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Ponca City Police Department – Aaliah Johnson

Aaliah Johnson describes her internship with the Ponca City Police Department ….

I did my internship with the Ponca City Police Department where I met many people, witnessed many things and some of these things scared me. My internship helped me learn many things about the job that I want in the future. I met many people and they taught me what I needed to know to become the person I want to be in the future. There are many job opportunities in the area that I want to be a part of. My internship helped me learn many things about the job that I want in the future. I met many people and they helped me learn what I needed to know to become the person I want to be in the future. During my internship I did ride along, learned how to fill out paperwork, how to file evidence and watch an interview with a suspect. During my internship I learned more than an everyday person would. If I had the opportunity, I would gladly take another internship with the Ponca City Police Department.
The department has many different jobs inside. When you first walk in there is the open public area where the municipal court room, the court clerk office, and the records office are located. To get into the station you have to pick up the red phone to connect with dispatch or the black phone, which connects you to booking. Inside the department there are many offices. The front offices belong to the captain, deputy captain, detectives and interview rooms. If you turn right, then walk to the end of the hall, there is a door that you open to walk downstairs. The downstairs is the location for dispatch, squad meetings, the fire range, storage rooms and locker rooms. If you were to turn left, instead of going through the door, you will pass two bathrooms and the office of the men who do payroll, which is on the right. If you turn left at the end of that walk way, you will pass the shift supervisors office, then walk into where they have vending machines and tables for food and breaks. After this room is the computer room, where the patrol officers do all of their paperwork. Then through a door straight ahead leads to booking and the jail cells. That concludes the tour of the police department.
The police department has many jobs with different types of officers. The department includes one chief of police and one deputy chief. They have one investigations captain and one patrol captain. Under the investigations captain is the detective lieutenant, who is over five detective sergeants, the investigations captain they have one special projects lieutenant, one special projects sergeant, and one special projects patrolman. Finally, under investigation they have one administrative lieutenant. Under the patrol captain they have three patrol lieutenants, each three has three patrol sergeants, and each sergeant has eight patrol officers. Under the patrol captain they also have one K-9 officer, two motorcycle officers, and two school resource officers. If I were to rank myself as an intern I would be ranked under the Patrol Officers.
My job duties as an intern are to watch and listen to the sergeant or patrol officer I am with. I mostly stay in the patrol car to do ride a long because that’s the field I want to go into. I would help them keep track on where to go if they forgot the address. If they were looking for a person, I would help keep an eye out for them. If I had a question, they would easily answer them. If they had questions for me, I would answer them. My main job duty was to present myself well to the people.  I would see in an arrest or in an interview and even around the officers and detectives. When I say present myself, I am talking about how I spoke to others, how I listened, and how I dressed. Basically, presenting myself in a well-mannered way. I believe that if I present myself well, then I have a better chance of getting a job at the Ponca City Police Department. My chosen field of the police department is to be a Patrol Officer. A patrol officer runs traffic, takes calls, does paperwork, back other officers, and go to court when needed to go to court. They also transport the people convicts they arrest to different facilities when needed. A patrol officer is required to do community service and sidewalk talks. Examples of the calls they would take are: DHS, domestic violence, robbery, break ins, traffic wrecks, etc. The things I did at my internship apply to the field I have chosen because I learned what patrol officers do.
There are some pros and cons about the internship. Some pros of the internship were learning about what I would be doing, meeting some of the people that I could work with one day. The officers would answer any questions I would ask. They would tell me things that I would need to know about the job. They helped me learn a lot of the streets in Ponca. I got to watch an interview between an officer and the suspect. I also got to learn some of the codes they use over the radio. There are not many cons of the internship. One major con was having to stay in the vehicle the whole time during a call like a traffic wreck. Some of the officers did not like to talk very much. There were some days that I was terrified, but it is something I needed to experience. There really are not many cons about my internship.
My opinion over my internship at the Ponca City Police Department was that I really enjoyed it. I liked being able to see what they actually do. I enjoyed learning how to do the paperwork because there are so many details you have to know. I liked how almost every officer would teach me something new each day I went. If I could, I would highly recommend an internship at Ponca City Police Department for someone else. I would recommend this as an internship for someone who is looking to be a patrol officer. The experience was something I will remember forever.
My internship at Ponca City Police Department helped me learn how to do the job I want to do. The officers taught me many things I need to know in the future. I watched how an officer should interview a suspect and what type of questions they ask. If I could do another internship I definitely would do another one at PCPD.