News

November 20, 2009

A look into world of police

FORTY FORT – A daughter of a longtime police chief, Mia Rinaldi has already learned there is a lot more to police work than a trooper sitting on the interstate with a radar gun.

In the past eight weeks of the Citizens’ Police Academy, a class held annually by Pennsylvania State Police, Rinaldi, a Luzerne County Community College sophomore who is pursuing a career in criminal justice, gained insight into a few of the organization’s many specialized divisions.

“I like investigations. It just interests me,” said Rinaldi, 19.

Rinaldi, whose father is the police chief for Pittston Township, was one of 19 people who received a graduation certificate for participating in the academy Thursday night.

This year’s class learned everything from forensics to reconstructing a crash scene at the state police training facility in Forty Fort.

Rinaldi said she and one of her friends found out about the class through Trooper Martin Connors of the Wyoming Barracks during a course last semester at LCCC.

The last topics discussed were on law enforcement technology and leadership, which was presented by Capt. John Dougherty, a state police commander who is in charge of the five stations in Troop P.

In law enforcement there were few technology advances up until 1984, said Dougherty, who has been with the state police since 1986.

“There has been a tremendous boom in law enforcement technology since that time,” said Dougherty.

Since the mid-80s, there has been a steady flow of technological advances, the captain said.

Today, law enforcement is equipped with mobile computing, video recording, crime mapping and forensic technologies such as fingerprint and DNA databases.

Dougherty spoke the last part of the hour about leadership within the state police organization.

“Most of the people in law enforcement want to come here, do the job and serve the public,” Dougherty said to the class.

Editor’s note: Staff writer Jen Marckini also participated in the academy classes and received a graduation certificate.

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