Citizen Police Academy

My local PD is offering a Citizens Police Academy. I'm intrigued. Ten 3 hour sessions and a Saturday trip to the range for "weapons training". You have to apply and there is a background check, I'm sure I'd be ok on both. I'm not looking to be a wanna-be cop or anything but I think it would be interesting to learn from their perspective. Has anyone ever done this or have any of our LEO members ever participated/taught one of these? I'm sure I won't be able to carry while there, so that is not what I'm asking. Looks like they will focus on investigations, gangs, use of force, etc.

Sounds like a good learning opportunity. I'm wondering if your town is hurting for applicants lately and are trying to boost interest in police work? Might be a good way for someone on the fence to make a career path choice.

Yes. Did this in the Portland Oregon area. It was a similar multi-week format, with meetings once each week on a wide variety of subjects related to what the sheriff/police departments do. It covered the overall mission, investigations, search & rescue operations, gang taskforce, relationships and basic ops with other agencies, training regimen for staff, involvement with the community, etc. Ours also included some defensive sessions in the padded force-on-force training room, as well as shoot / no shoot sessions.

I found it to be very useful.

I also attended the one here in Mesa, AZ about 12 yrs ago. At the time they said their purpose was to increase the citizen's understanding of the job the police do. Sounds like a similair format - 10 weeks, each week focused on a different area of the police force, such as: patrol, gangs, aviation, detention, etc. Also one week we got to go to the police range, and see each of the weapons used by Mesa PD demonstrated, as well as each person got to shoot both a Glock .40 and a .38 special revolver. Final requirement was to do an 8 hour ride-along with a patrol officer. That was definitely an eye-opener for me - seeing how much verbal crap they put up with, etc. I found it to be VERY interesting, and would definitely reccomend it to anybody that wonders what our police officers really do. (And no - not even one stop at a donut shop!):wink:

For the past two years I have been one of the instructors of our community's Citizens Police Academy. It consists of six consecutive Saturdays. I conduct the firearms training. IMO, it's a really great program

I think these are very good for people to see what really goes on in their local LE agencies.
We have one each fall. This year's starts next month. 10 weeks, one night a week, one Saturday for firearms and bomb squad day, then 3 or 4 ride-alongs. Joker, it sounds like the one you're looking at is structured a lot like ours. Classes on all aspects of the department: detectives, CSI, firearms, SWAT, bomb squad, narcotics, ride-alongs.
I think you'd enjoy it.
I haven't taught in ours (getting my state instructor certificate in a couple of months) but I've had numerous ride-alongs from people that all said they enjoyed it and it was a great experience for them. They all made statements pertaining to how much they didn't realize went on in the city, nor did they understand why response times were they way they were, or how we operated, etc.
Everyone I've been involved with greatly enjoyed it.

seems like I heard of that program somewhere before


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_DzZ9tbL5E

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Originally Posted by joker1

I'm intrigued. I'm sure I won't be able to carry while there,

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I agree about being intrigued but would probably never participate. I consider myself sympathetic to what LEOs have to put up with and it would be interesting to validate my suspicions. I'm always interested in more firearms training but I don't want to be a cop. I also don't want to be treated like a perp. I'm not saying that I would be treated like a perp just that after dealing with the worst aspects of humanity on a daily basis some LEOs become a little jaded and it seems to color their perspective: they see everyone as a perp. Everyone's life experience changes their outlook on life so there's no surprise there but I get up every morning under the delusion that I'm one of the good guys, an asset to soceity. I'd rather not place myself in a situation where I have to interact with others who question that belief just because I choose to strap on a sidearm upon waking up in the morning.

I participated in one in Oklahoma. Couple hours every Thursday for 8 weeks or so. It was a really good experience for me. At the time I was looking to get into forensics, but that aside I got to know some officers, got to see the "why" of a lot of things that happen. Got to shoot with the SWAT team, watch an entry demo, watch the bomb squad blow some stuff up, ride with the cops on their driving training course, drive a golf cart with drunk goggles, perform field sobriety tests on people who volunteered to get drunk under supervision, watched the motorcycle cops run a demo for us. Got tased. That was interesting.

We also got plenty of time in a class watching police training material. Videos of officers in tough spots that aren't always released to the public. We got to ask some hard questions and got honest answers.

Like I said, really positive experience for me. Learned a lot. Of course it depends on who's doing the teaching and how it's all set up, but I'd go for it.

They do the same thing here every year.

It was good to see Billie Burk (the old lady). She also played Witchie Poo in a children's show from the 70s and played Mammy Yokam in the old Musical "Little Abner". I saw her in a dinner theater in KC in the early 80s. Great character actress.

On the programs....we have LE "ride along", but I think it would be a great program to include basic training in Law Enforcement.

If the opportunity is there, jump on it!

It's designed to give everyday citizens a view of how a department really operates, not the TV version. You will get a very different appreciation for the role of police in your community.

The former president of a local gun club took one in my town and told me it was a real eye-opener.

I'd go for it in my town just to learn the differences from back when I served (left the department in 1996) but I'm sure the chief wouldn't want me since I "should know all that stuff". We didn't have computers back then, didn't log everything as an incident, used officer discretion a LOT (unlike today where most everything is a citation/written warning/arrest)! From listening to the scanner, I know that my department is very different from "the old days" and I doubt that I'd want to be on it under today's policies.
[Note: I was a reserve PO for >15 years, very active back then and graduated from the Reserve/Intermittent Police Academy back in the early 1980s.]

Any kind of training that would lend validity to law-abiding citizen's Second Amendment rights is a good thing!

Oooh... that sounds like a lot of fun. I'll have to see if my local PD does something like that.

If you can, I'd say go for it- you never know what kind of interesting/useful stuff you might learn.

I agree with the others who said to go for it! Our local PD use to do it periodically and I attended one a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, due to funding cuts, they couldn't do it this year. It was about 10 weeks, met once a week on Wednesday evenings. Covered all aspects of the police department's organization and operation, with different officers instructing the different areas. We also had an evening were we got to go to the range, which was in the basement of the police department building, and fire the Glocks they use. At the end of the course we were able to sign up and go on a ride-along if we wanted to, and I think everyone in the class did. It was a real eye opening experience and well worth the time spent. I learned that we have some really, really good officers here in town, several of whom instruct over at the Highway Patrol Academy, that we also are understaffed for the size of our city due to funding cuts, and that all of the officers that I was exposed to are pro concealed carry by law abiding citizens. It was a great experience and I would recommend it to anyone.:yup: