Ashley Terry

Summer Field Period

Summary Paper 2013

Delaware County Sheriff’s Office

When first starting my Field Period at the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) I

did not know what to expect; I just knew that I was there to see if I wanted to pursue a career in

the Criminal Justice field. Before I had my first day, I met with my supervisor, Lieutenant

Timothy M. Buckley. He asked me questions about what I needed while there and had me sign a

release form and a confidentiality agreement. While at DCSO I learned a lot of new things about

the criminal justice system and how my county ran things.

During my field period I was in three main spots: Communications, Road Patrol, and the

Jail. Communications is where I did the least amount of work and it tended to be very boring for

me. The days I was in Communications I just had to sit and observe as the workers answered

phones and took walk-in complaints. People in Communications receive phone calls from all

over the county about all sorts of complaints anyone is having. This can range from a murder to

a bat stuck in a barn. After they receive the phone call they get all the information they can and

see if the police are really needed. When they hang up the phone they then give the information

to an available officer to go check out the complaint. After they give an officer the complaint

they must put all the information down in the CAD system in order for it to be a legitimate case

and has a number easy for the Road Patrol officer to access it.

Communications workers also get the calls when Road Patrol officers call in and out of

service. Each time the officer calls in and out of service they must give their time and mileage

on their car to the Communications worker. The time must also be said in military format, the

time is like this all over the building. Communications also has to send out information

involving all the road closings, school closings and any potentially bad weather reports in

Delaware County. Delaware County Communications Office can also work as a 911 system if

the local 911 happens to go down for some reason. They have access to get ahold of all the

police and fireman in the county, this includes any state police or local police.

The place I spent the most time was with the Road Patrol. Usually, I would start my day

observing in the Communications Room and then end up on the road doing a ride along for the

rest of it. The officers cannot use their name when calling into Communications. Each one is

given a specific number that is easy to identify over the radio. I worked with four different

officers during my time at DCSO; 417, 413, 416, and 422.When calling in on the radio each

officer has to say their number and who they are talking to, for example if officer 417 needed to

call the communications office they would have to say “417 to county do you copy?”. This way

everyone who is on that radio frequency knows who is trying to talk to who. When the officers

are given a complaint they have to let everyone know they are ‘en route’ to the situation or else

too many officers may go and there will not be enough around the county for other complaints.

Every complaint that is given must have documentation. When an officer is given a

complaint the Communicatins person must put it in a system describing what the complaint was,

who is taking the complaint, who is involved in the complaint, and any other pertinent

information. The system then gives the complaint a CAD number to put in their own report.

The number helps to access any complaints on any computer with that system. No matter how

small the complaint is there must be paperwork filled out by the Road Patrol officer. In the

paperwork there is a narrative that must go along with it describing what happened in the

complaint. There is usually two narratives, the Communications narrative and the Road Patrol

officers, this way there is as much information as possible if it is a big case. Finally, all

complaints are pending until they are reviewed.

When taking a complaint there are many things that the Road Patrol officer must do

depending on the complaint. For most complaints an officer has to take witness statements,

conduct interviews, and take any evidence that might be important to the case. When taking

evidence each piece is bagged and tagged. Then it is put into into a lock box that only two

people in the county building have access to. Here it will be reviewed, destroyed, sent to be

checked for latent prints or DNA, or logged. Complaints can also lead to Orders of Protection

(or OPs) in some cases, many involving children. When someone receives an OP it is mainly

because that person is dangerous or has caused harm to the person they are now prevented from

seeing or talking to.

Another thing that complaints can lead to, most likely the more obvious one, is arrests.

There are two different types of arrests. The more known one is that they bring you in

handcuffs, take you to DCSO or a local satellite station around the county, fingerprint you, ask

you a bunch of questions and take you to see a judge where you get bail or ROR’d. However, if

you get arrested on a weekend you have to sit in jail until Monday, when the judge gets back.

The other type of arrest is an appearance ticket, this means that you must go to court on the date

given where the judge then decides to give you bail or ROR you. Before an officer can make an

arrest they must make a sheet explaining why they have each charge they are receiving; they can

also have multiple counts of charges.

Each officer has a camera in their car that automatically goes on when they drive above

80mph or turn their lights on. This helps when they are making arrests and traffic stops to prove

that they followed procedure or not in court when needed among other things. After each arrest

or OP delivery the Road Patrol officer must deliver a press release to prove to the county that

they are doing their job. Just like when arresting someone, Road Patrol can issue multiple traffic

tickets to one person at once. This happens a lot if you drive through multiple towns violating

traffic laws. The person must receive a ticket for each violation for each town.

After someone is arrested and they get put on bail and do not make it they must go to the

jail. Here they have to go through another system of questions and paperwork all starting in the

room called Intake. After someone is brought to Intake, they are asked a series of questions,

fingerprinted, have their picture taken, showered, have their belongings on person recorded and

put into storage, given one phone call, given a jump suit, and set up a court date. If they have

court the same day they are arrested they just wait in a holding cell. If they have court a different

day they must wait in a jail cell. When the person is put in jail they are given a mandatory 30

minutes of rec time a day, they can watch TV, get some things from commissary, as long as it is

allowed in their cells, and get three hot meals a day.

When first moving in, inmates get a laundry basket with underwear, a cup, bowl, spork,

and towel. They can not have hard cover books or anything stacked on their shelves. They also

can be locked in their cells at any time. The only separation of inmates in DCSO is between the

males and females. When the inmate gets let out they have 30 days to retrieve whatever things

they left behind. However, no matter the amount of money in commissary they have, it must be

sent back to them by check.

Intake has multiple things its accountable for. They must keep an envelope of everyone

in the jail that has their most recent court date and other important information. At the end of

each shift the Intake officer must have a turnover sheet done. This helps the next officer know

what happened in the previous shift. There is also a large book that must have everything

recorded in it as well. In Intake there is a system called a sallyport that holds all the information

about people that were arrested in DCSO, they can also find out if the person was arrested in

another county or state previous to their current arrest. The information in that sallyport never

goes away. DCSO gets paid for every board-in they have and can hold up to 100 inmates.

I was also in the control room for a couple days during my Field Period. Here is where

one can see all that is going on in the jail and unlock all the doors. There are cameras in every

room, but the control room and bathrooms. Each pod in the jail also has its own control area ,

but the main control room can take over them if need be.

There was a lot I learned during my field period and I was very happy to be able to have

the chance at this experience. I did this field period to see if I wanted to continue my minor in

criminal justice. Upon completing this field period I discovered I will definitely continue to

pursue my minor and look forward to the future.