The Police Explorers

Nickolas Voudry

California State University, Fresno

Department of Sociology

The Police Explorers

May 16, 2019

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to carefully analyze my group with the intent of trying to understand my groups culture. I started off with my observations.  In my observations I went to observe my group at their weekly Sunday meetings, acting as a fly in the wall. I did this for approximately 3 hours, within two different sessions. I took quick notes within, and ultimately typed a full fieldwork paper based on that experience.

The next thing I did was conduct interviews with 3 different individuals for about 15 minutes each. My interviews consisted of three group members who have all considered themselves to be committed members. These interviews all took place where the group meets, and occured after a group meeting. I focused on several different theory concepts that consisted of roles and statuses, and front stage and backstage.

Lastly, I conducted a content analysis. For this I analyzed a variety of different documents that relate to my group. These documents are all directly related to my groups main identity. That being police explorers. Since my group is implemented in police departments across the country finding an ample amount of documents was not difficult. The documents consisted of things that were posted tos social media, department websites, and newspaper articles. A main mission of my group is that it consists of members that are interested in a career in law enforcement and those individuals receive training, and experience related. Along with the training they also commit to serving the community as that is something necessary within the field.

Literature Review

The following literature review goes through my concepts that I looked for within my interviews, and also the methodology regarding the steps in creating this paper.

Frontstage/Backstage:

One of the key concepts that Goffman described to us relating to qualitative methods is the concept of the frontstage and the backstage. Goffman used somewhat of a dramatical metaphor for us to understand these concepts. The frontstage is a concept that Goffman used to describe the self as what we portray on a day to day basis when we know people are watching us (Cole 2018). We can consider this a "performance." This frontage self changes depending on the particular role that we are occupying at any given moment (Cole 2018).. Whether that role is being at work, the self we portray follows the mold of being at work. If the role changes to being a student, we drop the front stage self of being at work, and change it to being a student. Of course there are societal expected behaviors that are associated with that particular role and they are often guided by the cultural norms that are associated with that particular role (Cole 2018)..

When we switch to the backstage, we are often going to the side that no one sees. This is now no longer considered a performance, rather as "behind the scenes." The backstage is the side of ourselves that society does not see, nor do we necessarily want society to see as that being who we truly are (Cole 2018). It is the private side of our lives. Again like the frontstage, there is a backstage to each and every role that we occupy. There is a backstage associated with being a student, being a worker, being a citizen, a mom, etc. The backstage can reveal details that are often hidden, which is something of interest to qualitative researchers.

In the article, "Eliciting Frontstage and Backstage Talk with the Iterated Questioning Approach," by Laura Robinson, and Jeremy Schulz they suggest to us a way of getting what goes on in the frontstage, but also how we can slowly inch our way into the backstage. They say that we must first start with establishing a baseline question (Robinson & Schulz 2016). After establishing the baseline question we now ask about the frontstage (Robinson & Schulz 2016). After asking about the frontstage, we then start inching our way into the backstage (Robinson & Schulz 2016).

A question that may elicit getting into the front stage may be how do you act at work? A question that may elicit getting into the backstage may be first started by asking "who do you trust in the backstage?" Followed up by, "Imagine I was that person, how is your workplace?"

Self:

The concept of "self" is described in the reading "The nature and Significance of the Self," written by Kent Sandstrom, Daniel Martine, and Gary Alan Fine. The concept of "self" was initially created by a sociologist named George Herbert Mead. Mead talked to us and described "self" as being a private reflection of a particular personality. The "self" is unique in that a particular personality changes depending on the audience that it is presenting itself for (Sandstrom et al 96). It's what symbolic interactionists call a "reflexive process." Reflexive meaning turning back on itself (Sandstrom et al 97).

Important to sociologists, we now may wonder if and how this idea of "self"  is a social process. The "self" operates as a social process in that we are communicating with our inner self, and then acting accordingly based on that conversation (Sandstrom et al 99). That social process is better described as "self indication." Self indication is described as a process where we define and make sense of things in the world both around and inside of us (Sandstrom et al 99). As you can see, based on the way we define and make sense of a particular situation allows for us to choose what sense of "self" to portray.

Aside from how the "self" can be seen as a social process, you can imagine that sociologists are also interested in how the "self" can also be seen as a social structure. The importance in distinguishing the "self" as a social structure is its use of language (Sandstrom et al 100). Language is also something that similarly to the self being a social process, also changes depending on the situation and being able to place ourselves in the shoes of someone else (Sandstrom et al 101).

