Police Accepting Applications for Citizens Academy

Here's an announcement via Livermore Police:

The is now accepting applications for its 20^th Citizens Police Academy. The academy will run from August 24th through December 14th 2011 with a graduation ceremony on December 15th.

The academy sessions will be held every Wednesday evening from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at the Livermore Police Department. There will be one day long session held on a Saturday or Sunday during the academy.

Applicants must be at least 18 years of age, live or work in the City of Livermore, not have any prior felony convictions, and not have had any misdemeanor convictions within the last three years. There are no physical requirements, and no costs involved for the participants.

The Citizen Police Academy is a program designed to educate members of our community about the various roles of the Police Department, introduce them to the law enforcement community, and give them an inside look at how the department operates on a daily basis. 

Participants will be presented with a variety of topics including; patrol operations, communications, evidence collection, hiring and recruitment, traffic, animal control, laws of arrest, search and seizure, investigations, crime analysis, terrorism, and many others. Each session will be taught by a member of the Livermore Police Department with expertise in the field.

The sessions are designed so that participants get involved asking questions and doing hands on activities. A tour of the Department is included in the first session.

In addition to the Wednesday evening sessions, participants will be able to go on a ride-a-long with a patrol officer spending several hours working the streets of Livermore. Participants will have an opportunity to spend several hours with a dispatcher listening in as emergency calls are received and dispatched.

The Saturday or Sunday all day session will include time spent on the firing range where the participants will get to shoot a variety of weapons deployed by patrol and SWAT team members. The SWAT team and K-9 program will each put on extensive demonstrations, and the participants will be allowed to do role-playing with the SWAT team to see what a SWAT team member might experience during a critical incident.

Anyone interested in attending the spring Citizen Police Academy must complete an application by Aug. 10. Applications can be obtained from the kiosk at the Livermore Police Department, from the community section of the department’s website, or by contacting Sgt. John Hurd at 925-371-4857 or jhurd@ci.livermore.ca.us.

Each Citizen Police Academy is limited to 30 students. The department puts on two academies per year, spring and fall. Over 450 community members have attended our Citizens Police Academies over the past 10 years. Everyone who has participated has stated that the program benefited them and made them much more aware of how the police department works and what their role is as a community member in keeping Livermore a safe community to live in.