C.A.S.A. Recommendation Essay for Mr.

C.A.S.A. Recommendation Essay for Mr. Melvin Douglas Smith II My husband, Melvin Douglas Smith II, has applied to be a volunteer with C.A.S.A. Of Bergen County. He has asked me to be a reference for him, and, of course, having made the decision to raise children with him, I think that he is a perfect candidate for the position. However, I realize that it is impossible to convey what I know about him in a few short pages.

What I will tell you is that he is the best man I have ever met, that he genuinely cares about the welfare of children, and that he has the life experience to help him deal with the emotional challenges that must be part of a C.A.S.A. volunteer's life. Melvin has had significant experience dealing with child abuse and crime. He worked as a police officer for the New York City Police Department for 20 years, with 14 of those years spent as a Detective Investigator.

In that time period he came to understand that many times children do not have a voice in the criminal and civil proceedings that help determine his outcomes. As a police officer, his job was to ensure that criminals were punished for their wrongdoings, but as a human being he realized that the system was incomplete and that children were falling through the cracks. He saw how the C.A.S.A. program helped save some of those children, helping them find their voices.

His career with the police department gave him practical experience as well. Police officers are the consummate professionals, able to work under tremendous amount of pressure. As a police officer, Melvin learned how to plan, coordinate, and organize things in a detailed manner. He learned how to prepare evidence for a courtroom environment. As an interviewer, he learned how to interview people effectively and developed intuition about when people were being honest and when they were holding information.

Moreover, he worked on his rapport with people; many people are hesitant and unsure around police officers, so Melvin focused on developing a positive and effective demeanor for communicating with people. He also had to learn how to communicate effectively with a wide variety of people. One of the challenges that Melvin faced while on the job was corruption in the police department. He built his professional relationship on his honesty and personal integrity. As a result, he was called upon to conduct internal investigations.

Because of his loyalty to the police department and to his fellow officers, these investigations were challenging for Melvin. Anyone involved in an internal investigation is subject to different treatment by his peers. However, to Melvin, a police officer without integrity damages the whole group of police officers. Another skill that Melvin developed as a police officer was the ability to be flexible. As most people are aware, police officers rarely work a normal schedule.

His flexibility involved more than his schedule; he also had to learn how to be flexible in his approach to problem-solving. Every scenario he faced presented new challenges for him. Therefore, he had to learn how to approach things in an innovative manner, while still following the rules and regulations for police officers. In fact, attention to rules and regulations is a critical part of Melvin's skill set.

As a police officer, Melvin learned how to properly maintain evidence so that it would be admissible in court, how to file reports and findings, how to document findings and evidence, and how to produce reports. Moreover, he did so with the high degree of precision and transparency that characterizes good investigative work and preserves the chain of evidence. These skills will be invaluable for any record-keeping that is a.