Citizens' Academy

[Tactical_Packaging]

My local PD has a Citizens' Academy to educate the community on various aspects of the PD department. Has anyone experienced one? Positive experiences?

[SVT-40]

Go if you can. It's good information. Well worth your time. It will give you some good insight into your local community and it's specific crime issues.

Our academy used to include range time. I'm not sure if this is still included.

My wife gives a class in our local citizens academy.

[AAShooter]

I attended the one in my community. It was well done and good information. Also nice to run into some of the presenters on the street. Had a great officer for my ride along.

[MikeH1]

I just signed up for one in my area, it statrs in January. 8 people from each division can join. Range time would be very cool!

[Blackboomstick]

I did one once a long time ago. Great info and a very good time.

[eltee]

My own department does not offer such an academy but the town we live in does, so my wife attended one given by the local PD. She really enjoyed it and got to see a little of what I do for a living. I believe it gave her a better understanding of the job, way beyond just listening to my colleagues and me telling about it. She rode in a unit a few nights, saw booking processes, the works. Based on my wife's experience, I would recommend it.

[aquaelvis]

My wife and I did one 10 years ago at Orange Police Dept, was a great time. We were the youngest people there, which was funny. It was well done, ride along was great. It offered a good look into what LE is about.

[TrailerparkTrash]

Don't hate, but i'll tell you the truth from the officer's stand point. I don't know one cop that likes having the citizens academy people "ride" with them. It sucks and they all think the same when you're riding with them, no matter how "nice" the officer appeared to be that night. Nobody likes having a strainger looking over one's shoulder for 8, 10 or 12 hours. Would you like that at your desk???

I take it back... I do know one officer that likes the citizen's academy. He's a guy that is the community relations officer. He couldn't find a crook inside of Folsum prison. Never made any good arrests. He was perfect for the job, coordinating the citizen's academy...

Again, don't hate. I'm just letting you know how the officer/deputy feels about that stuff. If you wanna know more about law enforcement, either become a cop, take criminal justice in college or watch bad reruns of COPS.

Don't kill the messenger. I'm just calling it like it is. With honesty.

[SVT-40]

He's a guy that is the community relations officer. He couldn't find a crook inside of Folsum prison. Never made any good arrests. He was perfect for the job,

Many years ago I got assigned to work "community relations". due to being on light duty from a back injury.


My crowning achievement during my stay there was to design and initiate the:

C ommunity
R elations
A wareness
P rogram.......

To this day no one ever figured out the acronym.

I even got a Attaboy.

True story.

When handed a sack of lemons make your own kind of lemonade!!

[AAShooter]

Don't hate, but i'll tell you the truth from the officer's stand point. I don't know one cop that likes having the citizens academy people "ride" with them. It sucks and they all think the same when you're riding with them, no matter how "nice" the officer appeared to be that night. Nobody likes having a strainger looking over one's shoulder for 8, 10 or 12 hours. Would you like that at your desk???

I take it back... I do know one officer that likes the citizen's academy. He's a guy that is the community relations officer. He couldn't find a crook inside of Folsum prison. Never made any good arrests. He was perfect for the job, coordinating the citizen's academy...

Again, don't hate. I'm just letting you know how the officer/deputy feels about that stuff. If you wanna know more about law enforcement, either become a cop, take criminal justice in college or watch bad reruns of COPS.

Don't kill the messenger. I'm just calling it like it is. With honesty.

The key is that the person doing a ride-along has a responsibility to make the ride-along pleasant and actually be helpful if possible. The officer is letting you in his world (voluntarily or not), they are not signing up to be your entertainer.

Although many officers may feel the way you described above, especially at the start of the ride-along. I doubt my officer felt that way at the end of the ride-along. We spent the night talking guns and fishing . . . had a great time. Of course, I was very impressed with the officer and glad to have him on my town's PD.

Finally, if you do a ride-along, take the time to drop the officer a thank you note and if you are impressed with the officer, send a letter to the CLEO letting him know you appreciated the opportunity to do the ride-along, had a great experience, and was impressed with the quality of the officer.

[Marsoc1]

i did a citizens academy with my city, and i had a blast. Did scenario training as well as a ride along which included me tagging plates and authorized use of a taser lol. My city has included range time with the academy but the range officer wasnt there that day.

[TrailerparkTrash]

Although many officers may feel the way you described above, especially at the start of the ride-along. I doubt my officer felt that way at the end of the ride-along. We spent the night talking guns and fishing . . . had a great time.

Just remember my original quote below after you've read your above quote:

It {having a civilian ride-a-longs} sucks and they all think the same when you're riding with them, no matter how "nice" the officer appeared to be that night.

Again, don't hate. Just telling you like it is 99% of the time.

[AAShooter]

I guess we will never know. You could very well be right.

[TrailerparkTrash]

I guess we will never know. You could very well be right.

I turely believe however that people attending a citizen's academy are pretty much 99.9% pro law enforcement and want to support their local police. I fully acknowledge that fact. Cops not liking any type of ride-a-long is just another fact that we deal with. It's not the end of the world and it will always continue to be.

No biggy.

[AAShooter]

If the worst thing a LEO has to deal with on his/her shift is me sitting in his passenger seat, its a pretty good life.