A Day With a GU Politics Pelosi Scholar: Collin Crane (JD/MPP’28)

The Alexis and Laurence Pelosi Endowed Internship Fund provides financial support to undergraduate and graduate students from across the Georgetown community whose unique background or personal experiences, when evaluated holistically, would contribute to diversifying the field(s) of politics, public service, and/or the media.

Summer 2025 Pelosi Scholar Collin Crane (JD/MPP’28) spent his summer as a Research Assistant for The Lab @ DC. Read his reflection below.

I spent this summer working as a Research Assistant (RA) in The Lab @ DC, an applied policy research and civic design team within the District Of Columbia Executive Office of the Mayor. My team at The Lab partners with DC Government agencies and DC residents to improve policy design through data analysis, random controlled trials, and resident feedback.

To foster relationships with and to learn about the DC Government Agencies that The Lab partners with, our team takes “field trips” to different agencies around DC to meet their staff and see first-hand how they accomplish their mission. In my 2.5 months at The Lab we did field trips to the Department of Transportation sign shop (where they make, maintain, and track every street sign in DC), the DC City Council and Mayor’s offices, the DC Fire Marshall’s fire inspector office, the DC Department of Human Services, the District Department of Transportation, and the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Police Academy.

While I cannot succinctly describe what I learned from all of these field trips, I will give a brief recap of my day at the MPD Police Academy, which will give a representative sample of the amazing experiences I had all summer.

We began the day in a Q&A session with an MPD Officer who told us about life on the job and gave us an overview of the initial training every Recruit must go through at the Academy. The Officer then gave us a tour of the Academy facilities, where we got to see the different facilities MPD uses to train Recruits, including the gas chamber where all MPD recruits must be “certified” in the effects of tear gas. We then went to the Tactical Training Center and observed training for high-risk traffic stops. Finally, each of us were put through a virtual-reality simulation of a police encounter in which we role-played as MPD Officers on patrol.

Touring the academy deepened my appreciation for the wide variety of skills and scenarios that Recruits must be trained in to become effective Officers. It was also encouraging to see how dedicated the Officers and Recruits were to serving their community. In addition to our group tour, I also spent a day observing crime scene training at the Academy, and did an individual ride-along with an MPD Officer in DC’s Police District 1.

The Lab’s understanding of policing and their relationship with the MPD has been an integral part of several policy research projects, including their 2014 report on police body-worn cameras and their 2019 study on how forensic evidence collection systems might impact crime and prosecution rates across DC.

I highlight this experience because it is one I never could have had if it weren’t for the Pelosi Family Endowed Internship Fund. Because my position at The Lab was unpaid, financial support was essential for me to pursue this opportunity. Because of experiences like my day at the Police Academy, I am better equipped to understand public safety policy and community policing. I also have developed an important professional network of analysts, policymakers, and Officers across the MPD.

Thanks again to the Pelosi Family and to GU Politics for selecting me for this scholarship, and for empowering us students to pursue careers and studies in public interest.

Hoya Saxa!