IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Linton students job shadow at police department

By Andrea McCann
LEARNING: On Thursday, Zack Dudley, Thomas Cox, Jacob Tibbett and Whitnea Weaver (left to right) took turns riding with Linton Patrol Officer Paul Clark as part of a job shadow experience. The Linton-Stockton Junior High School students are interested in a career as law enforcement officers.

By Andrea McCann, staff writer

Eight Linton-Stockton Junior High School students found out Thursday what it's like to be a cop.

Uriah Lehman, Brandon Cullison, Mickey Tosti, Jarod Collenbaugh, Jacob Tibbett, Zack Dudley, Thomas Cox and Whitnea Weaver participated in a job shadow experience as part of Beverly Krieg's career class. They all are interested in law enforcement as a career someday.

"I learned about a lot of different things today," Tibbett said.

He and Dudley said they learned how to lift fingerprints at a crime scene and that speech is a key weapon in law enforcement. They also learned how a polygraph machine, a Taser, mace, and the Doppler radar speed-detection system work.

"I liked Officer Paul Clark," Dudley said. "He took us out in a police car."

Four students job shadowed in the morning, and four in the afternoon, according to Dispatch Supervisor Kyle Butler. He said each group was split into pairs, and one pair stayed at the police station while the other pair rode with Clark. Then they switched places.

"We got to witness an arrest," said Weaver.

She and Cox were with Clark when he and Officer Blaine Gillan met to pick up an individual wanted on a warrant for probation violation. The work Clark does is what the students hope to do some day, they said.

Clark said he tried to show the students some of the equipment he uses regularly and describe for them how each LPD officer has an area of expertise but still covers the gamut of police work.

"They were most intrigued by what they see on TV -- CSI, Law and Order," he said.

In addition, Clark said, they asked questions about the education needed to become a police officer and about handling weapons.

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