The self is something that qualitative researchers are interested in, and we as students looking forward to our project may also be interested in because it allows us to see different senses of self that people may portray in certain situations. The first question that I may ask is "Do you change the way you present yourself at work change compared to when your out with your friends? And how so?" Another question I may ask is "Does your use of language change depending on when you're at work, to when you are out with your friends? And how so?"

Definition of the situation:

The definition of the situation is a key concept in symbolic interaction theory, and that is  often related to Erving Goffman. This is a concept that is specifically used in qualitative methods as a way of understanding the social characteristics within a particular social situation, and knowing how to act based on particular roles at play, the social context, etc (Wikipedia 2017).

We learn how to define the situation from society of course, and is something that is based on norms, societal expectations, etc (Wikipedia 2017). The goal of this is knowing what to expect, and how to act so that society can continue to run smoothly (Wikipedia 2017). Each and every one of us may agree upon certain definitions of the situations, however we may not agree on every single one.

Looking Glass Self:

The "Looking Glass Self" is a concept introduced initially by Charles Cooley, and it relates to the concept of the "self," although this is described as how one will act based on how they believe others perceive of them (Dunn 542). Think of it as a mirror, and you see yourself in that mirror based on how others perceive.  This concept was introduced in the article "Looking-Glass Self," by Jennifer. L Dunn.

It is important to understand the "Looking Glass Self" as this imagination of perception. We imagine their perception in a way of trying to see if others are judging us. This judgement that we imagine from others is what we base our own self concept off of, and it's how we react (Dunn 542).

Cooley initially started off by studying children, and this is where he initially noticed what he called "appropriation" taking place. Appropriation is described as taking and owning things (Dunn 542). Cooley noticed this is something we did as children. Not much changes through adulthood other than the fact that we just become more complex (Dunn 542). We now have to deal with reflexive processes, judgements, perceptions, etc, rather than just knowing what we can and can't own.

This is an important concept for qualitative researchers because it allows them to understand the individuals they are studying and how they perceive themselves. One question that you could ask would be "How do you perceive yourself in the workplace, and do you act based on those perceptions?" A second question could be "Has your perception of yourself ever negatively influenced your role as a worker in your workplace?"

Roles and Statuses:

Roles and statuses are both key concepts when doing qualitative research. Now statuses are simply just the titles that we hold (Sutton 840). Our statuses that we may hold are very fluently changing throughout an average day (Sutton 840). An individual can experience several different statuses depending on the time of day. For example we may hold the status of a teacher during the school day, a father when we get home from work, a football player when we are out with our buddies, etc.

Now with each and every status there are associated roles. The roles would therefore be the associated behaviors, and expectations that society holds of us when we are partaking within those statuses (Stets & Thai 710). We learn these expectations from society and act accordingly (Stets & Thai 710). We learn how to be a acceptable teacher based on society and training, we learn how to be a father from society and maybe our parents, etc. Society holds a big part in letting us know what is acceptable and what isn't for each and every role.

Our roles and statuses take place mainly on the frontstage. It is important to remember these statuses are often occuring for a purpose, therefore having an audience. The backstage is where we can drop those societal expectations of what the roles consist of, and is a place where we can just be ourselves. This is where we can pretty much denote them to occuring on the front stage.

A interview question that satisfies a status may be "What is your job title here?" Another  question that may satisfy what a role is "What are your duties for that particular job title?"

The latter half of the semester was focused on our research project and the textbook Discovering Qualitative Methods: Ethnography, Interviews, Documents, and Images, written by Carol A. B. Warren, and Tracy Xavia Karner. This was book was useful with helping us at each step of our research project. For the purposes for this paper, I am going to summarize the chapter concepts on the following topics: Ethnography, Interview, and Content Analysis. I will start off with discussing the topic of Ethnography.

Ethnography was the first major step in our research project and this was a very important topic in the textbook. One of the major concepts that the researchers put forth to the reader during the fieldwork stage of a qualitative research study is the idea of how to enter a group, and how to not significantly impact the data you collect at this stage. They emphasize the idea of observing as what you can think of as a fly in the wall. We don't want to impact the way the individuals in our study act during observations, because the data will not be genuine as we wish it to be. The key here is we want to look at the group from the outside in, meaning we don't want to be involved with the group function. This can be hard if we already involved with the group but that is key in the field work stage. Also you must go ready, and in the mindset. If that is not the case, you will not be successful during this process.

