Blog 22: Mentorship

Adam Cordova

Special Investigations Unit

The most important thing I've gained from working with the SPI Unit, and especially under my mentor, was how important it was to cooperate and work together. They're a very small team, made up of only 6 people, when a problem arises between them, if it isn't worked out quickly, then the whole line of jobs and work gets backed up. I got to see this very personally over the past few months, with investigations by IA and drama between each other. It taught me how important just a little communication can be when you're working as a team.

This mentorship has helped me with my senior project because I got to work with the people I was doing the project on, so I got to pick their brains and get their opinion on what the best solution would be. They aren't mentioned anywhere in papers, or in the internet, so actually talking to them has been the only way to gain any real answers to their plights. I think that this mentorship was at the perfect time, with all the situations going on, I was able to see what was affecting them most, and how they deal with it. It also helped me answer my EQ because I was able to get feedback over what to add or remove from my answers to help me give the best advice on how they could be better utilized, and be as efficient as possible.

Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? Why?
I am most proud of being able to speak quality research on my topic for enough time, and making time in general. It was my greatest worry that I would not be able to speak long enough, as before when I had timed myself, I didn't make time, so to hear that I made both speaking time, and overall time was a relief.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation (self-assessment)?

AE       P          AP       CR       NC

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

AE       P          AP       CR       NC

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?
I think what really worked for me in my senior project was my mentorship. During my mentorship I was able to learn some much in more in-depth of the operation of the law, and the struggles that technical teams face in their work. I also got to see the dedication these people put into their oath to protect and serve. Also, I would not be able to learn anything on the SPI Unit, even their existence, if it weren't for my mentorship
(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?
I had more information I wanted to say. there was more to my topic that I wish I could have said, I wanted to go on about how the only way the LASD would probably learn is by losing cases, or waiting years on an outside tech team, since that was the only reason several other departments learned to create and effectively fund their own SPI Unit-variants. My activity is also something I wanted to work on. I wanted to add onto it, having the groups also focus on managing their money, and giving them a budget to work with. I also would have created a stricter schedule for myself, as that would have saved me a lot of trouble.
(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.
 I don't think that without the senior project, I would have ever thought of law enforcement as a viable employment option. Because of Senior Project, I have considered going into and applying for the Los Angeles Sheriff's Academy, and joining the LASD. I hope to one day get to the same position as my mentor and join the ranks of SPI, if it still exists. Senior Project also has given me perspective to how the real world looks, with the deadlines and individual responsibilities. I guess in an immediate sense, Senior Project gave me the chance to gain real world experience and more to put on my resume.

April Blog

This month was filled with fighting, arguments, deals, and reconciliation. Over the past few months, the new detective the Unit had hired was progressively getting more and more out of hand. They had at one point refused to pass a message from a federal agent to the sergeant who led the Unit. After a previous controversy surrounding a detective who tried to incriminate the other detectives and was abusing overtime, the controversy going so far as to bring in internal affairs and an investigation into the unit and to consider disbanding the team and integrating it's remaining eligible members into lower units, there was little patience or forgiveness in the team for this new unknown member. But the straw that broke the camels back was when this detective had thrown a tantrum over not being included in a small scale bugging. They had left work early, again after multiple times, the sergeant had lost his patience and instead of giving the detective another chance, they brought in my mentor and another senior, and sat down for a talk with the new one. The talk included that they had not been acting like part of a team, but as an individual, how unacceptable that was for this line of work, and that with all that they had done, the sergeant suggested that they should consider leaving the unit for another line of work. It seemed that the new detective had never worked in such a team, that they didn't have the experience of working together, or even the experience that my mentor did when they first joined. during this intervention, I was not there, and received the information from my mentor about the aftermath. The event was reconciled by an admittance of guilt by the new detective and that they had not been a part of such a small team, and did not have the same teaching or experience that they did. My mentor and the sergeant had accepted their reasoning and gave them a final warning stating that they needed to work with the team, and if they had to stay late or if they had to do more work for it, then that's what was necessary. Overall, the situation these past months, especially April has been extremely strenuous on the teams bond, however, hopefully they can overcome this and go back to being a close team.

Exit Interview

1. My Essential Question is "How can the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department best utilize their Special Investigations Unit?" 

• The first answer I created was, By increasing their funding and staff, so that they could both pay for new equipment and training to use that equipment." 
• The second answer I came up with was that the Sheriff's Department should sit down with the SPI Unit, and similar teams like them, and discuss the laws written, to clear up any confusion over the definition of what is legal and not. 
• The third answer was the Sheriff's Department needed to clean up it's application process, and work to better compensate and provide incentive it's seniority. 

My best answer was by far the first one. Answer 1 deals with an immediate danger within the SPI Unit, by the LA Sheriff's Department. that being budget cuts, layoffs, and eventual disavowal, where the sheriff would break the unit up and put them back into a larger unit. So the unit needs funds to grow and become prevalent within the department. I came to this answer after my mentorship and being able to look through the Los Angeles County Annual Report, the report had information regarding all public services in the county, and it gave me the budget, acting sheriff, their jurisdiction, and even summaries of each division, including the technical division which my mentor is tied to. using this I learned just how little funding the SPI Unit is actually given.

2. I came around to this answer over the course of my mentorship. There would be constant times while working that I saw they were working with last generation equipment. This isn't so bad when it comes to power tools, but with surveillance equipment, it is vital that they manage to stay ahead of the curve with new technology because of constant counter-espionage attempts to thwart any chance for secret cameras or wiretaps. Another problem that I saw occurring is that over time, no matter how much they balanced their money, or how they planned it out, the detectives would either pay for their training or not go to the training at all, and as I said before, being able to know how counter espionage works puts them at the advantage of being able to both effectively sweep rooms and buildings for hidden devices, and know how to hide them by out thinking those same tactics.

