and Charles Remsberg (1980: Caliber Press) p.42.

Unit 9 - Community Policing.  Identify community-oriented policing and how it can be applied to various communities.

• Unit Overview:  COMMUNITY POLICING
  One of Sir Robert Peel’s basic principles was, "The Police are the Community and the Community are the Police." This principle is one of the cornerstones of Community-oriented Policing, a policing philosophy that is becoming extremely prevalent throughout the world.
  
  I’ve underscored the word "philosophy" to stress the fact that community policing is not a series of crime prevention or community relations programs that are performed by a few officers, but an organizational doctrine and body of knowledge that is understood and practiced by each and every member of a police agency, from the police officers to the dispatchers, and the records clerks to the chief of police or sheriff.
  

Final Examination: Your grade for the course will be weighted as follows: Written Assignments = 50%, Final Exam = 50%. In order to successfully complete the course you MUST complete the written assignments and, take the final examination. If you live within 50 miles of the campus, you MUST take the final examination on campus. You may contact the Learning Assistance Center at (562) 692-0921 x 4016 or 3169 to schedule taking the final exam. The Learning Assistance Center is located at the Police Academy which is on the main campus on Canyon Drive. If you live over 50 miles from the college the exam may be proctored at your location. Contact your instructor for details.

If you experience any difficulty or need any further clarification, contact the Online Coordinator, Carley Mitchell at mitchellcarley@hotmail.com or in an emergency call him at (801) 953-6173.

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