Expert: Chris Wagoner - 4/30/2008

Question
Good morning,  I am a 5th grade student in Mississippi with aspirations of becoming a police officer someday.  Could you please answer some interview questions to help me with my career exploration?

1.  Do you think it is a good idea for children and teens to communicate using Facebook and MySpace?

2.  Did you receive your training for Computer Forensics though your job or in a college setting?

3.  Are there other types of Forensics?

4.  What do you think is your best asset as a police officer?

5.  Are there certain signs that you've learned to recognize that signals guilt or innocence?

6.  What is one of the strangest motives that you've encountered for a person committing a crime?

7.  Is there any type of crimes that you prefer not to investigate?

8.  Sometimes police officers get a bad rep, do you feel appreciated for the work that you do in your community?

Answer
Hi Quinton!

I Would be more than happy to answer these for you and since you asked so nicely, I will also try to give you good answers for your report!

1.  Do you think it is a good idea for children and teens to communicate using Facebook and MySpace?

Q: MySpace and Facebook can be good places for teens and others to communicate with each other, but they have to be very careful not to put to much information on their pages that might give a bad guy enough information to find them. Many teens put too much information on hem, like their home address, phone numbers, and pictures of their little brothers and sisters. Posting pictures of your little brothers and sisters is very dangerous and puts them in danger. Here are some safety tips MySpace post:

Don't forget that your profile and MySpace forums are public spaces.

Don't post anything you wouldn't want the world to know (e.g., your phone number, address, IM screens name, or specific whereabouts).

Avoid posting anything that would make it easy for a stranger to find you, such as where you hang out every day after school.

People aren't always who they say they are. Be careful about adding strangers to your friends list. It's fun to connect with new MySpace friends from all over the world, but avoid meeting people in person whom you do not fully know. If you must meet someone, do it in a public place and bring a friend or trusted adult.

Harassment, hate speech and inappropriate content should be reported. If you feel someone's behavior is inappropriate, react. Talk with a trusted adult, or report it to MySpace or the authorities.

Don't post anything that would embarrass you later. Think twice before posting a photo or info you wouldn't want your parents or boss to see!

Don't mislead people into thinking that you're older or younger. If you lie about your age, MySpace will delete your profile.


2.  Did you receive your training for Computer Forensics though your job or in a college setting?

Actually it was through my police job. Computer Forensics is a very fast growing area of law enforcement. There are several places police officers can go and learn how to do this. I have been to about 14 different schools for computer crimes and forensics!!

3.  Are there other types of Forensics?

There are several. Ever watch the TV Show "CSI"? Its about forensics for crime scenes. Forensics is a very cool side of police work. We get to take the smallest, littlest piece of evidence and read it to see who it came from and why its important in our cases.

4.  What do you think is your best asset as a police officer?

Wow good question!! Well lets see, I have been a cop for 28 years now (longer than you have been alive? LOL) and I think my best asset is that i care about people I come in contact with. I realize that people call the police because they want help. And we give them that help when we can. Also I started in police work because I wanted to protect those people that could not protect themselves. Some people need someone to stand up for them, and I do that, I stand up to the bullies and bad guys, and try to keep the people safe.

5.  Are there certain signs that you've learned to recognize that signals guilt or innocence?

Wow another good one! I like to think over the years I have become a pretty good judge of peoples facial and body language. We actually have a police school that teaches you about facial and eye language and how to read it! Isn't that cool! And yes I think I can tell most of the time if someone is guilty or innocent by the way they talk and act. But I also have to say, I have been wrong and no one is perfect so you have to be very careful in using that alone to arrest someone.

6.  What is one of the strangest motives that you've encountered for a person committing a crime?

I think the strangest motive, and I actually see this a lot in the computer crime world, is that some people just have this liking to collect things. Its called the "hoarders mentality". They like to collect things. That is usually the case with people who download a lot of music files illegally or movies or other things off the Internet. I have seen people who have collected 100,000 or more songs or pictures. You could never live long enough to listen to every one, but they have this urge to "collect" to "hoard" these things. Its a strange but growing thing.

7.  Is there any type of crimes that you prefer not to investigate?

I do not like to investigate child abuse or child pornography cases, but I do. Every time I get one of these cases I realize there are kids out there being abused or hurt by these people. And the people that collect these pictures are just making those that make the pictures want to make more. It hurts. I have a 9 year old son, and I get sad when I think here may be other kids like him out there being hurt by the people making these pictures and things. But! Even though I may not like to investigate them, I do investigate them, and I work very hard on those cases to make sure we catch the bad guys and get them off the streets so they are not hurting any more kids.

8.  Sometimes police officers get a bad rep, do you feel appreciated for the work that you do in your community?

Oh I feel that most people understand that those cops that give us a bad rep are the few. Most police officers are really just ordinary people trying to make their little part of the world a little better. It actually makes most cops really mad when we see some idiot cop making a stupid mistake or doing something stupid on purpose. That makes the rest of us look bad. And we get mad about that. I do feel appreciated. I have spoken to several community groups and school gatherings and people really do understand that most cops are really the good guys. Every job has their bad apples, we just try to find them and get rid of our bad apples.

I hope that answers your questions well enough for you. I appreciate your choice of subjects and please feel free to ask any others you may want to.

Be safe!




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