Exploring Law Enforcement: Interview with a U.S. Marshal

The person whom I contacted for my informational interview was Joseph Gaines. I was able to meet Mr. Gaines through a network connection I made from my co-intern at Internal Affairs Division at the Metropolitan Police Department. I chose this individual because he holds a position that I am very interested in and may like to pursue as a career goal. We met and had lunch together. At which time I was able to interview him and get some insight of his daily duties to see if this career choice would be a good fit for me. Mr. Gaines is a Senior Inspector for the Sexual Predator Unit for the United States Marshals Service. He has an overall thirty-eight years of law enforcement experience. Mr. Gaines worked for the last twenty-five years as a U.S. Marshal.

During my interview with Mr. Gaines he explained about the type of leadership style qualities needed in this line of work. He stated that persistence and adaptability are a must quality. One needs to be able to advocate not only for themselves but also for their team. One must be able to show bravery, compassion, maturity and patience to the victims they come across on a daily basis. Excellent communication skills are extremely important and being able to

Gaines, I could picture myself possibly acclimating to this environment. Many of the qualities he touched upon, I believe I already obtain some of these traits. I believe that my internship has helped me greatly this past five weeks helped me improve on my people skills and how to accomplish my job in a timely manner. I have always been a people person with good communication skills. I feel that would be most helpful when interviewing the victims without further traumatizing them. Convincing victims and witness to talk to me so I can gather necessary information to present to the federal prosecutor for an arrest warrant that may be needed. My organizational skills would help in keeping proper documents that are relevant to a