During this stage, another important thing is what the authors describe as thick description. We need to include as much details as possible from our observations so that when someone reads our paper they can see exactly what we are seeing as if they were there with us. That also connects with the note taking aspect as notes are key during the stage in remembering what went on during our particular day of observations. They then discuss the importance of typing full field notes immediately after. If you wait to type out your full field notes you will not be able to provide that thick and accurate description of what is taking place.

The next important step in the research process is the step of interviewing. Us as students need to come to our interviews prepared, and dressed nicely. This is important as it is just the vibe that you will be giving off to your respondent, and you want to give off one that is professional and that seems interested.

The next important thing that I think the researchers pointed out were the different ways that interviews can take place. There are interviews that can take place a variety of different ways such as face to face, the phone, and electronically. In person is the most common methods of conducting interviews and allows of a more personal relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee. Recording of the interview is also necessary, and it is important to find a place that is quiet and that limits background noise as much as possible.The equipment you use can also make a difference on the quality of the recording, therefore it is necessary to have good equipment, and make sure it is ready and tested before you go out to conduct your interview. Background noise can become extremely impeding on the interview, as well as the recording. It is important that we limit background noise as much as we possibly can. Phone interviews are another type of possible interview technique, however they are not as common. They are also more difficult. You do not get to see the individual in person, which prevents you from seeing their reactions, etc. These are all key to an interview and can become extremely beneficial when understanding the totality of the circumstance regarding your interview. Lastly there are electronic interviews which take place via the internet. No matter what way you choose to interview, it is important to come prepared.

Lastly there is the Content Analysis, which is the last step in the Qualitative Research process. The content analysis  is just as important as any other step within the qualitative methods research process so just as much attention and time should be devoted in this step as we would to any other step. A main goal that I picked up on during the reading is that during this step we are trying to understand or interpret patterns that we see within the documents relating to the group that we are studying. The documents don't have to be directly related, but have to have some sort of relevance.  These documents also have to have message that we are interested in as pertaining to our research project itself. If these documents have no relevance than they should not be included. We also have to try and pick documents that are recent, and not extremely outdated.

Coding is something that is necessary in this step as it allows for us to sort the data, and make it easy for us to pick out those patterns. We code the text itself so that we can easily find and distinguish those patterns. Nodes are what we would use as we code pieces of our data. These nodes can stand as a descriptive term and can be used to easily sort and understand the data.

Overall this process is one that is very intensive and that should be done in a very particular manner. As the researchers point out in each step, there is things that we must look out for to avoid ethical issues, and to do the job correctly.

Analysis

I'm going to first start with my observations study. This is where I observed the group two different times, for a total of approximately 3 hours. The second part of the analysis includes my interview analysis with the 3 group members. Lastly it will include the content analysis portion of the paper.

It is Sunday March 23rd, at about 3:45 PM. I am approaching my place of study to begin my first day of observations. I pull into the parking lot and notice about 10 stalls in front of the building, that are arranged horizontally, and all separated by a painted white line. There is one police vehicle parked in these stalls, it appears to be an unmarked newer white charger, maybe year 2018, and it is currently occupying the most south west stall in the lot. The building itself appears to be a newer 2 story building. The building appears to be fairly new as the brown paint is flawless, the white windows are sharp, and the landscaping is near perfect.  Surrounding the building appears to be a black, metal fence that is about 6 feet tall. The fence surrounds the perimeter of the building, and the only access is through the front gate. The weather is mild. I now step out of my vehicle and begin to prepare my materials before group members start to arrive. I have my notebook, and my pen ready to go.

It is now about 3:50 PM and 3 group members walk up from what appeared to be the south of me. I can assume that they got dropped off as they came up walking and there is no vehicles in the immediate area. The 3 group members, one male, and 2 females, who appeared to be in their early 20s were wearing an all black style uniform. This uniform consists of tactical style pants, a shirt with their last name printed on the back, and a imprint of a star on both the front and the back of the shirt. I notice that they are carrying what appeared to be some sort of training belt, and they carry it by hanging it on their right shoulder. This belt has a blue training gun, and handcuff case. All 3 of these belts are matching in style and order.

