16th April: Vocational

Today I had a very busy but extremely interesting day in the City of Oneonta finding out about the local Criminal Justice System.
I spent my morning with the Chief of Police in the City of Oneonta, Joseph Redmond. I cannot thank him enough for the time he spent explaining the various divisions within the State of the police and how these divisions affected his every day working life. I think it took about two hours for it to finally sink in, he has the patience of a saint. Also officer Cortright spent time showing me the area and giving me the female perspective of a police officer. Congratulations to her, she is due to have a baby in October.
I have then gone with Tom to speak with city Judge Lucy Bernier. We managed to establish that she was a City Judge, who had jurisdiction in the County and was employed by the State. All highly complex and it made me appreciate the almost relevant simplicity of our court systems back home.
She also found it interesting that British Police could arrest on suspicion only, American police officers need to have significantly more evidence. A fact that I have not fully appreciated previously and obviously helps us with our investigations.
In the afternoon we went to speak with officers at the SUNY (State University of New York) police department and training academy based at Oneonta college.
This is an alien concept to me, as our universities have campus security if anything and definitely do not have an armed team of staff. The officers take out a hand gun and a long gun (shotgun or rifle). They could not understand how officers like myself were not armed and then may be sent to incidents that have a mention of firearms. This did bring to my attention officer safety, a thing that is paramount in Britain but sometimes the protocols that we have are not always the best for ensuring it.Thank you very much to Tim and John for showing us round.
Following this we attended the sports centre of the Red Dragons on the campus. The facilities here were amazing and there is a definite positive attitude here regarding exercise, fitness and well being. We spoke with director Tracy Ranieri and some students regarding the intertwining of fitness and a successful and progressive career. It was really nice meeting them all, hearing their views and their concerns. I hope I managed to explain how fitness had helped me and explain the British lifestyle without rambling and confusing them too much.
A wonderfully interesting day.