Sheriff's office selects intern

Nevada Daily Mail

Vernon County Sheriff Jason Mosher has announced the selection of the first intern to be part of a program he hopes will help interested and qualified individuals succeed in the field of law enforcement.

Courtney Bennett, 25, of Nevada was chosen from a dozen applicants to begin working in the sheriff's office within the next few days. Bennett was chosen after a trained interview panel gave her the highest score during a multi-question interview where each applicant was asked the same questions and given a score of one to 10 for each answer.

Mosher said he was "excited" to get the program underway and thought they found the right candidate in Bennett. "We're looking for who can we help benefit; who can we help get into the field of law enforcement." Bennett fit the bill very well Mosher said.

Bennett already has a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice from Missouri Southern State University and is currently "one semester in" on a master's degree program in criminal justice. She learned of the internship through the Nevada Police Department's Citizen's Police Academy, which is set to graduate another class next week.

Bennett had to pass all of the background checks any other employee of the sheriff's office would have to pass and must sign confidentiality agreements because she will be viewing and updating case files and entering data that may be sensitive. Her work will be performed one day a week and the length of the internship is six months. The position has no pay and costs the sheriff's office nothing. During that time Bennett will organize, relocate, electronically record and streamline a records system that can be slow for deputies to access and difficult for them to navigate.

Mosher said the work she will be doing will allow his officers to find, match, compare and utilize the extensive records they currently have to better advantage. It will give his deputies more time to work on crime and not records. Bennett and Mosher both said that records and record keeping is a vital part of police work. Mosher said a 30-minute incident on the street can create two hours of paperwork back in the office. Bennett said she is a "detail oriented person," was "looking forward to the hands on experience" of how the paper work flows. A "good solid case" depends on accurate report writing, she said.

Bennett thinks the internship will look good on her resumé and maybe give her a leg up next year when she plans on attending the MSSU Police Academy. A lifelong resident of Nevada and a 2006 graduate of the Nevada High School, Bennett is very busy. She carries a fulltime course load at the university, works about 32 hours per week for Care Connection, and has a couple of part-time jobs that take up another 15 hours a week.

All of Bennett's hard work is toward a very definite goal. Bennett has every intention of making a career out of law enforcement. "I hope for some day to work for the FBI and be a profiler," she said.