New Jersey State Police Canine Unit
As I thought about possible career options in my junior year of school, law enforcement has always sparked my interest. In the spring of my junior year, I knew I had to sign up for an internship for the fall of my senior year. The state police make a pretty good living; I can wear a uniform to work everyday, no picking out clothes for me! and I’ll get to retire in 25-30 years; not too shabby thought I. Therefore, the next step was to try and get an internship with the state police. One application later I was receiving an email from Tamara Paradine and she was asking me if I had any preference as to where I would like to work. Naively I said no and she e-mailed all the interns with a few departments that requested interns. The gang unit sounded interesting but I was sure not going to drive up to West Patterson twice a week. The next option on the list was for the canine unit. I love dogs so naturally I was interested in this one more than high tech computer crimes. I didn’t know what to expect the first day- were they going to have a dog suit waiting for me and tell me to try and run away from barking, drooling, attacking dogs? No, there were no dogs present on my first day, and no padded suit, although they did tell us they have had interns wear those and get attacked. I did meet my boss and he seemed really laid back and someone who would not be anal about every detail. He told the other intern and I that priorities are priorities so school work comes first. He said if we can’t make it cause we have a paper due, he understands. He gave us the grand tour, it’s a pretty small building and we share it with the bomb squad. That was my first day. After that, it became routine to come in and read the after action reports and file them in the computer.Since there was a canine class going on, there weren’t many people in my office, besides my boss and the big boss. Going into my internship, I was a little unsure about how I would like the environment since I know the NJSP has fewer than 4% women on it’s force. I’ve always worked in an environment where there are more women then men so I knew I was taking on a different experience. There is only one woman on the whole canine squad, north, central and south included. I only saw her about 4 times the entire semester, twice at the office and twice on training location. I also noticed that the men would apologize after cursing in front of me, and believe me, my ears and mouth are not virgins to four letter words. When I told the other intern Dave, he laughed and said he never got an apology from any of the guys. So naturally I started noticing the little stuff, like when the trainer from corrections called me a broad- interesting to say the least. I was a little taken aback, more so that anyone in this modern day uses that word, not that I was called a broad.There were other smaller occurrences that reminded me that I am a woman first and foremost but there were other occurrences that made me feel like an equal with the men. I was sent with one of the new canine troopers to his house to help him transport his dog’s kennel and helped him build it. Trust me when I say that even though I consider myself relatively strong, that doghouse must have weighed a good three hundred pounds. But in the end, I was able to complete the task without any problems. For the most part, I feel that the men in my office were not upset that there was a woman in their office; some even said that recruiting more women can only be beneficial, which made me feel good. I’ve read many articles about harassment in the NJSP and I’m glad to see the younger men feel more open to the idea of having women in their department. Of course I know everyone will not feel this way but if the newer men who are taking the positions of the old-school mentality men have a more modern day feminist thinking, there is only hope for more acceptance for women in the NJSP.My experience with the NJSP was a great one, do not get me wrong, but going into a situation where you know you are going to be the minority helps you focus more on how you are treated because you know that you aren’t part of the majority. I know that the academy is going to be heavily dominated by men and I will have to work harder to prove myself worthy, but it is a task that I am taking with huge faith that I can show that women are just as qualified as men. I will carry from this experience the knowledge that I can hang with the guys and I will be able to work side by side with different minded people in order to get the task accomplished. If you want to go into law enforcement, I would highly recommend interning with the NJSP Canine Unit- they are a great bunch of people, so it makes the interning process a fun one.