Tri-Valley ROP/Las Positas College Administration of Justice Joint Advisory Board APPROVED MINUTES Amador Valley High School Career Center Advisory attendees: Floyd Gill, Tri-Valley ROP, instructor and Dublin PD Jon Goodfellow, Alameda County District Attorney s Office, deputy district attorney Dave Lang, Tri-Valley ROP instructor Timothy Rien, attorney James Rose, law enforcement consultant, retired from Pinole Police Department, LPC Mark Tarte, Las Positas College, instructor Scott Trudeau, Livermore Police Department, captain and division commander Guests: Neal Ely, Las Positas College, dean Jorja Ivie, Tri-Valley ROP, director Call to Order & Approval of Fall 08 Minutes: Dave Lang welcomed the members and called the meeting to order at 4:05 p.m. Minutes were reviewed and a motion was made to approve. It was seconded and the members unanimously voted to approve the minutes. Dave Lang explained the meeting agenda would be a little different this year as the State legislation has mandated new requirements for ROP advisory meetings. Review of relevant data: Job market/future trends and high wages/significant wage increase opportunities: Jorja Ivie asked the members how the industry was looking and if employment was slowing down. Mark Tarte stated as of February 2009 there were approximately 12,000 jobs open in the State; however, because of the current economic situation of the State there is a hiring freeze. Scott Trudeau stated they were not seeing people line up for jobs. The good news is that there is a police grant his department will be applying for which offers one billion dollars to help agencies pay salaries and benefits for three years. Starting the fourth year, the agency that received the grant funding would pick up the salaries and benefits for those employees funded by the grant. Scott also said his agency has not had any wage freezes. Santa Clara County is now hiring and West County has positions that are available, but they are not being funded. In Contra Costa County, 56 deputies are being laid off. There is the sense that it is much cheaper to hire seasoned officers than to hire someone that must go through an academy. Jon Goodfellow reported that the DA s department has six or seven lawyers who are getting law clerk pay with no prospect of them getting attorney s salary this year. Floyd Gill reported the Dublin Police Department was not going to lay anyone off. He also stated that the city of Dublin contracts with the Alameda County Sheriff s Department.
Page 2 Student Enrollment Dave Lang shared that he currently has approximately 70 students in several sections of a combination class Criminal Justice/CSI and that next year s sign-ups are already at 100 students. Floyd Gill reported that his Criminal Justice course currently has 27 students with 40 signed up for the 09/10 school year. Mark Tarte said their AJ department enrollment was strong with about 285-290 students. Neil Ely said they were up over 100% and expects it to be the same in the fall. Number of completers/graduates/individuals with earned skill certificate Dave Lang said he will have a 90-95% completion rate. Floyd Gill said he lost four students since the spring break. Students completing the courses will receive a certificate of competency. Course duplication Dave Lang thought that all duplicate named classes at Pleasanton high schools have been dropped by the district. Dave said that course duplication between ROP and LPC is how articulation is developed and provides students an opportunity to receive college credits. The advantage of Credit by Exam is directing students into LPC. Mark Tarte reported that unknowingly many students are taking classes they have already received credit for previously, mainly due to misunderstanding. Dave said that one of his students didn t get credit for her CSI class, so he is concerned about breakdowns that occasionally occur in the process. He assured the group that students are instructed before leaving that they need to keep on top of it to make sure they get the credit for their transcript. Jorja Ivie said there was something new called CATEMA which is a program to help track Credit by Exam through Las Positas College, but the process is not fully in place yet. Review/approval of curriculum: Course sequence Dave Lang noted that copies of the curriculum had been sent out with the agenda and asked members to go over it before the meeting. The curriculum was a combination of the CSI and the original Criminal Justice; it just made sense to combine the two together and make it work. Course description and job titles Last spring Dave Lang created a flow chart showing what course content duplication existed, what needed to be removed and what was added; items added were an increase in report writing and supplementary practical exercises for the CSI content. At least once a week students are out taking fingerprints, foot prints, or collecting evidence. At the end of the year, students will go to a hotel and put all of their knowledge to work investigating a crime scene. Floyd Gill said he makes his students also write search warrants during their crime scene investigation. Course outline and hours of instruction Mark Tarte asked about the number of hours now set at 210 and noting that there was an increase of 30 hours. Dave Lang said that in the Pleasanton School District a one-year (2 semesters) course is 180 hours and in the Livermore District a one-year (3 trimesters) course is 210 hours. Mark noted that as far as instructional hours are concerned, ROP has that more than covered.
