Positive LEO encounter planned for tomorrow!

[ekimreeps]

Participating in our local Citizens' Basic Police Academy tomorrow and next Sunday. It's a program put on by the local police where they inform us about crime the city and surrounding area, teach a little self defense, take us through shoot/no shoot scenarios, fire guns at their range, and learn about the challenges they face on the job. Should be very interesting! The police chief is a friend of mine and I am hoping he will be there. Not sure if he will or not, but either way, it should be very interesting to hear their perspective.

It should be a very positive experience and I am looking forward to it!
-Mike-

 

[John Theriot]

We have this in Bmt,tx too. we are doing our 36 class @ two a yr. We have a great time doing this, we shoot, learn how to drive their cars etc. After we finish we join our Alumni group and our Citizens in Action. Its a program designed to allow volunteers to write handicap parking citations, patrol city parks, identify illegally stored vehicles, and conduct traffic radar surveys. Participants wear unique uniforms and drive distinctly marked vehicles. Attendance in the Citizens Police Academy is a pre-requisite to becoming a Citizens in Action volunteer

 

[Robert631]

sounds fun. wish my community would do this.

 

[John Theriot]

Robert631 were ru??

 

[Ben Mckenzie]

would like to see our community do this also.

 

[ekimreeps]

We have this in Bmt,tx too. we are doing our 36 class @ two a yr. We have a great time doing this, we shoot, learn how to drive their cars etc. After we finish we join our Alumni group and our Citizens in Action. Its a program designed to allow volunteers to write handicap parking citations, patrol city parks, identify illegally stored vehicles, and conduct traffic radar surveys. Participants wear unique uniforms and drive distinctly marked vehicles. Attendance in the Citizens Police Academy is a pre-requisite to becoming a Citizens in Action volunteer

That is really a great program! Ours does not result in a "citizen's in action" program as you describe that you have, but that is really a great idea. They have another program where you can do a ride along with an officer on duty. I will probably sign up for that this Spring or summer.

Thanks for the response!
-Mike-

 

[John Theriot]

Link Removed

 

[ekimreeps]

Very interesting session yesterday. They normally have a longer program that goes for 8 weeks and is much more in depth, but they had to cut back due to budgets. Still... it was a great session. First they talked about what it takes to become a police officer (college, training, testing, etc) There were a couple young people in the class who wanted to become police officers and they got some really good information. Next we had a pretty thorough education on drugs and drug abuse in the city and surrounding area. We live in a fairly small city, but I was surprised at how much drug activity there is here.

Following the drug portion of the class, they covered gang activity. Again, there are a lot more gangs than I knew. In our area, there is not a lot of activity. There are members of many of them around here, but not enough for there to be much organized activity. They have a pretty strong gang prevention program here and it seems to be working. They showed us a lot of things they confiscated from gang members. The most interesting thing was a rule book for one of the gangs. I would have liked to have had time to read the whole thing. Apparently there are some pretty philosophical gang bangers out there. The book makes it all sound very noble. Far from the reality, but I can see how they lure kids in.

Next week is the hands-on portion with some self defense training, shooting, shoot/don''t shoot scenarios, etc. Can't wait!

-Mike-

 

[ekimreeps]

Tonight's class was even better! We started with a tour of the law enforcement center. Dispatch, jail, training areas, etc. The city and county share the facility. Then we had instruction on self defense. Lots of great instruction on pressure points and how to buy enough time to get away. Instructor was the hand to hand instructor for the police. I was really surprised how much pain or control you can inflict through the pressure points.

Next we got to go to the police range and shoot their handguns. Glock 40 calibers. I admit that it felt good when he told me I had "qualified" ) First time I had shot a 40 cal. Very nice gun.

Finished the evening with an explanation of the SWAT team equipment and responsibilities. There was lots of time for Q&A and we got to know some really great officers.

-Mike-