It is now 3:53 the 3 members proceed to sit on the curb in front of the main gate. This curb also surrounds the building perimeter, and it is any normal average curb size. As we wait, I listen to their conversation and I notice that the male subject is describing how sore he is from the workout that he completed earlier that day at the gym. The male subject was describing that he repped 135 pounds, 15 times on bench press. It seemed as though the females were just listening, and seemed somewhat intrigued by what he was saying.

It is now 3:56 and it seemed as though the rest of the group has now showed up. The lead advisor of the group begins to approach the black gate that allows access to the main facility. He opens the gate via placing a small circular key fob, about the size of a quarter, on a small black plastic fob sensors that was placed on the right side of the door handle. Once the gate opens the group begins to follow and make their way inside. They enter the structure through a brown colored door that is on the left once you walk through the gate. Once through the door we immediately take a right and follow the stairs up to the second floor. Once on the second floor we proceed straight and enter a conference room where all the group members take a seat around a circular brown table. The chairs that the group members sat in were black, presumably, leather style office chairs.

It is now 4:00 and we are officially beginning the meetings. The lead advisor starts of the meeting and splits the group into two seperate groups. I begin my observations to follow the group that contains group members who have been in group for a while. These individuals range from about 19-21 years old. We proceed back down stairs with this group, and the group members each begin to put on their duty belts. As I noted it earlier, it seems as though the belts are all relatively similar. I do not notice any significant differences between them. Again that contained a blue training gun, and a handcuff case. As for the uniform, they are also dressed relatively similar. Again wearing the black uniform shirt, and a black uniform pants, with shined boots that nearly allow you to see your reflection.

4:30 and it looks like we are now about to start the first scenario for the day. The lead advisor started off by asking the group "How do you guys feel about building searches?" A male subject responds, and states "I feel like we are good, but we should get a rep in." The lead advisor responds and states "Okay, go in the other room and I will set up a scenario." I follow the group members as they begin to fall into a small empty room that is down the hall.

The subject who responded the first time appears to be what I would assume to be a leader. He starts discussing with his team what he expects of them, and what their positions are throughout this entire particular scenario. He seems like a very respected leader. When interacting with his group he treats them with respect, and they respond in a manner that I would assume is a respectful one as well. The group members respond with asking questions as appropriate. It is now that the advisor comes out, and tells the team to get ready. The start the scenario by providing eachother with a fistbump for what I would assume as a way of encouragement, and they proceed to pull out their blue training guns, and stack up on the side of the building that they intend on searching. fist bump to his entire team.

By the time the scenario is finished it is about 5:15 and the team begins to debrief the scenario. The advisor starts off by asking how they think they did. They team leader proceeds by stating he believes they did well, but also believes that they should have got the team through that door a little bit faster because they were sitting ducks in front of an unknown door. At this point in time the team of 4 and the lead advisor are standing in a circle as they discuss the following scenario. It is now around 5:35 and I am deciding to stop my observations for the day, and am going to come back next week to observe for another hour and half.

It is now Sunday, March 30th at about 3:35 pm and I arrive for my second day of observations. This week we are meeting at the same building as last week, and I was instructed to park in the same area as last week. I notice the same charger parked in the same stall, and no other noticeable differences that need to be discussed. The weather this week is again mild, and I proceed to get out of my car at about 3:40 pm, and stand by the gate as I wait for the group to arrive.

It is now about 3:45 and a car parks next to mine. It is a maroon colored Scion TC, and 4 group members get out of the vehicle. Again wearing the same uniform, although all 3 already had their belts on, and it seemed as though they were ready to go. The driver gets out and sees me standing by the gate and proceeds by waving. I go ahead and wave back. They proceed and stand by the gate. Another couple 2 group members walk up and join the group members that were presently waiting outside. One male subject, and one female subject give each other a hug, and the male subject asks where the female subject has been. She states to the male that she has been in Mexico visiting her family, and hasnt been around in a while due to that reason.

It is now 3:55 and the advisor shows up, and we now proceed inside the gate to enter the same building as last week. We make our way inside the door, and up the stairs to the second floor and proceed to the same room with the brown conference table. The group members now take a seat. They start this meeting off by again splitting the group into two, and I follow the older group members down stairs.

The main advisor meets the group outside in the courtyard of the fenced in area at about 4:15. The group again begins to discuss that they have a competition nearing, and that there is one scenario that really need to work on. That scenario being felony stop. The advisor proceeds to instruct one the group members to get their personal vehicle that way it can be used as a "suspect" vehicle. He proceeds to get his older model Blue BMW 2 door. The car is the parked directly behind the white charger in the parking lot, and 2 police officers bring over patrol cars that can be used as a car for the group members to work from.

