Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 8, 2005
Contact: Eric Smith, Public Relations Assistant
(570) 893-7024; Public Relations Service Requests: PR WEB SITE
She's got the beat:
LHU intern works as fully-armed Ocean City officer
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Sara Dorsey, right, an LHU criminal justice student who spent the summer
working as an officer in Ocean City, Md., shakes the hand of Dr. Tamson
Six, criminal justice department chair.
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OCEAN CITY, Md. - Trading in textbooks and pencils for a nightstick and sidearm, Sara Dorsey was one of a few college interns from across the country to work as a fully-trained police officer over the summer.
Dorsey, a senior Lock Haven University criminal justice major hailing from Airville, Pa., was hired by the Ocean City, Md. police department last May, and she will remain an officer there until she finishes her internship in November.
Though some summer interns working as officers in Ocean City rode a bike and patrolled the boardwalk, Dorsey drove a police car around the city at night, wore a .357 magnum handgun on her belt and had the ability to arrest those who willfully broke the law.
Dorsey first heard about the internship in fall 2004 when officers from the Ocean City police department visited LHU and the criminal justice class she was taking, searching for interested recruits to try out for seasonal employment positions.
"I've always looked at working for a police department as a career choice," Dorsey said. "This was my opportunity to start."
But applying for the internship was competitive, and Dorsey was just one of a handful of students from Pennsylvania, and one of 105 total, selected to go to a police academy for training to become an Ocean City officer.
"It was a condensed academy and they packed in a lot in a short period of time," Dorsey said.
As part of her training, Dorsey learned how to use a noise meter, a device that determines if the audible level of a social gathering is disturbing the peace. "It's a big deal there," she said, noting that renters can be ousted in cases of violation. Other training included firearm use, policing on a bicycle and evasive driving, she said.
After finishing the academy in mid-June, Dorsey dove into police work, pulling a 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. shift driving the streets of the city at night.
"I had a full range of experience," she said.
At night, the tourist town hosted a number of parties. Dorsey recalled breaking up one underage drinking gathering.
"It was called the 'anything goes but clothes' party," she said.
A number of underage drinkers wore a variety of items as clothing, she said.
"One person had an outfit made entire of Ramen noodle packets," she said. "The packets were still full of the noodles."
Less comical were the number of assaults she saw.
"In order for something to be considered a domestic assault where we can make an arrest, there are some requirements," Dorsey said. "The assault must have occurred within 24 hours of the call, there must be visible signs of injury and the individuals must reside together."
There were a number of assaults where arrests could not be made because they did not meet the requirements, she said. On other calls, Dorsey felt it necessary to draw her gun.
"There was an abandoned hotel, and we had to clear the building once a week," she said. "That was one situation where I had my weapon drawn."
It also was mandatory to wear a bullet-proof vest at all times, she said.
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An excerpt from
Sara Dorsey's June 20, 2005: I got dispatched to a 911 hang-up. On my way there I was advised that when communications called the number back, a woman said that she was really scared. I was also advised that a man had answered the phone at first. When I arrived on scene, with a back-up officer, we spoke with the woman who had called. She said that her boyfriend of six weeks had broken into her apartment and waited for her to return home. She had been out at a late dinner/early breakfast with another man and her boyfriend was jealous. When she got home, he shoved her around, yelled at her, threw the phone across the room, and broke a closet door. He also took her cell phone and the battery to her laptop. When he realized she had called 911, he took off. We set up a perimeter, brought in the dog, and tried to track him. I called the stolen cell phone's number and he answered. I spoke with him for about three minutes, got his whole side of the story without asking for it. He had to hang up the phone when the police found him walking down the street only three blocks away. I could hear one of the officers shouting "get down on the ground." |
The toughest memory of the summer involved a pedestrian who was hit and killed by an automobile, she said. Both the driver of the automobile and the pedestrian had been drinking.
"I had to walk around the street and talk to as many people as I could to find out what happened and who witnessed the event," Dorsey said.
People she interviewed included several of the victim's distraught friends and roommates.
"It was really tough," she said. "People used my shoulder to cry on."
Afterwards, she directed traffic around the scene for a couple of hours as emergency personnel worked.
As an officer, Dorsey was treated differently by the people she met. At times, people expressed gratitude for the work she did. Other times, she became the object for their outrage, noting that police are often the targets for verbal abuse.
"Being a female, there was no different treatment from the other officers," Dorsey said. "But with the public, they will sometimes demean you and use anything they can."
But overall, Dorsey is pleased with her experience, recalling the individuals who came to thank her for helping them in an assault situation or breaking up a gathering that disturbed the peace. After she graduates from LHU in December, she hopes to become a full-time officer in Ocean City. The city is looking to hire 30 more full-time officers over the next three years, the result of a study that found the department was greatly understaffed, she said.
As for Dorsey's career choice, her mother, Denise Lebrun, is cautiously supportive.
"She was a little worried," Dorsey said. "But she is OK with it. I got to telling her some of the stories and she found them amusing."
For Dr. Tamson Six, LHU criminal justice department chair and faculty member, Dorsey's success is the department's success.
"To see her realize her goals is extremely rewarding to me," Six said. "It feels like I am doing something good."
The internship experience is crucial to understanding what a career in law enforcement is about, she said.
"It is a supplementary experience," Six said. "Not everything translates from a textbook."
Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania is a member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), the largest provider of higher education in the commonwealth. Its 14 universities offer more than 250 degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. Nearly 375,000 system alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.
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