By William Moore
Daily Journal
TUPELO – Anyone interested in uncovering the mysteries of the Tupelo Police Department will be able to learn all about the ins and out of police work during the nine-week Citizens Police Academy.
The free classes will be taught Mondays and Thursdays from 6 p.m. until 9:15 p.m. at the North Mississippi Law Enforcement Training Center beginning Sept. 19. The academy will run through Nov. 17.
The academy is free and open to the public. Participants must be 21 or older, have a valid ID and pass a background criminal check. Participants must commit to attending at least 90 percent of the classes. The class will be limited to 30 people, and the deadline for registering is Sept. 1. Applications are available at the police department and at Tupelo City Hall during regular business hours.
“We are looking for community leaders to go through the academy,” said Deputy Police Chief Allan Gilbert. “That way, when something comes up, they can go back into the community and say, ‘I went to the academy and here’s why they do it that way.’
“This is a way we can build a positive relationship with the community. A lot of people don’t understand the law or police. This is a way to answer those questions.”
TPD Sgt. Katarsha White said the classes will cover a wide variety of topics including traffic stops, crime scenes and forensics, the law and the judicial system.
And the academy will not just be classroom work. There will be plenty of hands-on through realistic scenarios. In addition to acting out night-time traffic stops, the participants will be put through a variety of scenarios in a video training room.
“Not only will we teach them why we react the way we do, we will be able to put them in a real world scenario where they have to make that split-second decision,” Gilbert said.
Participants will also learn the difference between television forensics and real forensics.
“We do have state-of-the art equipment, that they will get to see up close, but not every crime is solved miraculously in 60 minutes,” said TPD Capt. Chuck McDougald. “We’ll go over how a crime scene is handled and why things take longer in the real world.”
While the classes are free, the department will only accept participants who commit to attending 90 percent – 16 of the 18 sessions – of the classes.
“Even if you only miss a couple of classes, you will miss a lot of information,” Gilbert said.
william.moore@journalinc.com