It is now 4:35 and we are ready to begin the scenario. As with last time, the group members proceed to brief amongst the team, and the advisor proceeds to set up the scenario. I go ahead and follow the team again, and the team leader is again briefing his team. This time he seems a little more engage with his team, as they are discussing what to do if the suspect is seen with a gun in the front waistband. They begin to play this out and the one female gets on her knees and places her hands the back of her head with her fingers interlocked. The team leader then proceed and instructs the team on what he expects. As he is instructing what to do he tells the team members he wants a firm grip on those fingers, and he wants the cover officer to proceed to grab the gun.

As the scenario progresses I notice the group has extremely good communication within one another. As they are working their way up to detain the suspect each group members calls out loud "moving." And when they come back to their spot, and they are set they yell out "set." The team leader is also doing a good job with telling everyone what to do and when to do it. He instructs them when and where to move too. Checks up periodically to make sure they are all doing okay, etc.

The scenario finishes at about 4:55 and they begin to debrief. The advisor seems very impressed as he said he does not have much critique for them, other than he wants to hear louder voice commands from the group. The group celebrates with giving knuckles to each other, and they proceed inside the courtyard to get ready for another. It is now about 5:30 and I decide to call it a day with the observations

In regards to theory, I wanted to discuss the roles, and how prominent they were during my observations those 2 days. Each individual that was apart of the group was assuming the role of an explorer. While the Sergeant in charge was assuming the role as a advisor. They stuck well to these roles for the time that I was around observing, and the expected behaviors were being acted out on a consistent basis.

The next theory concept that I want to discuss is the frontstage and the backstage. There were examples of both throughout my observations, and I think it is important to discuss. The front stage was very prominent throughout my entire time observing. I'm unsure if it was because they knew that someone was observing them, or if it was because that is just how they normally act when interacting within a group meeting. But it seemed as though they were always extremely professional, and we're assuming and presenting the expected behaviors associated with those roles. As with the backstage, I only noticed the instance before I arrived for my first day of observation, and the discussion that was taking place about the gym. Other than that, during the meeting it was 100% frontstage. Now onto the analysis of  interview portion of my paper.

Statuses:

Statuses are the titles that we hold. Our statuses that we may hold are very fluently changing throughout an average day. An individual can experience several different statuses depending on the time of day. With regards to my interviews, the individuals statuses actually fluctuated. Within my first interview, the following quote describes his status. He stated, " I've been in it for about, I would say, four years now, and I currently hold the rank of captain and have loved every minute of it."

As he stated he is currently a Explorer Captain, which is his status within the group. His status is a little bit different than the other two individuals I interviewed. The second individual stated, "Well my current rank within the group is I'm just an explorer. I've never actually put in for rank to be promoted. I'm perfectly fine with being being a explorer. I still get to enjoy all the perks I just don't have any leadership roles at this time." As my second interviewee stated, he is just an explorer.

Similarly the last individual that I interviewed he stated "I am a new group member. I've only been in this group for about, I would say six months now. I am 20 and a half right now, which only leaves me about six more months left in the program." As you can see he is also a new group member. He did not explicitly say his rank, but we can infer that he is also a new explorer with no rank.

Roles:

Now with each status there are associated roles. The roles would therefore be the associated behaviors, and expectations that society holds of us when we are partaking within those statuses. We learn these expectations from society and act accordingly. With regards to these individuals they each have roles that change frequently. As with my first interviewee he states, "We do everything through Facebook. Everything is posted through Facebook in regards to that. I would say the sergeant who's mainly in charge of this program and plans all the trainings will get most of it together. There's some groundwork that goes into it. He just called me and asked me like hey, do you think we should do this today or should we do this. We discuss members who may not be meeting the minimum requirements, or even the recruitment of new members."As you can see his roles consist of more supervisory type roles within the group.

That is a lot different than the last two people that I interviewed. They have more active roles within the group as the second individual I interviewed stated "As an explorer. Pretty much all we do is we train in law enforcement type scenarios. We go to law enforcement explorer competitions where we compete against other teams, you can consider it similar to a sports team. We also do a lot of community service. Community Services a really big thing for us, and we have a minimum community service amount that we have to complete each month so we have to be within the community and constantly engaging with the community. I think this is all just a good eye opener into what a career in law enforcement actually is."

