Parole Officer: The Unheard Story

The parole officer plays a pivotal role when an offender has completed their time in the correctional facilities and has to transition back into society.  The PA Board of Probation and Parole states how the parole system provides benefits to the criminal justice system, such as adequate supervision of the offender while protecting the public, the opportunity for the offender to become a useful member of society and the diversion of appropriate offenders from prison.  When a prisoner is granted parole, they are given a conditional release from incarceration and instead, will serve the rest of their time under the supervision of a parole officer while entering back into the community.  

Officer Brian Cales serves the state of Pennsylvania in a multitude of ways.  Officer Cales, a parole officer, is also a Master Sergeant in the U.S. Airforce Reserves. Cales is currently deployed in Kuwait for six months.  Cales has been in the law enforcement field for 12 years; with six years as a parole officer and six years in state corrections.  Working in corrections can be the same as well as different from being a parole officer.  

As a corrections officer, Officer Cales would guard the inmates, prevent fights, work close with convicted felons.  He made sure that all was in order in the facility.  Corrections officers is not an easy job and can actually be hazardous.  Being in an enclosed facility with convicted felons/misdemeanants, officers are prohibited from bringing any kind of weapon inside the facility.  The purpose behind this is to prevent inmates from potentially getting hold of the weapons and causing harm or death to the officers or other inmates.  Corrections was the first stepping stone Officer Cales took into becoming a Parole officer.  

 Officer Cales enjoys putting his heart and soul into the community and guiding/supervising those under his supervision as they enter back into society.  

Officer Cales brings a different perspective to the debate on law enforcement and people of color (POC).  Being a plain clothes officer, at first sight, those who come into contact with him would view him as an ordinary individual.  With the parolees under his supervision, Cales builds a rapport and has not received the negative backlash police officers are known to take.  

“I think the media completely blows it out of proportion,” Cales says.  “88% of my case load are black, and I have never had an issue…I have had parents tell me, ‘don’t shoot my son because he’s black.’”

Officer Brandon Tucker started his law enforcement career in 2005 with the Arizona Department of Corrections.  Tucker worked minimum, medium and max security for protective segregation.  After leaving Arizona, Tucker travelled to Colorado, where he currently works as a Police Officer for the Denver Police Department.  

“It’s horrible that they don’t care about what side they are on,” says Officer Tucker when asked about how media portrays the actions of Law Enforcement officers.  “They like controversy.  It’s good for ratings.  It is good for their networks.  They don’t care about getting the whole truth.  Just enough to make people tune in and watch.  They can care less of what the viewers, what their perspectives are. When they show video clips or body cam footage where they show certain incidents, they don’t catch the whole full story.”

What the public doesn’t know and what the media does not air, is the good that law enforcement is doing within their community. Officer Cales mentions playing softball with his community to help bridge that gap and fear of law enforcement. Agencies have initiated Coffee with a Copthat brings police officers and the community members together to discuss issues and to learn more about each other over a cup of coffee.  These events help both sides better understand the other.  

“We are constantly thinking, developing, making better procedures, better safety.  We are trying to improve more and more and more,” Cales states, regarding law enforcement training on interactions with the public.  

Since Black Lives Matter started in 2016 there has been a rise of attacks against police officers.  The purpose of this movement was for everyone to understand that Black lives are not less than any other.  The question that is often asked since the start of Black Lives Matter is, was this movement the catalyst to the frighteningly increasing routine of the slaughter of cops who swore to serve and protect?   

Cales says, “Officers lost their lives,” when asked if he believes that since the start of Black Lives Matter there’s been a rise of officer deaths in the line of duty.  Overall, Cales believes that the majority of citizens have a positive opinion of law enforcement.  It is only a small percentage of people who really distrust police officers.  Like the glass half full or half empty concept, the majority of citizens are naturally good and law-abiding.       

“A lot of individuals who come across a police officer, they just automatically have those thoughts that we are just these heartless people,” Tucker says, “that we are just trigger happy, but that is not the case.”