Page 3 Alignment of academic and Career Technical Education (CTE) standards Dave Lang said all the curriculum pieces for the Criminal Justice/CSI course were aligned with the CTE standards. Writing the curriculum was easy; aligning the CTE standards was very difficult. We can now show schools how we align with their academic standards. Jorja Ivie explained that the CTE foundation standards are academic and the pathway standards are specific to industry. She reported they had gone through the curriculum and noted what areas of curriculum matched the CTE standards. Assessment procedures Dave said they use a multitude of assessments such as mock trial and written tests to measure proficiency in each area. Hands-on learning is a constant, plus each of the textbooks has a test bank available. Jorja explained that the advisory committee should give input from the industry perspective to improve assessment. We would certainly like to know if something is missing or if we are spending too much time on an area. Do the assessments that Dave is talking about make sense to you; and if so will the students understand and will the assessment properly evaluate their proficiency? As potential employers, what kind of skills are you looking for when hiring someone? Scott Trudeau said that full footprint casting sounds like television CSI stuff, but it is not very practical in every day life on the job. There are very basic things new recruits are lacking that they would come across everyday; such as basic latent print recovery and photographing. Things of that nature should be focused on. James Rose said students should learn about casting, but more important is how to treat it as a piece of evidence and what to do with the evidence. What is also important is motivating your students, and if practicing footprint casting does that, then doing castings is appropriate. Mark Tarte reported that in their department Gena handles the Evidence class and Criminal Investigation classes. She puts together mock crime scenes all the time. The only thing she has not done is put on a mock trial. The course content for the classes is at a level that allows them to be fully articulated with San Jose State University Justice System studies and the Forensic Science program. At our level students need to get hands on experience which will get them excited and motivated for these classes. A lot of Mark s students have been through the ROP program. They were very motivated and they got motivated because of Floyd and Dave. Dave Lang said the goal was to put more students into the LPC program. Dave and Floyd promote the classes at LPC as well as getting students involved into the cadet and explorer programs. Jorja Ivie asked Mark if program assessments in his programs were project-based or written tests. He said he assessed students normally through true false testing and a writing requirement. They talk about and see videos on court room procedures and discuss why it s important to create properly prepared reports. Their assessment is the reporting itself. They are all finding that English skills in students coming out of public high schools are terribly lacking. Textbooks and instructional materials No new textbooks or additional instructional materials needed at this time.
Page 4 Equipment needs: Mark said he has a whole garage full of equipment if the classes need to borrow it. Review industry certifications: Dave Lang thought industry certification would apply more to LPC students than ROP students for this industry. Jorja Ivie asked if there were general principles for industry certification. Mark Tarte replied the only certification was POST (Peace Officers Standards in Training) which could be received after attending the academy. The certification lasts for three years after terminating employment. At the end of the three years if they want to go back into the field, they must go through a three week recertification. LPC s program is not a certification program but a degree/transfer program. Mark explained that they teach as close as possible to the academy and have learned that students who have gone through their program compared with others are head and shoulders above the rest. Certification for POST is done through the State. Jorja said according to the State we need to make our students aware of what certifications are needed. Mark reported that POST has a 680 hour minimum and RTC has 1,056 hours or 28 weeks which is two and one-half weeks longer than the FBI academy. Skills listed on certificates of competency: Jorja Ivie wanted to know what skills background was looked when students apply to the academy. Members explained that prospective cadets were looked at very early on when looking for the best candidate. Entry level positions were not screened for certificates; however, someone may eventually take notice of the certificate. Dave sent a letter along with the advisory meeting packet asking members to look at the skills for proficiency. He went on to say that by putting the proficiencies on the back of the certificate, it shows that each student has mastered such things as reading comprehension, writing, and practical aspect of the class. After listening to others in attendance he determined that finger printing, how to secure a crime scene, and being able to take photographs are some items the group would like to see along with a little less casting. It was suggested that if you want to dangle a carrot to entice students into these classes they might want to consider teaching high tech crime or computer crime. These areas have a huge need for people in this expertise. Anyone who has these skills is very employable