Well, tonight I graduate from the Citizens Police Academy - Class of 2016! Yay. Don't know what to expect at the dinner, but the class has been 12 weeks of learning and fun.

To those whose area police departments offer this to the citizenry I highly recommend taking advantage of it. There is no cost (at least, not here), you will learn much, AND...if your course if constructed the way ours was, you get two training sessions with a tactical firearms instructor and get to experience the simulator!!!

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Stay protected my friends.

Knowledge, training and experience are always good.

Congratulations!

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Isaiah 41:10

I did one a couple years ago, 10 weeks at 4 hours sessions every Thurs. evening. It did include a trip to the range to fire Glocks and AR's. We did drug stops, ride alongs. and had a session on every department in the PD. Very interesting and makes you appreciate your local Police Dept.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Always and Never are 2 words that should never be used and always have exceptions.

A little bit of police training and knowledge can be dangerous for certain civilians making bad judgements later.

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NEVER GIVE UP YOUR GUN

So what do you recommend the non LE persons to do to become more knowledgable and to make sound judgements? If not go the the police for training, who do we go to?

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Isaiah 41:10

Now boys, Don't fight!

It depends on exactly what you want to learn,the motivation for learning it and how you would get to use what you learned.

Do you want to be a police buff or an Auxiliary Police Person?

Law Enforcement Agencies IMO would be better served training and equipping their professional staff better,than to be wasting valuable resources on the general public.

There are many places that offer firearms tactics and lessons on law but they are probably not a freebie.

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NEVER GIVE UP YOUR GUN

I would suggest that WITHOUT that knowledge those people would have made even worse decisions. But that's neither here nor there.

The Academy was created to provide the public with information to assist them in making informed judgements about local law enforcement. The goal of the Academy, through the educational process, is to increase public awareness and create strong partnerships between law enforcement and the community. Each Academy graduate will gain a deeper knowledge of how the criminal justice system fits into their community. Participating departments will become more aware of the feelings and concerns citizens within their communities may have.

Let's try not to get sidetracked into arguing who MIGHT do what with that knowledge.

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Stay protected my friends.

Good for you.

Never heard of that program. Does it offer any certifications as a LEO? Back in the day, 3 months (approx. 500 hours) led to MPTC Certification as a LEO (a recognized minimum national standard for a sworn LEO).

Knowledge is a good thing, and there is nothing wrong with involving citizens in the workings of their local police.

When I was a state trooper in CT in the 1980's, we had Auxiliary Troopers who were regular citizens who volunteered their time, one shift a week to assist. They attended 6 months of academy, two days a week, and completed the same basic firearms and driving training as regular troopers. Although sworn, policy was for them not to make arrests unless it was an emergency, as they were not paid for court time.They wore a uniform, carried an issue weapon, and patrolled in marked cars. They did a bang up job, and on more than one hairy occasion, they were my only back up, and I was glad to have em.

Larry

Can't see any problems that might arise with the general
public riding along on drug busts ???

The Cop shows on TV right now come to mind.

IMHO either go all in and become an officer of the law
or let the Cops be the Cops.

Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

Citizens are not taken along on drug bust, so that's a non-issue.

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Stay protected my friends.

No, it's a program designed to educate the public. Not a prep course for aspiring LEO'S.

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Stay protected my friends.

You are way over thinking this. These "academies" are used as PR tools. Think "Here's why we do it the way we do it . . . " It's not training, it's an explanation, with some hands on opportunities. After Ferguson, St. Louis County ran some reporters and citizens through some force on force training. They all came out of it with a deeper understanding of the split second life and death decisions that needed to be made. Nobody was trying to turn them into cops . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Is it anything like the movie?

I was waiting for this. Surprise it took this long!

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

The mistake is getting over confident thinking you are Joe Friday and jumping in over your head on something you should stay out of.

I think a little training is better than no training.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

....with that in mind, I'm all for citizens getting more familiar with police work this way. I'm way to much of an idiot to be a policeman. They need clear thinking skills.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

^^^ Excellent reply

It's obvious by some of the critical remarks that some of you have not been exposed to the purpose of citizen's academies. It's not LEO training, it's exposure to Law Enforcement processes and procedures that most law abiding citizens seldom see, if ever.

Our department holds an annual citizen's academy with about 30 participants (all go through background checks and are approved by the sheriff) and I usually do a presentation in one of the class sessions. It's a regular occurrence to have a class members come up to me during a break and say, "Ahhh, now I understand why it sometimes takes a couple of hours for an officer to respond when I call about my neighbor's barking dog."

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- Change it back -

All the police I know are civilians, some are veterans also.
Glen

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NRA Life 1969
OGCA

You should try the Citizens Fire Academy next. I did and it was very enlightening. It's a fun time using all the big boy tools firefighters use at a fire and/or vehicle crash scene. It's a physical hands on academy.

I did the local city citizens academy, the local county citizens academy, and the FBI citizens academy a few years ago. I really enjoyed it!

