Caring for Communities with Jon Hawkins

Fabiola: Hello, Gearup students. My name is Fabiola McComb and I'm your career exploration specialist. I'm so excited to welcome you to January Zoom into your career. Today, you'll get the chance to explore different careers in the caring for communities career cluster. This includes careers that focus on dedicated to supporting to health, safety, and well-being of individuals and communities. You'll have the opportunity to ask questions to the professional after their video. Up first, we have John Hawkins. We hope you enjoy his pre-recorded interview.

John: My name is John Hawkins. I'm from Norman, Oklahoma. My current job title as a detective with the Crimes Against Children unit with the Oklahoma City Police Department. My job involves uh investigating crimes that have been committed against children ages 12 and below. Prior to this career, I retired from the United States Marine Corps in 2013, serving 15 years as an infantry officer and as an enlisted personnel. [music] I did spend a couple years down in the Arlington Police Department before I moved up here. Uh, the highest level I achieved in my education is a bachelor's degree from the University of Oklahoma. I received my degree in criminology/s sociology with a minor in history. Education requirements for the department is a high school education plus 60 hours of uh college credits. There are a few things that inspired me to pursue this career. Uh one is just being a life of service. Um serving my country for 15 years in the Marine Corps and then continue to serve the community and to protect others as a police officer. A typical work day for me is I arrive to the office between 6:30 and 7 o'clock um checking emails and then as the day progresses cases are normally assigned to me. Uh during the during that time I take those cases I start making phone calls to um witnesses scheduling interviews with possible suspects and scheduling forensic interviews for the children. Some of the challenges that we face are kind of twofold. One is cooperation with uh different agencies that we work with whether it be uh DHS uh the care center who conducts our for uh forensic interviews um working with the hospital staff at OU Children’s and surrounding hospitals and other is just the internal timelines that we have in order to get the cases uh completed investigated and then staff with the uh district attorney's office. The skills that I use most often in my job are the interpersonal skills. Being able to talk to people, uh be able to communicate with them uh not only by telephone, but face-toface interviews. um communicating through uh text messages, um basic computer skills, learning h learning how to type, using different types of uh Excel documents and word documents, and one of more importantly is just having great organizational skills, be able to keep everything organized and in place so you can follow it in order to uh produce a uh good case file. At the end of the day, during my time in police department, I've achieved uh many goals. uh also became a field training officer um at 3 years on the department. Uh I became a drug recognition expert uh soon afterwards. Uh I was selected as a detective on uh my first go-around. Um during that time um I've achieved numerous awards uh in regards to assisting uh uh victims when I worked at domestic violence unit. And uh the other reward is just being able to help others. It's just that's the biggest reward that I get uh in this job. There are a couple mentors and teachers that I've had throughout during my life that have really uh assisted me in my career. First of [music] all, my grandfather um he was a former Marine and he just inspired me um [music] especially during my times in the Marine Corps saying, "Hey, go there, do the best you can, do as fast as you can." Another one would be one of my field training officers while I was in Arlington. uh he showed a lot of compassion and uh patience with me. Um he explained to me at the end of the day be a person because end of the day you're dealing with people and you can't treat everybody the same in each circumstance. Just be a person and treat them with kindness and humility. Something I wish I' had known earlier [music] in pursuing my education and career is knowing exactly what I wanted to do. Out of high school, I went straight into college. Um that's not what I wanted to do at that time. I didn't know myself, know what I really wanted to do. Um, I joined the Marine Corps and I found out who I was and really what I wanted to do in my career and that's to serve others. If I was in high school and I was unsure about what career that I wanted to do, the one of the biggest things that I would recommend looking at would be looking at one to the armed forces. There are many career fields that you can pursue in any of the armed forces whether Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Space Force, many different options that you can look at. Um cuz in the end it will open your eyes to many different fields uh within each department, each branch of the uh armed forces uh that in the end if you stay in four years or if you decided to do a career, it'll give you an opportunity one to experience life to grow up but then really find out what you want to do in life.

Fabiola: Students, help me give a warm welcome to our speaker John. Hi John. How are you doing today?

John: I'm doing good. How are y'all doing today?

Fabiola: We're doing great. Yeah, we're super excited to start this live Q&A with you. Um the students have submitted a bunch of great questions. So, let's get started. So, the first question today is, is it like the movies when they do fingerprints and I guess following people like in a pursuit? And um maybe you could go into a little bit of what you as a detective does does just as in like what they mean as in following people.

John: Um [sighs and gasps] so in regards to is it like the movies or the TV shows? Uh it depends on what aspect that you're talking about on the patrol side. Um it could range day-to-day. Um, it just really depends on where you're at, what's going on that time of day, what shift you're working. Um, what was the kind of the question regards on the detective side of it?

Fabiola: On the detective side, it's asking is it like the movies when you do fingerprints? So, if maybe you could cover a little bit of um the fingerprint side, maybe when you bring someone in.

John: Okay. So, on the fingerprinting, um, normally what that's going to take place usually, uh, once the, uh, once the suspect's booked into jail, um, we book them into jail, they go through the process, and then once they're handed over to, uh, the jail personnel, the jail personnel will actually fingerprint them. Now, depending on what type of crime it is, uh, that person may be printed at headquarters. Uh, these are more for our violent crimes or high-profile cases. Um, we'll do them there, but then again, they'll do them at uh the county jail as well.

Fabiola: Yeah. And then your second question is, what is the typical starting salary for a detective?

