California Virtual Campus

By John T. Blachley

John serves as an Adjunct Online Instructor at College of the Desert, Palm Desert, California and Butte Community College, Oroville, California.. In 2007, John retired as the Chief Law Enforcement Ranger for the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. In addition to his instructor assignment, John is a Recruit Training Officer, at the California Department of Fish and Game Warden Academy.

INTRODUCTION

In today’s society there exists a public bias about law enforcement officers and their connection with the local donut shop. This bias was recently revealed to me when I saw a bumper sticker on a car which read, “Bad Cops no Donuts”. While recent law enforcement physical fitness standards may keep some officers from occupying the donut shops, it is not uncommon to see law enforcement officers in a Starbucks coffee shop or Denny’s restaurant. What the public does not understand is the social capital which occurs in these donut shops.

THE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER CULTURE

Anthropology identified that the ideologies and behaviors of people from different countries are culturally specific. However, since the 1980’s there has also been a growing interest in the notion that cultural influences exist within organizations with employees coming to share the system of meanings, understandings, values and beliefs of their company, (K.M.McIvor, 2005). This ideologies and behaviors holds true in the law enforcement community. It is known as the police subculture. This is a :broad term which is used to describe the values that permeate law enforcement agencies and are taught to new member of a law enforcement agency as the proper way to think, perceive and act. These values are formed in an environment characterized by danger, stress, boredom and violence. (Gaines, 2007). A core value of this subculture is trust. Due to “Police Cynicism”, in-group isolation complied with an ‘Us/Them’ division of the social world; trust outside the law enforcement ranks is limited. Trust is developed within the police ranks by the team effort that is display among other supporting officers during stressful situations. Law Enforcement Officers only trust in each other.

THE DONUT SHOP CONVERSATION

The donut shop provides a venue for peer-to-peer information sharing. It is this sharing function that results in law enforcement officers seeking out each other for conversation and community support. This conversation can be related to a de briefing involving a significant activity or to “bounce” law enforcement tactics off another officer for advice or improvement of tactics. These conversations mimic the conversations which may be found around a campfire. “People around the campfire might tell of great adventures, including myths and legends. People would share ideas, and help their community expand their thinking. The best story tellers would gain bigger audiences and develop their own craft of narrative and suspense”. (Karrer, 2002).

As a law enforcement manager who covered four counties within Southern California, I met my field staff in coffee shops to discuss all aspects of the law enforcement career. I discovered that my staff appreciated receiving their evaluations during a lunch or a coffee break. Law Enforcement Officers are employed to be in the field and the local coffee shop allows them to remain in the field but provides a place of solitude with fellow officers. I utilized this same venue to meet with managers from other law enforcement agencies to discuss personnel matters and budget priorities. So how do law enforcement officers remain in the “field” but still embrace social networking with their fellow officers?

ONLINE ENVIROMENT AND THE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER

Today’s law enforcement officer has become very adaptable within the digital age. Due to advances in technology, the standard police radio has been converted to a mobile data terminal. This computer based technology provides the officer with voice and digital data transmissions. Prior to law enforcement agencies maintaining copies of all text messages from the MDT, officers routinely use this technology to send e mail messages to fellow officers asking questions concerning law enforcement contacts. . Law Enforcement Officers utilize digital information to track suspects and interface with global positioning information regarding crime.

Law Enforcement Officers work nontraditional work schedules. Their beat partner one week may not be their beat partner the next week. In order to continue the conversation from the donut shop, officers began to develop communities within Google and Yahoo. One such site exists in Yahoo Communities for Lincking County, New Jersey. While this site is for law enforcement officers only, the Auburn Police Department, Maine, has a web site for public contact on Facebook. (Staff, 2009).

The State of California, Peace Officers and Standards Training Commission, host a virtual classroom called the Learning Portal. This login site allows Law Enforcement trainers to communicate and review current training documents and for current law enforcement officers to “converse with your colleagues on a variety of issues, including officer safety.” The site encourages law enforcement officers to “Check out the discussion group feature”. (California Comission on Peace Office’s Standard Training, 2009).

DEVELOPOING THE VIRTUAL DONUT SHOP

For online social communities, the root motivation is communication and maintaining relationships. (Dwyer, 2007). This will be the focus of the proposed Virtual Donut Shop. The first step of developing this site will be to formulate an environment where trust among the community members will not be compromised. In order to provide this type of environment, the proposed site will be a closed site where participants will have to register and log into the site. The site will be posted with a disclaimer on the log in page informing users;

• the site will be monitored
• abusive language or inappropriate descriptions will be removed and
• the offending user will be lock out of the site.
Once logged into the site, the user will find the following discussion topics;
• After Hours Coffee Shop. This site will provide a communication venue for law enforcement officers to talk about current issues found involving the daily patrol beat.
• Police Trainers Page. This site will provide a communication venue for law enforcement personnel who provide perishable skills training. The pupose of this site is to compare and suggest improvements for training law enforcement officers.
• Police Administrators Page. This site will provide a communication venue for law enforcement administrators to share ideas and suggestions.
• Case Study Page. This site will provide a communication venue for law enforcement investigators to compare investigation notes and techniques. Officers my post information from their current investigations for input and suggestions from other investigators.
• Has this Happened to You? This site will provide a communication venue for law enforcement personnel to post specific law enforcement contacts which were unusual and required “out of the box” techniques to handle.

CONCLUSION

The Virtual Donut Shop will formulate social capital by proving a fluid community for law enforcement officers. This social capital will be based on the following theme; “the central thesis of social capital theory is that ‘relationships matter’. The central idea is that ’social networks are a valuable asset’. Interaction enables people to build communities, to commit themselves to each other”. (Smith, 2007). For the law enforcement officer to commit to each other, trust must be a main component. “Trust between individuals becomes trust between strangers and trust of a broad fabric of social institutions; ultimately, it becomes a shared set of values, virtues, and expectations within society as a whole”. (Smith, 2007). This society will be defined as the law enforcement community.

The set up and monitoring of this social community will be an intense project. However, the benefits of supplying an online social community for the men and women who provide service and protection to their communities is far greater than the challenges to support such a site.

The next time you are waiting at that donut shop or Starbucks to socialize with your beat partner, consider that this communication can occur in a virtual environment.