As my final reflection of this degree, I have been tasked with explaining the connections between the three minors and real life experiences that I have encountered. Many of my real life experiences, related to my psychology or sociology minor, have come from my experience in law enforcement. However, I have also experienced times where my education in kinesiology has, very smoothly, complimented my sporting experiences.

In my second reflection of my minors, I mentioned how the process of emergency detentions and the mentally ill have directly correlated to my studies in psychology. I have also experienced situations where I have noticed correlation between my sociology minor and experiences at work. Due to legal ramifications, many of these exact experiences cannot be shared due to either HIPPA laws or criminal statue of limitations. I will, however, attempt to get as close as possible to explaining a certain situation where something or someone has directly influenced my studies or my studies have directly influenced the outcome of a professional encounter.

As I explained in my previous reflection the concept of sport creates hard working, interdependent but independent persons, a strong mind, confidence, alertness, and mental/physical toughness along with many other positive traits. I explained in the previous reflection that I believe it is better for teenagers to be involved with sport at early hours of the morning or curfew hours than experiencing other felonious or negligent incidents. I explained how I have come into contact with these exact situations while performing my mundane patrol functions. I have come into contact with juveniles, who are not reared by our societies most outstanding citizens, where police enforcement action could be taken. I explained that a basketball court, pool, and park area in my patrol district has signs posted that forbid trespass during juvenile curfew hours (eleven p.m. to six a.m.), which also reflects city park closure hours (eleven p.m. to five a.m.). I have observed these teenagers playing basketball during those hours on multiple occasions. Needless to say, my citation book has not made an appearance. However, I have learned how poor I am at basketball. As I explained in the previous reflection my job is to fairly and consistently, without prejudice, enforce the laws and ordinances of the State of Texas, County of Bexar, and City of San Antonio. I, personally, believe that fairness is subjective and I do, more often than not, use my share of professional judgment and common sense. A robot, as many people want police to become, does not share the level of compassion that is evidenced by professional police officers and professional fire fighters. Is it better to write these juveniles a citation or make a custodial arrest of these juveniles simply because they chose to not join the street gang or engage in property crimes but are committing violations of statutes and ordinances? I do not believe it is and you would be hard pressed to find an officer that believes it is better to enforce every law than it is to police with your community. The problem is that these instances are not news worthy and not seen in the public eye. These instances and this form of decision-making ability is the norm, not the minority, of police work by the professional policeman.

The underlying effect of sport, as I explained above, is that it unifies the community and joins subsets of the community that would not be joined without it. This also translates into my other minors of sociology and psychology. In reference to sociology, crime, as it is currently known, is a direct result of rearing and social status. During my studies of social deviance, an action that violates a social norm, I have found that persons are less likely to engage in socially deviant behavior if they were raised to respect the social norms and enacted, both formal and informal, rules of society. This relates to sport by giving juveniles an alternative to violating social norms as a method of social, mental, and physical survival. My interaction with the juveniles at the basketball court shows that the onset of socially deviant behavior and the avoidance of social deviant behavior are learned behaviors. To say that crime starts out small and grows on a person is saying a lot in a short statement. People begin their life of crime by committing low-level offenses and graduate to higher offenses. The question that I am tasked with, as a professional policeman, is to determine if my actions would have a negative or positive impact on the community and, just as importantly, the individual offender. If I were to issue these juveniles citations for their violation of curfew and transport these juveniles to juvenile detention for criminal trespass, would that facilitate in them a greater sense of self-responsibility and self-accountability or would it foster an acceptance of a life of crime? As people who have some life experience are well aware, juveniles and teenagers are not the most receptive persons to social norms or social influence especially when that direct verbal influence is coming from an authority figure such as an adult, parent, or policeman. Most of the time, I believe, it is better to get on their level and show them that you can respect their decisions through your non-verbal cues, such as stopping and playing basketball. That translates into my minor of psychology.

            In psychology, non-verbal cues make up the majority of communication compared to what we say to each other in a verbal response. In this particular situation, these juveniles observe someone who, they believe at least, is going to tell them to get out of the park and tell them to go home. Instead, they see a policeman show them that it is okay that they are in the park and it is ‘okay’, in his mind, that they are breaking the law. That is the fine line that we walk in telling people that reasonable actions, even though may break statute or ordinance, do not violate social norms and should be judged reasonably and fairly. The policeman, who often sees himself in these minor social confrontations, shows the juveniles that they are doing to right thing. By seeing someone in a position of authority in society play basketball with juveniles at two in the morning proves to the juveniles that respect and good decision-making can lead a person to developing a successful life. My psychology courses have helped me to determine that non-verbal cues make up approximately ninety-three percent of all communication and that these non-verbal cues are the most easily readable by other persons, even when you do not intend to use these communication skills. These different types of communication: body language, tone of voice, gestures, facial expressions, and eye gaze can directly influence a person into feeling negatively or positively about the encounter regardless of your intentions. If I went up to these juveniles, with every intention in the world of playing basketball, and they interpreted by non-verbal communication as offensive and demanding then it does not matter what my true intention was because I failed to portray myself in a favorable and efficient manner.