Criminology

Criminology
May 31, 2012

A Critical Analysis of a Police Ridealong and Courtroom Observation

Ride-along
District 2 of the city of Aurora, Colorado
On May 19th, I attended a ride-along with Officer Ryan Sweeney from 10:30 PM to 3:45 AM. The area Officer Sweeney is responsible for in this district ranges from Colfax Avenue and Airport Boulevard to about 38th Avenue and Sable Boulevard.This area mainly consists of single-family residences and warehouses. Much of the area that I was shown could be described as lower income or dilapidated. When Officer Sweeney took me on a quick tour of the city, he drove by low-income single-family apartments, a weekly rate motel, some parking lots with broken down cars, and a popular night club parking lot where violence often breaks out.
OfficerRyan Sweeney
The officer I patrolled with, 25-year-old Ryan Sweeney, is in his second year on the Aurora police force. Growing up in Minnesota, he thought being a police officer would be fun and rewarding. Officer Sweeney’s outlook on crime is based on a service-oriented approach. He rarely stops for traffic violations unless he sees a car speeding about 20 mph above the speed limit. OfficerSweeney showed a certain level of respect for the offenders we interacted with on this night and so he could be described as somewhat peacemaking. He does enjoy making arrests, however he does not seek them out. During the course of the night, it became clear that Officer Sweeney was still somewhat adjusting to his position in law enforcement. He did not seem overly confident and was excited abouthis work, not yet as jaded as some of his more experienced peers seemed to be.
When I asked Officer Sweeney to describe to me what he thought were the main factors of criminality, he listed a multitude of answers: opportunity, no precautions taken by the victim, lack of morals, money as a driving force, lack of control, and poor development of coping mechanisms for emotions. A criminologistwould say that he subscribes to routine activities theory, rational choice theory, low-self control theory, and strain theory.
Witnessed Offenses and Violations
The first violation I noticed when we began the shift were broken taillights on a Volvo station wagon. Instead of immediately pulling the car over, Officer Sweeney quickly ran the license plate to run a criminal profile for the owner of thecar. When I asked him if the make and model of the car had any reason to do with why he was not as inclined to pull the car over, he answered positively. He also mentioned what type of cars he looked out for when he took me through the parking lot of one of the “rowdier” clubs in the area—which drew a primarily African American crowd. He pointed out the larger rims on certain vehicles and claimedthat the owner of the vehicle could be a drug dealer. He continued to look at cars that seemed to be beat up and run down. I became somewhat unnerved when I thought of the stereotypes that suggest the owners of these sorts of vehicles should belong to an ethnic or racial minority.
The next offense that came over dispatch was a robbery of a liquor store with an assault rifle by two Hispanicmales. The criminals fled the scene and continued to the Aurora- Denver border where a police car hit the offenders’ vehicle head on in an attempt to stop them. When the police surrounded the vehicle, the offenders were thought to be reaching for weapons and in turn, they were thrown to the ground as soon as they opened the doors. As soon as all the commotion had begun to settle, I walked with OfficerSweeney as he marked off the area with caution tape. I was able to observe one of the already handcuffed and injured offenders as he was taken from the back of the police car and laid onto a gurney by multiple officers. Officer Sweeney rattled off the possible charges and fines that the offenders could face: robbery with an assault rifle, running from the police, any harm done to an arresting...