Lexington officials featured in upcoming WFU online course
Members of the Lexington Police Department and Davidson County District Attorney’s Office are lending their expertise in a project by Wake Forest University School of Law for an online course in criminal justice for high school students.
Eileen Prescott teaches prosecutor law at Wake Forest University and is project director at the Wake Forest School of Law Accountability Prosecutor Project. She said the idea for the precollege criminal law course was based on similar experiences students had during summer immersion programs offered at Wake Forest University. The idea was to take some of the courses she taught in the summer and make it available online.
“A lot of high schools don’t have a criminal justice class, so students that are interested in that can get a taste of what that education might look like,” said Prescott.
Wake Forest School of Law partnered with Kaplan, Inc., a global provider of online educational and training services to colleges, universities, businesses and individuals, to make the film and create the online course curriculum.
Prescott reached out to Lexington Police Chief Robby Rummage, Sgt. James Furlough of the Lexington Police Department and Assistant Davidson County District Attorney Ina Stanton to participate in the project.
Rummage said he was more than pleased to be asked to be involved with the WFU pre-college criminal law online course project and to partner with other agencies to give a credible and accurate representation of how criminal justice works.
“The number one reason was because it is about education,” said Rummage. “I thought it was a great plan to reach out to high schoolers to generate either interest in criminal justice as a career or to simply generate interest in what the facts of the criminal justice system really are. It was very intriguing, and I jumped at the chance for us to be the face and the voice of local law enforcement, and what it means and what it does.”
According to Prescott, the online course is structured like a criminal case from beginning to end and includes every department, agency and legal process involved. It has six units consisting of 10 to 14 five-minute videos on different subjects featuring officials and experts in each of those areas.
Furlough filmed a segment on search and seizure, including search warrant applications and what kind of evidence would be seized by law enforcement. He said he wanted to be involved in the project to encourage high school students to learn more about law enforcement and hopefully consider it as a career.
“It was an exciting opportunity to put a good foot forward for the Lexington Police Department and help engage the youth in getting some good perspective law enforcement officers in the field. It’s a great opportunity to get someone young and early on in their career and tell them it’s a great opportunity. “
He said with the integration of online platforms in education today, online courses are one of the the best way to connect with high school students and to give them a glance at how the criminal justice system works.
“It was a little bit outside my comfort zone, but we are trying to step forward into the 21st century and engage with the youth through video. Screens are a big part of education today, that’s how they are learning,” said Furlough.
During his segment, Rummage spoke about the process of arrest, the standards of proof such as reason of suspicion or probable cause. He outlined the process of what happens after someone is arrested and described the different entities of law enforcement on the federal, state and local level.
“This kind of gives students the opportunity to find out if criminal justice is something they are interested in and if they might want to work in that field. The thing is, we need good professionals in this line of work. My hope is that this is a piece of education that is factual, it comes from experience with a credible voice that generates interest in the truth of criminal justice and as a possible career path.”
Prescott said the course, which is hoped to be completed and available by next summer, is a good opportunity for high school students to “test the water” of a potential future career in criminal justice.
“I want it to either encourage people to follow their interest or to learn maybe it’s not the path for them early on. There are plenty of people who spend the money on law school and then they find out once they are there that it isn’t what they thought it was going to be. But if it’s something they are passionate about, not only do they know more about it, but they can tell future universities they already have demonstrated an interest in criminal justice,” said Prescott.
This article originally appeared on The Dispatch: Lexington officials featured in upcoming WFU online course