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Mafuta54

It does sound like some people need to get off the "us vs. the general public" shtick. You should also know what you're criticizing before you're making a fool of yourself.

Citizens Police Academies are a concept that has been around for decades. I went through a couple back in the early 90s with a sheriff's office and later our local police department. As several other posters have pointed out, the purpose is educational.

Most of the course is classroom work. And the real-life scenarios aren't training but education about what officers do and why they act the way they do. If you've been through a vehicle stop or a building search at night from an officer's point of view, you can appreciate much better what officers deal with and understand the pressures they are facing, something sorely lacking in the highly critical anti-cop atmosphere in many jurisdictions nowadays.

The purpose is most certainly NOT to train people to try to do a cop's job. For me the effect was rather the opposite. I got "killed" so many times on the simulated building search that I'm pretty sure I'm not going to try to flush out a burglar by myself ever, no matter how well armed.

^^^^Precisely! This guy gets it!

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Stay protected my friends.

I was wondering if Hackleberry will be there?

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Lounge Lizard Extraordinaire

No....but we DID have a blonde in the class!

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Stay protected my friends.

Miss Pam and I went through our Deer Park Citizen's Police academy a few years ago and it was VERY interesting and educational. After completing the course we joined the Alumni Association. We do activities to assist the PD in various ways as can be useful: Handicap parking enforcement, warrant calls encouraging folks to come in and pay their fines, Preparing and bringing meals to the officers on duty on holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving.

We also participate in some of their training exercises. Simulated drill for the SWAT team and emergency response situations. I will elaborate on some of those another time.

Deer Park PD is one of the top rated agencies in the country. It is said to be about as difficult to join and get on DPPD as it is to get on the Texas Rangers and that ain't nuttin' but difficult and time consuming. Our guys rotate duties: SWAT, Robbery, Traffic accident investigation, Violence against children, etc.

Our course was 12 weeks long. we got to witness some training exercises, go to the shooting range (MY personal favorite) and different officers talked to us about various topics related to law enforcement. We toured the jail.

An interesting thing here, one time some years back the comedian Ron White of the Blue Collar Comedy group was arrested in Deer Park For, you guessed it, public intoxication. He signed his name as "Tater Salad".

And Tim Miller of Texas Equa Search came and spoke to us. Then a drill was set up where we had to locate a dead body (Simulated by a practice dummy borrowed from the fire department) which had been hidden in the city park. And then we had to locate the victims vehicle. It was all very interesting and very educational. Tim Miller's child was abducted and it inspired him to set up TES and devote his life to it.

I also would like to encourage anyone who has an opportunity to experience a citizen's police academy to do so. It is one of the most rewarding experiences you can have and getting involved and meeting and getting to know the officers who serve your community is just a very great thing to do.

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Real men love cats!

Protected One,
Congratulations on graduating this course.
Im sure this is a good thing for your community and I commend you
for your participation. It sounds like you enjoyed it and found it enlightening.
Jim

I would like to attend an academy to learn to be a normal citizen. Just a normal civilian citizen. Or maybe a hillbilly civilian citizen with guns. Although I don't think I could ever be one.
Peace,
Gordon

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better have that checked

And like everything in life, they are not without their risks. This just broke today. Terrible tragedy . . .

Florida woman dead after accidentally shot by officer during citizen police academy roleplay

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

WOW That is tragic!
There was no handling of real firearms in our classroom setting, not even by the officers present. A simulator was used during the training, and thus was ubber safe.
To die at 73 in such a fashion is really tragic.

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Stay protected my friends.

I'm not aware of a Citizens Police Academy in my neck of the woods but I had the opportunity (through a close friend) to go through a few Police Simulators at a brand new PD training Facility about 3 years ago. The firing was with live ammo and my personal Colt Gov't model 1911. They let me shoot a few different scenarios after qualifying me of course and I had to try very hard to wipe the grin off my face afterwards!! It was a terrific experience and I am hoping one day to do it again. I went through 250 rounds that day and wish I had brought more ammo!

The Simulator was the size of a movie theatre screen and you actually shot at "the movie" bad guys. They also shot back and there are sensors that record what you hit and what you don't. There are thousands of custom scenarios the operators can program and I was just blown away by the facility which was built for Police and Federal Agents (but unfortunately not opened to the public). The lighting in the place was unbelievable and changed during the shooting scenario to reflect realization. The best way to describe it would be to say it's almost real and when you get into it, there's probably not much closer to reality I can think of.

I've gotten along very well for 66 years just minding my own business.

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Just a shooter

I’ve always supported the idea of citizens having the chance to learn more about day to day police operations. I.e. civilian training such as the O/P attended or limited scope ride along programs.
When I had ridders almost all of them believed it was going to be four hours with “Adam 12.” I think that all but one was pleased with the experience and left with a better understand of what day to day police work was about, an understanding of why we did some of the things we did.
It is also imperative that citizen involved in any of the above UNDERSTAND that they are not law enforcement officers, and should not act as such.

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Always Stay Strong!