Parting words

I am thankful to the SPD and especially to the crime analyst unit for allowing me this internship.  I am happy that they trusted me enough to see confidential information. I am thankful they gave me the opportunity to learn; I learned something new every day. I am honored I got to work with such great people and my bosses were patient when teaching me some of the more complicated computer programs. 

My advice to anyone thinking about this career would be that you must like working inside at a desk for the majority of the day.  You need to be knowledgeable in certain computer programs, and you need to be able to make graphs and tables on the computer.  If you like puzzles, finding patterns and trends in stories this would be the job for you.

What is the state of our state?

On November 30th, I attended the State of our State Conference.  I was invited to go because Morrison Institute hosted the event and my research methods professor works for Morrison Institute.   At the conference, we learned how important education is to Arizona citizens.  The support for primary education was overwhelming and many believe our schools could improve the preparation of our students for college.  However, Arizonians believe immigration is the biggest problem facing our state. I learned that the majority are not happy with the current government running our state.

This was a great opportunity...

I am glad I got the opportunity to be an intern in the CAU.  I am so happy that I learned how to use Excel, because many employers require their employees to know how to use this program. However, I know this isn’t the job for me.  This job requires a lot of deskwork and it can be very solitary. I learned that I would rather have a job with more interaction with others and be in a faster paced environment.  

My favorite part was learning about all the different crimes.  My favorite shows are cop shows so that is no surprise; but I would rather leave this drama to the cop shows than do it as a career. In the end, I learned a lot and I am glad I have it in my resume.

Career Day

On October 27^th, I attended the Magnet Traditional School Career Day.  Magnet Traditional is where I volunteer.  At the event, I saw a Phoenix police detective, a former Navy Seal, an archaeologist, a public relations and social media account coordinator, and a representative from the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau.  From this event, I learned that I might want to get a job with the Convention and Visitors Bureau. You have to have a love for your city and we already know that I love our weather.  I think I would enjoy this job because of the interaction with a variety of people. I am excited to explore all the opportunities that are out there.

Apartment search

I am apartment searching right now.  You would not believe how frustrating it is.  It is a very long drawn out process.  It is made easier since I am doing it with my best friend, Amy.  We have known each other since we were five years old.  It is so exciting to finally live together. We are hoping to find a place before the next semester starts.  We are crossing our fingers to find a decent affordable apartment and I am searching the internet, especially raidsonline.com!

Raidsonline

So, we get a lot of calls from civilians about the different crimes and the percentage of crimes that occur in their neighborhoods or their future neighborhoods.  They like to call when they are contemplating moving.  We always try to help them; however, this is public information and everyone can look up crime statistics for their neighborhood.  A particularly good site is raidsonline.com.   My supervisor and I spent an afternoon reviewing this site. Most people get scared when they see the percentage of violent crimes especially the violent sex crimes in their neighborhood.  However, sex crimes are usually not random; the victim usually knows the offender and it usually has nothing to do with the neighborhood. In my opinion when deciding on where to move you should be more concerned over property crime percentages as these are most determined by location and violent crimes are usually determined by the person.

Theft and Shoplifting

Theft is the illegal taking of another person’s property without his or her permission.  Shoplifting usually consists of a theft of goods from a retail establishment.  Shoplifting is usually done by amateurs and is a form of theft.  The most common type of shoplifting is what we call a beer run.  A beer run is when a person walks into a convenience store, like Circle K, and grabs alcohol such as a 12pack and walks right out the front door. The last few weeks of my internship, we had an increase of shoplifting cases to enter because of the holidays.