Case Report: Macedon Police Department

Macedon Police Department During my senior year in high school, through my EMCC (Eastern Monroe Career Center) Boces program, my criminal justice teacher told our class we were going to intern 10-12 weeks somewhere in the field that we were interested in. I was accepted to intern with the Macedon Police Department. I went to my internship Monday through Friday from 8am until 10:30 am. My main supervisor was Earl Lergner. He is a police officer that is in charge of the evidence chamber. He has to take evidence from the lockers and place it into the evidence chamber and log the information. When Officer Lergner was training I would intern with the other officers. I interned with Officer O’Konsky, Officer Demchuck, and Officer Damato. I never
got the chance to intern with Chief Colella.
At first Chief didn’t allow me to ride along with Officer Damato, he was a new officer and the chief wanted to make sure I was safe. I rode along with Officer O’Konsky about two weeks out of the ten weeks I interned. I rode with Officer Demchuck two times and Officer Damato once. I wasn’t allowed to ride with Officer Damato after that because he had gone 80 around a turn. The chief had gotten a little upset about that. Officer O’Konsky and Officer Damato usually work the night shift which goes from midnight until 8 am. Officer Demchuck would work from 4pm until midnight. I also got to meet Officer Hall, Officer Haines, Officer Powell, and Sergeant Cooman, and Sheriff Danny. I also met the Civilian Clerk of the department Tyler Robinson. I met many other officers and K-9 officers from other police departments like Newark, Syracuse, Palmyra, Gananda, and the Sheriff’s office. During my time at the police department, I visited the Macedon Town Hall
and Palmyra Police Department.
The Macedon Police Department used to be a village department. The police department was founded about 8 to 10 years ago when it became the town department. The chief of police is John Colella. He has been the law enforcement since 1990. He worked for the Seneca County Sheriff’s office for four years. He was nominated “officer of the year” two times. He transferred to the village of Clyde where he spent seven years. Chief Colella then transferred to Macedon Police Department in 2003. In 2004 he was promoted to sergeant/ investigator. In 2008 he was then promoted to Chief of Police. I’m glad that Chief Colella gave me the opportunity to ride along with his officers. Riding with the different officers gave me an opportunity to experience different ways they handle the situations. Each officer has their own way of doing everything. I have gotten the chance to experience all sorts of different cases (Lergner). The Macedon Police Department is committed to serving their community by working in partnership with the residents, businesses, and organizations that make up the town. The partnership’s goal is to prevent crime, solve problems and improve the quality of life for everyone that lives, visits and does business with the Town of Macedon. Macedon Police Department provides the highest level of professional policing services to all members of their community (Macedon Police Department). An example of how the Macedon Police Department helps out the community is, when you are driving down the highways or any street for that matter, you may sometimes see a state trooper or police officer sitting on the side or hiding in a corner of the road running radar. The police department do this as a way of keeping the community safe by stopping, to the best of their abilities, all of the drivers who speed by pulling them over and ticketing them. This is helping out the community because not only is it keeping the driver that is speeding safer, it is teaching them to learn to slow down and not create a bigger chance of crashing into something, but it also keeps all the other drivers on the road around them safer, so the driver doesn’t have a greater chance of crashing into another car with innocent people inside. Another example that shows that the Macedon Police Department does everything they can to help out the community is, when they get called out on emergency situations or they hear that there was a murder or just any issue that could involve guns or any dangerous situation, is showing that they are risking their lives to help us. Now yes, they could not choose a police officer as a profession as they know it is going to come with many challenges they are going to have to face, but they do it anyway. They decide to take it into their own hands to risk having their lives end to help us, the community, and everyone else around us. It is shown that the Macedon Police Department and every other police department show a true level of love and support to the community every day.
A suspect that is in custody has to be brought to the Town Hall to be placed in front of the judge.
The judge will then hear the charges that the suspect has, then will sentence the suspect according to the charges. The names of the two judges at the Town Hall are Tom Crowley and Ron Reinstein. Their Clerks are Judy Oaks and Sue Gorman. The clerks are in charge of getting the right files out, prepare the judge, administers oaths to witnesses and interpreters, taking care of records and exhibits, keeping minutes of proceedings, preparing criminal judgments and verdict forms, and generally helping the judge keep the trial running smoothly. Without the clerk, the trial may result in the wrong verdict because with no one to help organize the papers and everything else that needs to be used during the trial, there may be some miscommunication and it could turn into a big mix up. So having a clerk and many other people involved in a trial can be very helpful. I was assigned to ride with Officer Lergner. He has been with Macedon Police Department for over 6 years. He became full time in 2008. In 2003 Earl obtained his bachelor’s degree for criminal justice from Keuka College. He has gone through photography training, fingerprint training, police crime scene and evidence specialist Training. I have had the chance to learn how to use equipment in the patrol car. Earl has also let me scan licenses and insurance papers into the computer to do the
reports.
