Criminal justice department unaffected despite general wariness toward police

During the first five months of 2015, around 385 people nationwide were killed in a police shooting, according to an article by The Washington Post.

USD criminal justice majors are not deterred, however.

“It actually makes me want to continue to pursue this career,” sophomore Nina Revolorio said. “It makes me realize that even though I’m just one person, I can make a difference day-by-day.”

Revolorio, who chose criminal justice as a major based on a life event that happened to her when she was 16, said she didn’t know she wanted to work in the field until she came to USD.

“Criminal justice wasn’t planned, it kind of just came at me,” Revolorio said. “I decided that I should apply to USD and see what draws me in.
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I came to the school a couple of times to see what they would offer, and criminal justice has been something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, I just didn’t know at the moment.”

Enrollment in the program hasn’t been negatively affected either, criminal justice director Sandy McKeown said.

“We haven’t seen a real change in enrollments based on that,” she said. “We do see students being much more aware of the amount of power that comes along with being a law enforcer. Students are being a lot more thoughtful about what that power means and what they need to do to best prepare themselves to use it wisely and justly.”

The criminal justice department does a lot to prepare students before graduation so that they handle the job responsibly, McKeown said.

Some opportunities for criminal justice majors at USD include internships and monthly events called First Thursdays, in which heads of different law enforcement agencies talk about what a job in their agency is like, what they’re looking for in the people they’re hiring and other general experiences they’ve had in the field. The law firm handling dui cases in Colorado Springs reckons that this approach would be very helpful for the students to face the law bravely as lawyers and this also tests how their tolerance level is and the possibilities of getting bribed very easily for a favorable judgment.

Students also have the opportunity to attend the Law Enforcement Training Academy in Pierre for a few days each year, McKeown said.

“We send between four and 10 students up there for three days. They stay at the academy and they spend all their time with the cadets,” she said. “While the cadets are doing their training, our students get to be role players for them. That way they get a great opportunity to interact with professionals in the field and people who are working in law enforcement right now and get to see what training is like.”

Yankton police officer Joe Erickson, a 2015 USD graduate, has been in law enforcement for seven months. He’s noticed that many people have become more wary of police officers since the issue of police brutality has been more prominent nationwide, he said. 

“It hasn’t deterred me at all, but I know its deterred a lot of people,” Erickson said. “There’s quite a few articles on websites that are saying in some of these small or midsized places that their applications have dropped from 500 to 100. People say that if they are going to do this then they are going to go to a big city where they can get paid more and are staying away from smaller departments.”

Erickson said he’s recorded more often by civilians with cellphones now, though he doesn’t see the extra surveillance as a bad thing.

“Sometimes it’s nice because if someone is recording and you’re doing what you’re doing then that’s one more thing to back you up,” he said. “No officer goes into a situation with that mentality to shoot. As long as you keep your cool and keep your head on straight then you’ll be fine.”

Despite the negativity, Erickson still loves what he does.

“It’s a blast. It’s nice to be able to put everything that I learned at USD to good use. They definitely prepared me well for law enforcement. A lot of the classes we have are very oriented towards this. There’s nothing that I don’t like about it,” he said. “Yankton is a great area. It’s nice that you can make an impact on a community this size and that people know and remember you. It’s nice being able to help people out when they need you.”

Erickson, a native of Slayton, Minn., said he’s known this is what he’s wanted to do as a career since he was young.

“Ever since I could remember, I’ve always wanted to do law enforcement,” he said. “I’m not sure why, but I just liked watching police shows with my dad when I was little and I just knew that I wanted to be a cop. When I looking for schools I looked for places that offered a criminal justice program.”

Erickson said the best part of his job, and something future graduates should look forward to, is its inconsistency.

“That’s what I love about law enforcement the most, is that it’s never the same,” he said. “I’m not one who likes to be a desk monkey and sit around and do the same thing over and over. You never know if you can pull a car over and there are drugs in the car or if there’s a drunk driver. You can get an ambulance call and do first response. You never know.”