The last person I interviewed has a little bit more of a different role in a sense as he is more interested in getting used to the environment and learning how things roll. As he states "I'm just trying to get to know everybody I'm trying to catch on. I'm trying to see how things roll, and that can be kind of hard. There is a lot of things that go into being a group member here such as having the right material, the right uniforms."

Frontstage:

The frontstage is a concept that Goffman used to describe the self as what we portray on a day to day basis when we know people are watching us. We can consider this a "performance." This frontage self changes depending on the particular role that we are occupying at any given moment. It was interesting because within my group it seems as though the performance was mainly taking place within regards to being in front of the community. It all changes when they are not in front of that audience. As you can see with the first group member I interviewed he states, "I would say so. We do have fun and I would say some of the things that we do, behind the scenes are not something that we would ever do, or wouldn't say at a community service event such as, you know, shave the brave, or school event or something like that. When we're at these school events we're putting on something that everybody wants to see. We're not going to be joking around. We're not going to be on our phones. We're not going to be saying things to each other that we would say to each other at trainings."

This was interesting because I did not get to observe at any community event, although at meetings I did notice that the group members got along well, and that they did a lot of joking around. As with the second interviewee, he had a similar experience. As he stated "I mean, we're told to always be for professional when we're in front of the public, and we usually always have in a full time officer or the sergeant charge of the program out there with us and they're there just to mediate the situation, watch over us and make sure everything's going smoothly."

Similarly the third interviewee said the same thing when asked about this. He had stated, "We're wearing the badge. And it's doesn't signify much, we're not police officers, although we are representative of that police department agency and being professional is a big thing, and I have seen instances where people who are kind of slacking off a little bit do pay the price. I've seen people get sent home. Being professional in public is a big thing."

Backstage:

The backstage is described as the the side that no one sees. This is now no longer considered a performance, rather as "behind the scenes." The backstage is the side of ourselves that society does not see, nor do we necessarily want society to see as that being who we truly are. The backstage with my group seems to take place mainly when the group meets with one another. This was interesting because they all had similar answers about when the backstage does take place.

The first individual I interviewed stated that "We do have fun and I would say some of the things that we do, behind the scenes are not something that we would ever do, or wouldn't say at a community service event such as, you know, shave the brave, or school event or something like that." I think that was a great representation of what the backstage represents.

As the second group member I interviewed said "Yeah when we're training. Obviously we're training for our competitions. So, training for these competitions is a big thing for us because we have to take it home a lot of first place overall wins and, I mean, not to be cocky but we do consider ourselves to be one of the best explorer groups in the state. When we are training we do take it seriously. But don't get me wrong there is time where we do joke around." As you can see the group training seems to be where this does take place at.

Lastly, the third person I interviewed stated "I do. We do like to joke around a lot there's a lot and have a lot of fun at trainings. But we do get the job done. I think that's what makes us successful is you got to have a little bit of both." The common theme was the word "joke" and "fun." This was a common theme with the backstage of my group.

Injustice/Diagnosis

To start off my analysis I chose the node of injustice and diagnosis. This was a node that I didn't think was very prominent in my group as they are not dealing with a societal issue and combating it with their  mission. In my groups case, they are growing young individuals who are interested in a career in law enforcement. If you were talk about the injustice, I guess you could say getting individuals to join law enforcement is getting increasingly more difficult, especially with the political and social reality around it within the media. I did find a quote that explained their mission very well.

"The primary purpose of a law enforcement explorer post is to provide vocational education and training to young people, ages 15-20, who have an interest in law enforcement as a career"

As you can see with this quote, their main purpose is to provide training for young adults that are interested in a career in law enforcement. I noticed this was a common theme throughout nearly every other related group that I found online.

For the diagnosis, meaning how they plan on fixing their so called issue, I think in the case of my group their duties would be best described as the "diagnosis." I think the following quote explained that well.

"Police Explorers work hand in hand with sworn officers and non-sworn department personnel in a variety of ways.  Listed below are just a few, Crowd control at parades and other community events, Assist patrol officers during ride-alongs,  Participate in training exercises with police officers,Support of special department projects, such as G.R.E.A.T. events and national night out,Provide color guard services at community events, retirement ceremonies and parades,  Hanford mall holiday security detail, Training, competitions and conferences with other agencies, Assist School Resource Officers at School Sporting Events, Assist California Law Enforcements Wish Upon a Star Organization."