A 17 year old boy had overdosed on Musinex and was sent for a mental hygiene evaluation, a woman told her ex-boyfriend she was going to take all of her pills, and we had to take her for a mental hygiene evaluation. Another woman told her son that if he went to the cops and told them that she had taken credit cards and put them in his name that she had enough pills to put her and her four year old son to sleep for good. We had dealt with her before for stealing her father’s credit cards. We arrested her and brought her to court and she freaked out in front of the judge when he told her she was going to jail with no bail. A 15 year old boy sent a picture a gun over his cellphone to his girlfriend and said that he was going to shoot himself. She called the police because she was worried. When he gets upset or mad, he punches and kicks everything. He was also sent for a mental hygiene evaluation. We had a call to a house where a guy and a girl who have a child together, the guy told her to leave and she wouldn’t. The guy had custody of the child so we told her that she was either to leave or she was going to be arrested. She as smoking and blew the smoke into the officers face and the chief yelled at her and knocked it out of her hand. She was drunk and very disrespectful. The guy gave her a ride home. A week later we had a call to the same residence. The girl had gone there and went into the house without the guy’s permission. He was holding the child and went into a room and shut the door. She broke the door down and hit him. She was charged with E.W.O.C., endangering the welfare of a child, and disorderly conduct. The judge told her that he was issuing an order protection and she could not see her son for six months. We pulled cars over for loud exhaust, tinted windows that are too dark, speeding, late inspections, no insurance, bad registration, driving while on a cell phone, and no seat belts. I have witnessed arresting a person and bringing them to court and dropping them off at the jail. There were drug cases and arrest warrants, search warrants, fraud, burglary, domestic violence, mental hygiene, property checks, accidents, school searches and overdose that I have witnessed. When people get pulled over they give the stupidest reasons for what they did wrong. One guy said, “Does it help I was speeding because my wife just had a baby a month ago?” People make things up in order to try and get out of a ticket. We did a school search at Gananda High School. Syracuse Police Department and their K-9 unit ,Newark Police Department and their K-9, the Sheriff’s Office and two of their K-9’s came and assisted us with the search. This was the one time that I was allowed out of the car and was able to sweep the school with the officers and K-9 units. There are many positives and negatives about my internship. I enjoyed riding along and being able to experience different cases. I was able to deal with fraud, burglary, vehicle and traffic, domestic violence, court and jail. I did not like just driving around and not having any calls or anything to do. Some days we would just sit and watch cars and find someone to pull over. I really did not like being in the car for long periods of time because I would get car sick. I heard some of the vocabulary words that we had learned in class. The officers do finger prints on paper if the machine is not working right. Each of the officer’s handcuff differently where some do not hold the thumb back on the person, and others do. The domestic violence reports and parking tickets are still done on paper where all other reports are done on a computer and then they get printed. Each officer that I worked with handled each case differently. Earl can be nice until he gets disrespected then he gets stern and his day turns bad. Each officer was nice to work with. Handcuffs are designed to temporarily restrain a suspect. Handcuffs don’t fully restrain a suspect. Suspects that are in handcuffs are still considered a threat. Handcuffs are supposed to be carried in a manner that they are accessible and ready for immediate use. The handcuffs should be placed where they can be quickly retrieved. Most officers double lock the handcuffs so that they don’t tighten on the suspect, if they are too tight they could cause nerve damage or cut off the circulation. Each officer handcuffs the suspect different. You can handcuff a suspect in the front or in the back (Standard Operating Procedures For Handcuffs and Handcuffing).
I am glad that I got the chance to intern with Macedon Police Department. I have learned some of the same things in class. Being able to do this internship made me realize that I would like to do something in the criminal justice field. I was accepted for the nursing program at Finger Lakes Community College, but I changed my major to criminal justice. I have gotten the chance to pull people over and write tickets, to arrest people and bring them to jail. If I ever got the chance to do another internship I definitely would. My favorite part of the internship was having the opportunity to work with three different K-9 units while doing a search at Gananda High School. I have always wanted to work with children and in the criminal justice field so I am thinking about becoming a probation officer for juveniles.

Works Cited “Message From the Chief.” Macedon Police Department. Macedon Police Department, 2008. Web.14 Apr. 2014. “Standard Operating Procedures For Handcuffs and Handcuffing.” Standard Operating Procedures For Handcuffs and Handcuffing. N.p., 10 Mar. 2003. Web. 18 Apr. 2014