My Ride Along Experience

Policing have the duty of maintaining law and order in or for an area or event. The idea of policing has become misinterpreted for many years. People think of policing as what they see in the entertainment world. For example, in today’s media shows such as; COPS, America’s Most Wanted, CSI, Law & Order, and Criminal Minds, police officers are shown as the almighty crime fighters. Well, I actually had the hands on experience to do a ride along with the Fulton County police department. My ride along experience was exciting, intense, and shocking, and busy. I signed up to do for the 3pm-10pm shift, I fortunate and grateful to be about to do the entire shift.

On November 12, 2014 I was to be a Fulton County Precinct at 2:30pm that afternoon to

My ride along was in a very bad high crime neighborhood called the bluff which also combined with Simpson Rd. The neighborhood is infested with drugs. I was shocked to see that it was only a couple of blocks from the Atlanta Falcon stadium and near and a couple of black from an elementary school. We discuss the broken window theory in class and I actually seen results of it from my ride along. In the bluff neighborhood there many abandon house and unwanted cars in the neighborhood. I asked Officer Martin why have no one move those cars and torn down these houses. He told me “most of these houses are owned by the government and the cars are stolen cars people have stolen for drugs. He told me eventually they will be moved. As we rode throughout the high crime neighborhood I notice that Officer Martin was using Proactive Active Beat. Proactive beat is when an officer ride through the neighborhood two till three times more than usual (Hinkle 2014). We rode on two of the same streets at least 6 times that day. He explained to me they do this to keep down high and it was considered as a hot spot. I notice that although it was a hot spot area, crime was still happening in the area just not on the streets we were patrolling. I ask him why we was only patrolling the English Avenue and Vine City. He told me that five or six people have overdose on those streets and the most crime happen on those streets. “The most crime happen on these streets because they think people are not watching said Officer Martin”. Although the neighbor was a high crime area, as I rode I didn’t feel that his patrolling will help bring down the crime rate in that