From laymen to lawmen

Hubert Marsh got a rare glimpse of police work from the passenger seat of a patrol car, even getting to witness a police officer catch a suspect after a foot chase on a snowy, slippery night.

He got the all-access pass through the Dalton, Ga., Police Department’s Citizens Police Academy, a 10-week course that allows laymen to experience the life of lawmen through hands-on classes and a ride-along in a patrol car.

Police departments throughout Tennessee and Georgia offer citizen academies.

“Those people that don’t know (about police work), I recommend it highly,” said Mr. Marsh, the director of the Dalton Teen Resource Center.

“You need to go through it. Then when you are out here driving and you see (the police), you really respect them. You know they are out there to protect us, not hurt us,” he said.

Dalton kicked off its 16th academy last week.

Participants don’t earn a badge, and they don’t get to make arrests, but they do get to fire weapons and learn things like how detectives study blood spatter at crime scenes.

The citizens police academy model was created in 1977 by officers in the United Kingdom, according to the National Citizens Police Academy Association. The concept caught on in the United States when the Orlando, Fla., Police Department started a class in 1985.

Residents in Athens, Tenn., get more than knowledge of the local justice system. They can get three hours of credit from Tennessee Wesleyan College.

Athens’ program could be the only citizens academy in the state offering credit from a four-year college, said Capt. Frank Horning of the city department. He said a few Athens police officers are graduates of the program.

“That’s how they got their first taste of what we do here,” Capt. Horning said.

Stefanie Moore, a 20-year-old sophomore, said she’d rather study at the police department than on campus.

“Most classroom (work) is reading books and facts,” said the aspiring forensic psychologist from Knoxville. “This is more showing you how it’s done and what they do (at the police department).”

But some departments have struggled to keep citizen academies in session.

Several changes in chiefs at the Fort Oglethorpe Police Department led to the demise of the city’s academy after about five years, training officer Doug Howell said. But the department is considering restarting the academy, and in the meantime is gathering a group of graduates to create citizen patrols.

Mr. Howell said the alumni will monitor parks and use hand-held radios to report crimes and suspicious activities to the police department.

“They will basically be ambassadors of the police department,” he said.

The Cleveland, Tenn., Police Department had a similar program for a decade before it ended about three years ago.

Its Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association volunteered at events like the Halloween Block Party and spearheaded a project to add address labels around town to help emergency workers more easily find homes.

“It was helpful to supplement the (police) manpower,” said Ruth Gamble, a former president of the alumni group. “It’s an integral part of community policing, and I would like to see it come back.”

Mrs. Gamble said graduates of citizen academies “never look at police officers the same again.”

Capt. Tom McClain said the Cleveland Police Department is revamping the citizen-academy curriculum in hopes of starting classes again in the spring.

Dalton Police Chief Jason Parker said it’s easy to see why more police departments want to start the academies. He said the classes give balance to a public perception of police work that is often shaped by popular culture.

On the first night of Dalton’s latest academy, the chief showed students pictures of the Barney Fife and Robocop characters as extreme examples.

“Hopefully through this class, people will see we are somewhere in the middle,” Chief Parker said.