As you can see they plan on training these young adults in a wide variety of different things that range from law enforcement related details, all the way with interacting with the community in community service details. I stated these are all necessary, and primary components of the group, and they make themselves none on the webpage on nearly every related group that participates in this.

Prognosis/Motivation

The next nodes that I chose to analyze throughout my paper included prognosis and motivation. Prognosis refers to the projected outcome to a particular problem, and motivation refers to what initiates or causes a groups reaction to continue pursuing what that group is interested in and cares about. In the case of my group, the prognosis of being in apart of the group would ultimately ending up as a police officer. And that in itself is also their motivation to keep the program going, and keeping young adults within the program. As stated in this quote, you can see exactly what I am talking about.

"Exploring provides an opportunity for young people to be involved in something positive, to receive training and experience in law enforcement and to learn the value of service to their community.  It also allows those involved to get an inside look on how a police department functions."

As stated in this quote, the outcomes are for young individuals to receive training and experience in law enforcement. This provides a look inside of police work and allows for individuals to choose whether or not this is really the career field that they want to enter. It is important to remember how unique the career path is, and I think that explains why the program is so highly recognized. But also that in itself is the motivation that keeps everything going. They see the potential outcomes of the group itself, and that's explained in this quote.

"As for some of the previous senior Explorers, Cano was proud to say at least one is in the police academy and several others are undergoing background checks to become some type of law enforcement officers."

It's not stated directly in the fine print when you apply to become an explorer, but as Cano said, several of the previous explorers were undergoing background checks to become police officers, and one is currently in the police academy. These are both ways to solve the problem currently facing law enforcement with not enough people joining the profession.

Identity

Identity is another important concept that I included as a node within my content analysis. I think identity is important because it is what that group is all about. It is what they represent, it is what they value, it is what their mission is, etc. With my group, we have already noted what their motivation is, but I think their identity is something a little bit more personal than that. I think the following quote describes the identity my group and police explorers well.

"...stimulate interest of today's youth in law enforcement practices and the Explorer Code of Ethics; to promote self-confidence and responsibility; and to provide specific services to the community.

In this quote you can see that the identity of the group, and the individuals within that group relates to having high ethics, and I believe moral standing as well. Along with ethics and morals, it seems as though it also promotes characteristics that are necessary of being a good human being and that being self confidence and responsibility. These are things that you can take anywhere and apply it too, whether it is a career in law enforcement or not. But I think it's important to understand how these young adults are being raised for this career. Understanding the groups culture allows for you to understand and appreciate the passion these young adults have. I think this next quote that describes the core values is also representative of the groups identity.

"Integrity, Quality Service, Accountability, Respect"

Relating to the first quote, these are further character traits that are instilled upon individuals within the group that they ultimately take with themselves throughout their lives and careers. Having this instilled at such a young age can shape who you are, and who you become. This group has done a good job with that.

Agency

The last node I included with in my paper was agency. Agency refers to a model of how a groups ideology works and is played out. It's their outlook on the world. This can happen via their particular ideas, and the way they categorize them, etc. I feel as though the following quote could fit for any of the nodes presented above, however I think it fits well with agency.

"Explorers are taught the importance of higher education, self-discipline, and respect for diversity and human dignity through training, involvement in community service projects, and other Exploring events."

I think this quote does a good job at explaining agency because its explaining what explorers are taught, and that is something that relates to their ideology, and expectations as a whole group. This quote mentioned dignity as that seems to be a key aspect in their ideology, and world view. It also mentions involvement in the community which also seems to be a key factor in the groups ideology or world view. I think this next quote also does a good job with outlining that.

"he's always pleasantly surprised when he sees Explorers doing 16 hours or more of community service and volunteering in a month."

I think this quote also does a good job with explaining what the world view of a volunteer in this program is. As we see with all the morals, ethics, personal characteristics, etc that they are taught, they are also taught the importance of community service and volunteering in the community.

Conclusion

All in all I feel like my observation, interviews, and content analysis went well. I feel like I can use more experience in this to make my further studies better. I focused a lot on theory, and trying to understand my group from a sociological perspective and that was extremely interesting. This project was extremely time consuming from the data collection, to the analysis, and making everything make sense, but it was extremely rewarding.

Bibliography:

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Warren, Carol A. B. and Tracy X. Karner. 2015. Discovering Qualitative Methods: Ethnography, Interviews, Documents, and Images. Oxford University Press.