Criminology
Richardson Police Department
During her internship with the Richardson Police Department, Lauren Schilling worked in various divisions within the organization. As her interest in the field grew, she also visited municipal court proceedings on her own time and assisted the Richardson Police Substation with organizational duties.
Lauren says she experienced “a culture of comradery” reminiscent of family ties. “The most important thing that I learned was that there is not a single job within the law enforcement field that is independent from the others; there is an extremely high level of dependency on one another to function at peak levels,” she says. Lauren was surprised to learn about this spirit of cooperation because she previously thought that top officers were in charge of all the steps in a case. In actuality, she found those activities are split up between several divisions.
“This internship has helped me to discover that my true interest lies in two different career paths,” Lauren says. Lauren is now interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement followed by one in politics where she can influence the relationship between law enforcement and the general public.
