Beginning promptly at 7:40 a.m. on Friday, retired Police Lieutenant John Hohmann begins his criminal justice class with a “behind the scenes” tour of the Scotts Valley Police Station. As part of the regional occupation program, 32 students from Scotts Valley High School are offered an opportunity to learn about the criminal justice system with hands on experience.
The tour started in the roll call room where Hohmann explained how 12-hour patrol shifts begin. Hohmann showed the students the multi-screen emergency police dispatchers work station and the critical role dispatchers play in keeping patrol officers informed. He then took them to the evidence room and small crime lab. The tour ended up in the parking lot checking out the fleet of police vehicles and the equipment included in them.
“My goal is to give a true and accurate representation of what this job entails,” Hohmann said after the tour. “Especially that knowledge is power: knowledge of the law, knowledge of what your authority is, and knowledge of what you can and can’t do as a police officer.”
After a 30-year career as a Scotts Valley Police Officer, rising to the rank of lieutenant, and currently serving as a reserve officer, Hohmann is a certified police instructor in firearms, Taser, and defensive tactics.
“I’m very honest with the students about the profession and the dangers that go along with it. Sometimes I worry that I’m scaring them off a little bit,” Hohmann said. “But they need to know these things if they are considering a career in law enforcement.”
As an example, Hohmann showed his students the “Officer Down Memorial Page.” It is a web-based memorial for all the police officers killed in the line of duty across the country, “which is usually a real eye opener,” Hohmann said.
Hohmann mentions he reviews the police dispatch log, printed in the Press Banner, with his students every Monday morning. “That serves as another eye opener for many of the students to learn about the different calls for service, and the fact that there is crime in our community, which they probably wouldn’t be aware of if they didn’t pick up the paper once in awhile,” Hohmann said.
Eric Olson, a 17-year-old senior at SVHS, said he became interested in the class by simply talking to Hohmann on campus when he served as the school resource officer at the high school. “The class is very interesting, taught by a true professional, and Mr. Hohmann is a very nice man and enthusiastic about teaching what he knows,” Olson said. Lillian Thorington, a 16-year-old junior at SVHS, said a career in law enforcement seemed to be, “A really good way to help people with opportunities to move around.” Thorington said she might ultimately be interested in a career as an F.B.I. agent, and the class seemed like a “great start” at looking at this possible career.
Hohmann’s class has influenced at least one of his former students to pursue a career in law enforcement. Kiara Jacobsen, who graduated from Scotts Valley High School in 2014, has been working as an emergency dispatcher for the SVPD for the last year and a half. “I wasn’t very interested in law enforcement until I took his class. His energy and excitement about the profession had a big influence on me in terms of my career path,” Jacobsen said.
Hohmann explained the course covers an introduction to different models of policing and how those models tend to ebb and flow between community demands for the “crime control model.” There is a heavier emphasis on getting criminals off the street, alternating with the “due process model”, with an emphasis on protecting the civil rights of the accused.
Along with different models of policing and different theories of criminal behavior, Hohmann emphasized the success of community-oriented policing in Scotts Valley. Which according to Hohmann means being involved in the community, educating the community, seeing what the community needs, and eliciting the support of the community for law enforcement.
This is demonstrated by the SVPD’s commitment to the D.A.R.E. Program, an anti-violence and anti-drug program taught to fifth graders. Additionally high school students have an option to enroll in the Junior Police Academy. To ensure a relationship with students, SVPD maintains a school resource officer at the high school, in which Hohmann served as the first officer assigned to SVHS in 1999.
The “Intro to Criminal Justice” course includes guest speakers, including spokespeople from the District Attorney’s Office, public defenders and probation and corrections officers, in the effort to provide a broad overview of the criminal justice system and the many opportunities for different kinds of service. “We do a visit to the Superior Court as well as a tour of the County Jail,” Hohmann said.
The course also includes basic self-defense training in the wrestling room at the high school, as well as the basic principles of use of force and arrest control tactics. “Some people are uncomfortable with putting their hands on people, and I try to have my students experience this discomfort as part of the job, and think about their resistance to it,” Hohmann said.
“What I look for in my students is a real desire to help people and a desire to make a difference in people’s lives,” Hohmann said. “I try to make sure they understand that not all contacts are negative, and that 99 percent of the time they will be dealing with basically good people who have made mistakes.”
