Alana Forrest is a Captain at the Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Police Department. She has worked in the field of law enforcement and criminal justice for 27 years.
How did you first become interested in this field?
My uncle was a police officer.
What type of training best prepared you for your work as police captain?
I earned an [...]
Interviews with CJ Professionals
Interview with a Police Captain
Interview with a D.A.R.E. Officer
Douglas Maifeld is a Police Corporal and D.A.R.E. Officer in Maine. He has been in this line of work for over 21 years.
How did you become interested in criminal justice?
I have always wanted to become a police officer even since I was 6 years old.
What type of training or education prepared you for your [...]
Interview with a Criminology Professor
Randy Gonzalez is a Professor of Criminology and has worked in the field for over 33 years.
How did you become interested in this field?
When I was a kid I loved creative story writing about fictional detectives. They sparked my interest for criminal justice.
What type of training or education prepared you for your work in [...]
Interview with a Forensic Analyst
Jessica Gasbarino has been a Forensic GC/MS Analyst for four and a half years. GC/MS, or gas chromatography mass spectrometry, is a scientific method that is used to identify different substances within a test sample. It is commonly used for drug detection, fire investigation, environmental analysis, explosives investigation, and for identifying unknown samples. In some [...]
Interview with a Juvenile Probation Officer
James. J. Dwyer is currently the Massachusetts State Representative for the 30th District of Middlesex County. Prior to starting his term as a state representative, Mr. Dwyer worked as the Assistant Chief Juvenile Probation Officer for Middlesex County. Mr. Dwyer has 35 years of experience in juvenile corrections.
Mr. Dwyer earned his undergraduate degree from Norwich [...]
Interview with a Police Sergeant
Today I was fortunate enough to speak with Dan Perenick, a police sergeant from Winchester, MA. Dan has worked in the criminal justice field for 22 years. Not only does he work in law enforcement, he also spent 7 years as a school resource officer where he counseled students who were interested in starting careers [...]
Interview with an Intelligence Analyst
Intelligence analysts work to protect the United States from international and domestic threats. They do this by piecing together bits of information to develop plans that deal with issues relating to national security and public safety. Intelligence analysts can come from various educational backgrounds, but in general they must be very good at research and [...]
Interview with an Intelligence Detective
For our second interview with a criminal justice professional, we are pleased to introduce Detective Joseph Martin. Detective Martin has been working as an Intelligence Detective for 4 years.
How did you become interested in Criminal Justice?
I have always had an interest in law enforcement and being involved in a profession that helped to make my [...]
Interview with a Paralegal
To start off our Interview with a Criminal Justice Professional series, we will first introduce Jenna Salacuse. Jenna has been a paralegal in the state of Delaware for the past five years.
How did you become interested becoming a paralegal?
I went to school for Criminal Justice, but after graduation becoming a police officer no longer appealed [...]
Interview Series with Criminal Justice Professionals
So do you really want to know what it takes to become a police officer? How about a paralegal? What is a day in the life of a correctional officer really like? If you are interested in pursuing a career in criminal justice, you might be very interested to hear the answers to these questions!
Criminal [...]