and will be on the fast track. Most law enforcement people who deal with this on a daily basis really don t know what they re doing. Another suggestion was that students should have skills in computer forensics, cell phone knowledge, texting and any other kind of communication devices the public now uses, as more and more people are needed in these specialized areas in law enforcement. Mark explained that he worked on developing a course with the help of staff from Oracle and the Pleasanton Police Department which offers a Computer Network technology perspective and includes a basic and advanced forensics. LPC now has a basic forensics program that will accept students from criminal law, criminal investigations, and evidence which has a 15 unit requirement for a certificate of competition. Jorja asked what other kinds of items should be listed on the certificate. Mark said crime scene preservation and crime scene security are very important. Dave said the goal of the ROP class has always been to move students into LPC for the advanced classes. He felt that the ROP class
Page 5 was not designed to look at a proficiency in any area. In most of the ROP classes students can go right into the work place, however, because of the age requirement in criminal justice students need to take more advanced classes at LPC. Jorja suggested the importance of students leaving with a piece of paper that shows they are proficient in the areas they were trained in the program. It reinforces to the student exactly what they have accomplished. Dave said a lot of those things are advanced and will come later after LPC and the academy. He thought we needed to stay basic with the skills, but went on to say that maybe he was wrong and they will need competencies. Dave didn t think there was a need for a lot of things on the back of the certificate as they will get most of it at the college. Mark said ROP was building on a basic foundation and by the time they get to LPC or Cal State East Bay that foundation has helped them. He went on to say that after the academy it was a daily learning experience. A member added that at the academy, role playing, cross examination, all sorts of things were emphasized. After the recruit leaves the academy if they know how to write really good reports, they will never end up in court. Using report writing as one example, Mark said officers must continue to improve the skill. He said in speaking with fellow instructors at the college it s sad the amount of remediation needed for students entering the college. Internship/Community classroom/cve: Dave Lang explained that internships and community classrooms are difficult because students must have clearances to be placed. He encourages his students to do a ride along in their community. He asked if there were other things offered for students to do. The Citizens Academy in Livermore was suggested; however, students must be 18 years old. Scott Trudeau hosted a student for six weeks last summer in an internship which worked very well. Dave asked if they could work together to start the Youth Academy again. The youth academy was cancelled last summer because there was not enough student interest. Dave thought that the curriculum for the Youth Academy could be rewritten to fit ROP s needs for the State, putting the CTE standards in and getting the high school districts to approve the credits. He hoped to revitalize the program as it had been such a good program in the past. Jorja shared that budget constraints would make this difficult. Jorja Ivie shared information from a conference workshop about Road Trip Nation where students learn skills for interviewing successful people in an industry of interest, and she thought that idea could work at the high school level. Students participating could call people in law enforcement to interview them. Scott said his door is always open to students and would be more than happy to talk with them. Mark shared that the academy will be happy to have students interview their instructors as well as interviewing instructors at LPC. Scott thought a mentoring program would be a huge benefit for students. Postsecondary scholarship creation: Dave noted that there were a few scholarships he knew about; however, he has not seen any literature on the Rotary scholarship this year. He understands this is a difficult time to get scholarship money, asking the committee if they knew of any others. Mark said they have a small scholarship through the AGA program. This year they only received two $200
Page 6 scholarships. He has been looking at ways in the community to help high school students; however, the economy is not helping right now. Jorja asked if anyone knew if there were any groups that help students with their educational needs. Suggestions were Target, which offers a couple of grants specific to law enforcement, and Clorox. Suggestions and recommendations: No additional recommendations. Motion to support curriculum for the pathway: Changes to the curriculum were made because of the tri-mester schedule at Livermore high schools. A member asked why we were not teaching at Granada any more. Dave said it was because of low numbers; however, Granada students can still travel to other schools to take the class. A motion to approve the Criminal Justice/CSI curriculum was made by Mark Tarte and seconded by Jon Goodfellow. Another motion was made to continue the Criminal Justice program for Dublin High School by Mark Tarte and seconded by Jon Goodfellow. Date and time for next meeting: Thursday, October 15, 2009, 3:45 at Las Positas College. Meeting adjourned at 5:35 Minutes submitted by: Sherrie Howell, Tri-Valley ROP