By Nicole Kujawski

Riding with Buffalo Police Department officers gives students first-hand perspective that can’t be found in the classroom. Each student is required to ride-along with a Buffalo Police officer to complete the course.

This is just one hands-on component of Professor Bill Raffel’s Media and Crime class. This special topics course through the communication department focuses on the relationship between the media and the criminal justice system. The “field trips” include:

• a tour of the Erie County Holding Center

• sitting in on an actual criminal court case

The police ride-alongs are the first activity of the semester that students are involved in. Students schedule four-hour timeslots with the Buffalo Police Department Training Academy. These trips offer the students the opportunity to learn the “life” of an actual police officer, as opposed to the portrayal of police on TV and in movies.

“What I hope the students get out of it is a sense of what it’s really like to be a police officer as opposed to what they see being reported all the time,” Raffel said.

“(They) see what really goes on, get a chance to talk with them and find out what they’re like as people, ask them what they think of media coverage. Just give them a better sense of how to interact.”

Students are evenly assigned to the districts in Buffalo, but there’s always a chance of danger. Officers have the training to keep the students safe by:

• restricting access at calls

• requiring bullet-proof vests

• assigning students to 2-person cars rather than 1-person cars

Carla Young, a senior, went on a ride-along comfortably due to her military background. Her safety was put ahead of her curiosity at one call.

“For my protection, I had to stay in the car when we responded to a call to investigate suspicious individuals in a vacant building. At the time, I just wanted to ‘see’ and the only way to do that would have been to be in harm's way and in the way of the three officers at the scene,” Young said.

“So, I was a good girl and stayed in the car and missed a drug bust.”

Raffel started teaching this class four years ago, sporadically teaching it when it fits into his schedule. The class fills an elective requirement for communication majors but there are currently three non-communication majors taking the class.

For more information, contact Nicole Kujawski at nicolekuj@yahoo.com

Professor Raffel discussing the Timothy McVeigh case with his Media and Crime class. Photo by Nicole Kujawski