Capstone Project Proposal Draft

Name of student: Rhianne Sheppard Date: Feb 16, 2023

Teacher: Mr. Harvalias Block: D

The Capstone strand I have chosen is the occupational strand

Proposed title for my Project Proposal: (write the proposed title for your Capstone Project in one clear
sentence): The Inner Workings of Policing and What Goes on Behind the Scenes

What is your inquiry question that interests you for further research? It should be a question that connects with
a purpose, passion or personalized area of interest for you. This is a question that you cannot just google an
answer for. Please see examples from your Capstone booklet.
My inquiry question is:

How can I discover my future career through doing volunteer work with the surrey police service?

Rationale/context: Detail your reasons for choosing this inquiry question. Explain WHY you are choosing to
investigate this topic as a major area of focus. How does this area of inquiry connect to your passion(s),
purpose? Why is it of personal interest to you?

I’m choosing to investigate this topic as a major area of focus because my future career goal is to join the
surrey police service. My dad was with the RCMP for 25 years and is now working for the SPS and if
everything goes as planned, I’ll be able to work with him before he retires which is why working for Surrey is
important.

Background: What background knowledge/connections/prior learning do you have in this area of inquiry?

I believe I have a fair amount of knowledge about policing. I would mostly need to learn more about the
more tedious aspects of the job such as paperwork.

Career connections: What is your intended career area at this point in time? What connections does this
inquiry question have to your life, academic and/ or career goals?

My intended career is to become a K-9 handler for Surrey Police. This will show me part of what my job will
be before I’m able to get there. Volunteering for the Surrey Police Service can help me accomplish my
future goals.

Interdisciplinary and core competencies connections: What subject areas and core competencies will
be connected with your project? Outline and explain the connections.

Social Responsibility, Communication and personal identity are the core competencies that will be most

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 connected with my project. While volunteering I was able to work independently and collaboratively to
benefit others in the community. Not only that but by learning about policing, it will help me to be a better
cop in the future. Like Social Responsibility, communication will stem from connecting with others. I was
able to make good connections with many surrey police officers. Personal Identity is connected to my
capstone because I am able to understand how important becoming a cop is to me which was why I didn’t
procrastinate about completing it. The core competencies I need to work on most are creative thinking,
personal awareness and responsibility, and critical thinking. I’m not the most creative thinker, I typically find
one way to look at something and it’s hard to change my mind. For personal awareness and responsibility I
need to work on not getting mad over little things and understand that everything takes time and I must be
patient. Similar to creative thinking, I need to look at things from different perspectives for critical thinking.

Capstone Presentation medium: select one or more project mediums you wish to use to present your
project. Outline and give details about how you will present your project once completed. You may use a
combination of mediums.
o Electronic portfolio: Prezi or PPT
o Physical portfolio
o Website
o iMovie presentation
o YouTube channel

I will present my capstone through a PowerPoint. Each slide will show different updates on how the
volunteering is going and what I’ve learned so far. I will share pictures of my progress along the way.

Description of my Capstone project. Specific Project Details of the Capstone Project: what will you
research, create, study, produce, solve, investigate? What product will be produced at the end of this
project for evaluation. Write a one-page description outlining your proposal.

