Blog 24: Exit Interview Questions

(1) What is your essential question?  What is the best answer to your question and why?

• "How can an officer best handle a life threatening situation?" is my essential question. After a whole school year devoted to learning about law enforcement and answering my EQ, I came to the decision that the best way for an officer to handle a life threatening situation is to utilize the training they receive from academies. The reason for this conclusion is because at the academies, especially in todays world with the scrutiny law enforcement is facing, recruits are put under the toughest and most realistic conditions to make sure they can operate as police officers. With new technologies such as simulators coming out, recruits can be taught things that normally would have to be learned on the streets, things like proper communication skills that vary on who you are talking to or how to have good weapon retention so the officer isn't pulling his weapon on someone who is just pulling out their wallet. Giving them the best possible training before officers get into the field is preparing them for the worse possible scenarios, and practically all my interviews, mentors, and some sources have said that preparing for a situation is key to handling them. Thus give them the best preparation in training and they can face virtually any situation. 

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

• The primary reason I came to this answer is my experiences at the academy I attended. While at the Sheriff's Training and Regional Services Academy, we underwent an academy that mimicked the actual Sheriff's academy in everything but the length of time. We even practiced at the same  facility as the sheriffs and our training curriculum followed theirs. I heard a lot of real life experiences and got to witness videos of a few of them, and the men and women who lived them came and spoke to us. The officers shared stories of their first life threatening situations and how they often realized that using what they learned in the academy was the only reason they were there to talk to us that day. Once I graduated from the academy and attended my first details, I got a taste of some situations where my training kicked in. Though they were often quarrels between two parties rather than life threatening situations, I doubt I would have been able to deescalate them before they grew out of hand the way I did without my training. 

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

• I faced only two problems during my senior project, the first being that there wasn't much specific research that was of much worth after the 20 - 30 articles. I had to make up for it by getting the inside scoop from my mentor and mentorship. The 2nd was with my mentorship at the academy. Being that it was a 18 week academy that required me to wake up at 4 A.M. on Saturday so that I could get there by 6 A.M. and finish at 6 P.M. starting to take a toll on me. There was a point where managing it along with school was putting me in danger of not graduating that academy. If I hadn't, I would have been out of a mentorship and practically my entire senior project would have gone down the drain. I managed to get my footing ,though, and push through to graduate and I really came out stronger along with being able to complete my hours. 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

• My mentorship at my police academy because of the hands on training and experience it gave me that was so close to the real thing law enforcement officials undergo and Survival Stress by Steve Drzewiecki because its the best comprehensive journal I have on life threatening situations. That journal is what has allowed me to define my EQ and find the best answers for it.

(5) What is your product and why?

• My product is the greater understanding of service to the community and to others I learned from my time at the academy and my explorer post. I learned that being polite and good natured will take you far in life. Being calm and acting rather than reacting gives you advantages and prevents you from making bad regretful decisions. Going back into the community and doing your part, especially at a young age will inspire and touch others while giving your life meaning. I didn't start this project really thinking to learn these things, rather it seemed like just another project. Yet through my experiences I have come away with so much; knowledge and life lessons that will allow me to be truly successful in life.