Unit 3 text 5. Virginia state police academy rules and regulations (excerpts)

Good order and discipline are essential ingredients of any learning process. Only in a controlled and well structured environment can the instructor instruct and the student learn. The following rules and regulations are set forth for your information and guidance.

• The use, possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages or illegal drugs is prohibited. If we detect the odor of alcohol you will have to submit to a breath test.

• Smoking will not be permitted at any time in the classrooms, halls, cafeteria and is prohibited while in bed. Smoking will be limited to squad rooms only.

• Squad Rooms.

• Rooms will be subjected to inspection at all hours.

• No one will lie on the beds during duty hours (7.40 a.m. – 5.00 p.m.)

• Firearms, knives, any other weapons will not be allowed in the student’s room.

• Lights and radios in squad rooms will be turned off during class periods.

• Doors to the squad rooms will be open between 7.40 a.m. and 11.00 p.m., except when changing clothes or a student is sick in bed.

• Study period is 8.00 p.m. to 11.00 p.m. each night. You will not frequent the recreation room during study period.

• All lights will be turned off and all students will be in their beds by 11.00 p.m. each night. All talking is to cease at 11.00 p.m. Doors will be closed.

• No guitars or other musical instruments and no personal weight lifting equipment will be allowed at the Academy.

• Leave.

• Students will not leave the Academy unless permission has been granted.

• Leave will be granted from Friday afternoon till 11.00 p.m. Sunday. No other leave will be authorized except in emergencies.

• It will be the responsibility of the student to notify the stuff duty sergeant when he/she is unable to return to the Academy on time. You must call. Do not rely on the dispatcher or a fellow trooper to do so.

• Students will do their own work and will not converse or look at another student’s paper during the examination or quizzes. Students will not assist another classmate during the examination period.

• Each student is expected to do his/her own work, and not put it off on his/her fellow students. You should not place yourself in a position where your sincerity or honesty would be questioned. We expect you to conduct yourselves as mature individuals.

Unit 4 text 6. Modus operandi

Modus operandi is Latin for “operating method”. Identification of a criminal who has left no fingerprints or other conclusive evidence can often be advanced by analysis of modus operandi. In criminology it is a distinct pattern or manner of working that comes to be associated with a particular criminal.

Criminologists have observed that if a criminal, whatever his specialty – burglary, auto theft or something else - has been successful using certain methods and techniques, he tends to repeat the same procedure. If, for example, a burglar begins his career by entering houses from the roof, he will, in all probability, continue this method for as long as he is able to work. Some burglars become so attached to their modus operandi that they burglarize the same places or people again and again.

Thus, evidence of characteristic behavior and procedure at the crime scene can serve to identify the offender if the pattern is recognized by the police.

Although nowadays classification of criminals according to operational methods and manners has lost some of its effectiveness in the investigation of burglaries, large law enforcement agencies still maintain modus operandi files to recognize patterns of behaviour, to associate a group of crimes with a single perpetrator. The modus operandi file is most effective in crimes involving personal contact, such as felonies against persons.