Throughout my capstone journey I have focused on the ins and outs of policing. I have
explored the diverse aspects of policing, with a particular focus on work experience and a little bit
of community engagement. I not only observed the surface level police duties, but I was able to
gain more in-depth knowledge. I truly learned that to be a cop you must be extremely
knowledgeable about your duties and know the community around you. To gain experience about
the community around me, I was able to do a little bit of volunteering at the City Dream Centre
through Surrey Police Service with Kathy Furgason and a few others putting bags together for
their food hamper program. They pack hundreds of bags of food and deliver them to the schools
to families in need and can't afford it. Unfortunately, that is the only volunteering I have been able
to do with Surrey Police because the volunteering they do is often during school hours or while I
am working. To learn more about what I must do to get recruited for the Surrey Police Service, I
went to a Female Focused Recruit Information Session. This allowed me to not only gain insight
into my future in policing, but also informed me how much the Surrey Police Service respects all
their employees and treats them equally. My third task was spending a day with my dad at his
work. I met lots of people and made some pretty good connections for my future. Even Jennifer
Hyland, the Deputy Chief, offered to go out for coffee with me sometime if I have any questions
for her. After my dad and I went around the office for a bit, we then got out on the road in a police
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 cruiser. We drove to the warehouse where the new recruits get trained, and I was able to watch
them practice safely entering a room when a possible suspect may be inside. One of the trainers
there even taught me how to shoot a gun with paint bullets, same weight of a real gun and
everything, just a little less recoil. This day showed me that being in the office itself is boring but
being out on the road and doing the more physical parts of the job are what I like. The next couple
things I did was going to the shooting range and watching the police officers' physical abilities
tests (POPAT). Both of these helped me realize that I really need to work on my arm strength
before becoming a cop. The gun has a lot of recoil, and my arms are not strong enough to hold it
more still and the push pull machine is quite heavy, and I need to be able to push it in for three,
180° arcs and then the same for pull. This project was done to inform me of my future as a police
officer. It taught me what I need to reach my goals but also showed me that I really do want to be
a cop. There weren’t very many things that I didn’t like, the only thing that was boring was walking
around my dad's office.

Resources/ Technology/Skills: Make an assessment of the resources, technology and skills you will
need to be able to complete this project. What is your plan to be able to access/learn all of the resources
necessary to achieve completion of this project? Detail your plans.

I will mostly just need to be able to get into the surrey police service headquarters which will not be that
difficult because my dad can get me in. I will also need to know the organizations I will volunteer with and
how I can work with them. I have connections with some of my dad's coworkers already that run a lot of
the volunteer organizing withing SPS and I know they can help me out.

Mentors/Community Connections: What types of mentor(s)/community connections will you need to

help you complete your capstone project? How will your mentor(s) help you? What is your plan to access
the mentorship/community connections necessary for this project?

I will need to make connections with different police officers that will be able to offer support and help me
be successful throughout my capstone journey. I’ve met many cops throughout my life so it will not be
hard to find a great mentor.

Project limitations: What are some project limitations and potential obstacles that you foresee that might
affect progress with your Capstone Project?

There are some things I won’t be allowed to do because Surrey Police are still fairly new. For example,
my dad says the RCMP still isn’t allowing Surrey Police to ride alongs.

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Other considerations: List and detail any other related information/ considerations about your project
that you feel should be included in your project proposal.

My volunteering and shadowing will be done through the surrey police service but outside research may
be done through other police services.

References: Provide a literature review of 5-10 PEER REVIEWED ACADEMIC references: research,
videos, etc. that offer some preliminary research you have done for your project that shows you are able
to access the key information that you will need to be able to complete this project/work. Your list should
be written using correct APA formatting.

City Dream Centre. (n.d.). City Dream Centre. Retrieved April 1, 2024, from
https://www.citydreamcentre.com

Home | Surrey Police. (n.d.). Www.surreypolice.ca. https://www.surreypolice.ca

25 Ways Police Officers Serve Their Communities. (n.d.). Www.waldenu.edu.

https://www.waldenu.edu/programs/criminal-justice/resource/twenty-five-ways-
police-officers-serve-their-communities

Government of Canada, R. C. M. P. (2020, January 22). RCMP volunteer programs | Royal

Canadian Mounted Police. Www.rcmp-Grc.gc.ca. https://www.rcmp-
grc.gc.ca/en/rcmp-volunteer-programs

admin1. (n.d.). Community. Vancouver Police Department. Retrieved April 1, 2024, from
https://vpd.ca/community/#:~:text=Youth%20Outreach

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