I was placed into the Organized Crime Division’s (OCD) Alcohol Control Team (ACT). My time with the Police has been a great learning experience, one that has allowed me to further my anthropology skills through writings and analyses of various issues that relate to the Police Department. Before I entered the program, I had never been forced to observe and then come up with ideas and concepts to think critically about. After my experiences with the Police, I feel as if I can now come up with more critical questions and observations than I previously would have been able to. My interest in law enforcement greatly expanded, and I have recently switched my minor to Criminal Justice.
One of the things ACT does is to work in cooperation with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) and perform Minor Sting Operations. The way these minor stings work is to have a minor go into a store (which an officer will go into as well) and attempt to buy alcohol. The minor is watched by the officer, who poses as a regular civilian customer. If a sale is made to the minor, TABC will be called in and issue the store clerk the appropriate citation. These minor stings target people who clearly and knowingly sell to minors, or simply do not care to ID customers who appear to be very young in appearance.
While working within the Organized Crime Department, I have been able to experience things I never thought I would be exposed to as a civilian as I have been able to accompany the detectives during several exciting events. I had the opportunity to take a tour of APD’s cadet academy with a detective who also is a driving instructor for the academy. I was shown the shooting range and the building’s various rooms and classrooms, and then was allowed to go to the driving course. At the driving course, I got in one of the squad cars and an instructor drove me around the various training set ups at the course. The mini courses are set up to emulate various scenarios and types of driving that future Police officers will have to face, such as highway pursuits, high speed turns, quick stops, quick decision making, etc.
I attended the briefing for a raid with the Narcotics squad not knowing what to expect, and it was interesting to see how everything was explained. A dry erase board had the schematics of the target house and surrounding area, and the officer who was leading the raid assigned the detectives to different duties and explained how the operation would take place. As we headed to the house, I sat in the passenger seat of the van after it had been loaded, and as we pulled up to the suspect’s house, all ten officers rushed out the back and entered the house and detained everyone. Once the premise was secured, I was allowed to enter the house and help the detectives during the search.
I was also able to attend another narcotics raid on a house that was suspected of trafficking crack-cocaine. At the pre-raid briefing the detectives explained that the suspected dealer was living in the house and that several people (an expected seven or eight) would be in the house at the time. I was given the duty to stand in the corner of the property near the curb line and to film the officers making the entry with a hand held video camera for the Street Response Team which were working with the narcotics squad for this operation. As we pulled up to the property, I got in position as the officers made their entry through the front door, I filmed away. I also had the opportunity to observe the SWAT team storm a house, which was very exciting.