John: Um, for a detective, a difference, the starting salary when we're coming on to the police department right now is just under 67,000 to get to that's at the academy. Uh now there are multiple step raises as you uh for each year. There's a raise usually at your um at your anniversary mark on when you actually join the join the department when you got hired on by the city and then there's another usually step raise on the date that you graduate the academy. So you kind of have two different raises there. Um salary right now for detective is usually between I'm going to say roughly between 80-84,000 a year and that's us on average your detective is uh beginning detective usually has about seven years of experience

Fabiola: and then John you're talking a little bit about the academy so um going into the process of how to become a detective do you need to be a cop first or do you go straight into the academy how does that work

John: so in order to become a detective uh you have to go through the police academy which is 28 weeks uh and That's through just your basic uh your basic police officer training. After that, you go through uh four months of what we call field training. Um you go through go to three different divisions in uh in the police department with a different field training officer during that time. And usually they try to get you on either a different shift, different working hours so you can get accustomed to um just different things going on in the department. Now to become a detective, one you have to be a sergeant. In order to be a sergeant, you have to have five years on the department. And then uh to become a detective, it's a selective process. Uh you complete an application. Uh you submit your best reports uh that you've read within the past year and then it goes to a selection board. And the selection board basically reads through your reports, reads through the rest of your application and compares you to the rema the other applicants that have applied. And then once you become selected as a detective, you go through approximately three months of training. uh basically learning how to be a detective, how to write write warrants, um use different programs and investigative tools that we have uh to assist you in working your cases.

Fabiola: That's great information. And then John, um one of the students is asking, "Is college mandatory to become a detective?"

John: Uh to become a detective, no. to become a police officer, they usually want uh either 60 hours of college. Uh so up to your up to your associates. Uh you can also have um two years of military experience. That'll help wave that. Uh but usually they want some type of um some type of experience there. You have to be a minimum of 21 years old uh in order to apply. So that's another factor as well.

Fabiola: And then John, what is one of the biggest challenges you have faced so far?

John: Uh, well, it depends on which aspect you're looking at. Um, for patrol, one of the biggest challenges at right off the bat was adjusting my schedule. I went from going through the police academy where you're working your normal daytime hours and then going to third shift which that's from 9:30 at night until 7:30 in the morning. So adjusting your your lifestyle hours um to work that shift that can be kind of difficult. And also learning how to um getting a couple family life is with that as well. Uh being married and having two kids when I was they were younger at that time. So it was a little bit easier. Uh as I got older, I transitioned to the day shift just so I can attend more of their activities. Um as a detective, I say some of the challenges challenges are dealing with the multiple different agencies and um departments that are involved in our cases. Uh especially VB crimes against children, we work with multiple different agencies to help uh collaborate and work together on these cases.

Fabiola: Yes, John. And then I know that some of these cases, you know, um are hard, especially cuz you did say you have children. So, um one of the questions is like what do you do to cope with these things? So, is there something that the department actually, you know, um gives and provides like services for counseling or is that something that um you do and every detective does on their own? Um I know we talked to a firefighter and they talked a lot about you know relying on their teammates and then also um they have like those services. So how does that work? So the department does have a wellness program.

John: They offer uh multiple resources in order to help with different coping strategies um or just if you just need to talk to someone outside of the department out that's not engaged really with what's going on. Uh personally myself um my coping strategies are I work out, I play golf, I play the guitar. I have different things that uh one that take my mind off work. I do everything I can possible to leave work at work and not bring it home. Uh but the department does a really good job of providing you with different resources to help get through some difficult times, difficult cases.

Fabiola: And then John, you did mention earlier that um one thing that helps a lot of detectives and even like becoming a cop is that military service. So um what about the military actually uh fulfills that like 60 hours of you know the associates rather than anything else?

John: On the military side it would be more of the structure. A lot of departments are they kind of base their initial academy training say paramilitary style but most of that is just due to uh due to the structure, wearing wearing the uniform, making sure that you're meeting you're meeting timelines you're where you're supposed to be on time ready to go. Um the chain of command be able to just be able to follow orders. Um, that's one of the big things. It's just that structure because from my experience, what I've seen and I've done two academies. I was in Arlington Police Department now with Oklahoma City. Um, both two very different styles, but both very but in some ways kind of similar. Those that have come in just straight into college, it can be a kind of a culture shock just because they're not used to that because in the academy there is some yelling, there is some screaming, there is a lot of stress that's put upon you. From my time in the military, I feel that that when that stress is put on you, it's easier to deal with when going through the academy.

Fabiola: Yes. And then I know we only have time for one last question, so I want to finish it with what are your favorite parts of being a detective?

John: Every case is different. You can get multiple different cases throughout the week and each case is going to have its own unique challenges. Um it's going to show you just different aspects of different people's lives. Um you can't work every case the same. It's just because that's how different they are. Uh we do have steps that we have to follow but in the end every case is different. Every circumstance is different and in the end sometimes the um whatever happens can be different as well. Uh, so that's that's one of the unique things I like about being a detective is it's you can experience many different things.

Fabiola: Yeah. Well, thank you so much, John, for joining us today and sharing your powerful story and valuable insight. We truly appreciate your time.

John: I appreciate you having me. Y'all have a good day.

Fabiola: Yes. Teachers, in a moment, we'll bring up the link to the rapid feedback form. Keep in mind that every session has its own feedback link. Please make sure that students complete it before leaving as these forms are time sensitive. Also, please ensure that you take attendance and email it to me directly. The email will be on the following slide. Thank you so much for joining this session. I hope you will join us for our next session at 10:30 as we continue to explore exciting career paths. See you then.