3. A large problem I faced was watching what information I gave. The SPI Unit is a relatively unknown unit and it's important that their members and tactics remain secret. This is essential when performing covert investigations, where they must catch confessions by secret surveillance equipment. The number of cases they had a hand in, and the exact method of their operations are confidential, so to be able to write anything, I had to run it by my mentor to insure that I had not given any forbidden information. However I was able to remedy this problem by focusing on their funding, and finding what problems had stemmed from that. It turns out, that the lack of funding they received was impacting the whole of their performance. Even though my mentor says that the job is going to get done with or without the money, he also told me that their job becomes much more easier, and they can get more of it done with a higher budget.

4. One of the two most significant sources of information I received was my mentor and their team. Working with them gave me the idea of what could be accomplished with more funding. even if their budget was doubled, they wouldn't even be taking more than a ten thousandth of a percent, and could fund double the employees and purchase higher grade equipment, and training. It would also provide security and benefits for it's seniority who had started to lose faith in the Department's system. 
The next great source I had was that of private investigators who posted laws and methodology online, or published it in articles. These investigators had posted entire papers on how the law thinks, what the technicalities, or loophole are, in a language for civilians and officers to understand. Using these articles, I was able to learn the law, and the backwards ways it can be used, and how the Sheriff's Department's hiring process is hurting it's seniority. 
A published source that helped me come to my best answer was the case studies provided by Guidance Software, the company has provided it's software to multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Los Angeles  Sheriff's Department, and my mentor has used the companies multiple programs several times. While the Department has since moved on to different programs, Guidance has been updating their service, and increased their customer base, and hopefully, the department will see how wise an investment into their products will be for the Special Investigation Unit.
A source that started all my research and pointed me where roughly where to look was provided by the Alameda County District Attorney, who showed the contribution that recordings made to solving cases and gathering evidence. The source provided information about multiple cases that involved the use of covert recordings that were gathered from prison visits and interviews. It also showed the laws that the detectives faced and followed when gathering this information, how they couldn't record attorney conversations without a warrant, or how they could get prisoners implied consent, and how to separate it from explicit consent. overall the source was a huge start for me to learn what to start with in terms of research and rough answers.

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

I Esai Cordova, that I completed my Independent Component which represents 33 Hours and 9 Minutes of work

  The driving force behind the completion of my independent component 2 was my mentor himself. being able to work with someone and ask them any questions without feeling that i was coming off as less intelligent is a huge help to being able to get the information I need, it also helps that my mentor had over 20 years of experience in the Sheriff's department. 

  During my independent component 2, i continued mentoring under my mentor, but i approached the work differently this time, and instead of just performing my work, i asked questions about the methods behind why they did what they did, I asked for and received data on the number of cases they solve and what and how they extracted for those cases. 

The work i performed while mentoring is valid because i am not only doing lectures or interviews, I get to interact with all the technology they use or have used, take the picture below

   In this picture you can see four random objects, boots, vase a CD player, and DVD player. In each of these objects there are hidden cameras, but even more impressive is that the props here weren't just tossed in the room, each of these had to have been in the room before, so that they would be unnoticed, because the team learned to replace, not add items to a room. their reasoning goes along like this, the human subconscious notices new objects in a familiar environment, so by adding a new plant or clock, it stands out to people. however that vase? been in the office for years, people walk by without even thinking about it. another thing to note, is that all these objects are safe to bug, because they aren't moved around often, and don't get replaced often. I got to learn all their methods over the time of my independent component, and I also learned the way the operate the cases they take, prison recordings are probably the easiest parts, when they're there, they stay, and all the team has to do is press record.  

  Actually going out into the field is very dangerous, because they go undercover, and have no allies there but themselves. and they have to scope out the site they are called into to investigate. They go into small groups, and act as a repairman, or some blue collar worker. I learned that when sweeping buildings, if they find a bug, they can't remove it. because that bug may have been placed by a federal agent, and to remove it would be to interfere with a federal investigation, which leads to too many issues, so they simply inform them where that bug was placed, and to be careful about what they say there. the team fights a lot of red tape to do their work. new tech is expensive so they end up having to use ingenuity to do their work. because they'll get the work done, but they get more done when their budget is increased, and their workforce grows. I also got a view into the laws they operate under, and the technicalities they're bound by, federal, local, and state.

Febuary Blog

February has been like most days of my mentorship, not too much exciting happens. This month, I've been mostly filing away cases and recordings. Most of these cases are from prisons and include evidence given away during prison meetings. the file is either on the prisoner or the investigator. if it's the prisoner, then it's all the recordings of them, and their file. if it's the investigator then it's the multiple prisoners and suspects that they're investigating. Also this month, some of the older detectives are getting annoyed by the new detectives reluctance to do any work. the new detective leaves the second their shift is done, and goes on constant breaks. They also have been slacking off of telling the older detectives of meetings with others, new assignments, and hasn't been relay important information to them. I've put it done to being in a new unit and not being use to the motions. but my mentor and his others have some large issues with this of course. their work is serious and it's important that the work is done properly.

March Blog

It seems like mentorship is going to be much more difficult at this time. Like before, the Unit is under investigation by IA about possible misconduct by it's more recent members. these claims mainly focus on unprofessional behavior and even accusations of possible unlawful recording. These claims seem at the moment to be just technicalities and that this member is currently a victim of circumstance. However the claims of unprofessionalism seem to hold more weight, since their employment, they have neglected to inform older detectives of meetings and has left the office the moment their shift ends, not wanting to compromise their overtime. Their devotion doesn't seem to be toward their unit, rather themselves. I can only see two outcomes, either this new detective gets with the program and is more compliant with their equals, or they will end up leaving due to their own frustrations.