ALTOONA, Pa. \u2014 Members of the Pennsylvania State Police\u2019s (PSP) Use of Force Unit provided a \u201cRealities of Use of Force\u201d workshop at Penn State Altoona in early April.<\/p>\n
The workshop provided Penn State Altoona criminal justice students and members of Saint Francis University\u2019s criminal justice club with instruction on case law, departmental policy and the application of force in the context of law enforcement.<\/p>\n
Students then had the opportunity to participate in hands-on exercises using virtual simulators similar to those used to train PSP cadets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis kind of training is important for undergrads who want to pursue a career in law enforcement,\u201d says senior criminal justice student Devlin Glenn. \u201cI think the workshop encouraged great discussion and learning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hands-on experience was really beneficial,\u201d adds Lilliana DeMarco, a junior studying criminal justice. \u201cIt put a new perspective on what we have been learning in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students in Penn State Altoona\u2019s criminal justice organization (CJO) and the Integrated Social Science Lab (ISSRL) worked together to bring the workshop to campus for the second year.<\/p>\n
Nicholas J. Rowland, distinguished professor of sociology and co-director of the ISSRL, says the Use of Force unit comprises highly professional experts in the field, and students are lucky to learn from them.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs someone who aspires to be a state trooper, I was grateful to learn skills that can be transferable to my professional career,\u201d says Penn State Altoona criminal justice student Ally Black. \u201cActivities like these have become standard in the Criminal Justice program at Altoona, and I am so thankful that I came here to study.\u201d<\/p>\n
CJO and ISSRL members were excited to invite their counterparts from Saint Francis to the workshop.<\/p>\n
\u201cProviding access to educational opportunities like these is what we do. It\u2019s part of our mission as a land-grant institution,\u201d says Nathan E. Kruis, associate professor of criminal justice and co-director of the ISSRL. \u201cWe want to ensure that the future leaders of the criminal justice system in our area and nationally have access to the best education and training possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe training offered by the Pennsylvania State Police provided students and attendees with an educational overview of the legalities, ethical, and tactical considerations in decision making regarding the appropriate use of force in interactions with the public,\u201d says Mark Buckwalter, assistant professor of criminal justice at Saint Francis University. \u201cThe PSP simulator afforded an excellent experiential learning opportunity for students to practice what they learned.\u201d<\/p>\n
CJO and the ISSRL plan to provide a similar workshop in the future.<\/p>\n
The ISSRL is embedded in the criminal justice and sociology programs at Penn State Altoona and made possible by Penn State Altoona’s Division of Business, Health, Humanities and Social Sciences, headed by Nicholas L. Pyeatt, professor of political science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALTOONA, Pa. \u2014 Members of the Pennsylvania State Police\u2019s (PSP) Use of Force Unit provided a \u201cRealities of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-165525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-pennsylvania","9":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","10":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}