Hi-Line Employee Involvement in the Citizen Police Academy

Dallas, Texas – August 21, 2008 — The City of Farmers Branch, Texas has a Citizen Police Academy that is open to any citizen who lives or works in Farmers Branch. This is a 30-hour course that you attend once a week for three hours. When I signed up for the Academy, I thought three hours was quite a long time. I was certainly wrong. I hated to see it end.
The instruction is comprehensive, covering a different area of the police department each week. Officers, supervisors and personnel assigned to that particular division conduct each instructional block.
I attended this program during the spring of this year. We covered crime prevention, crime scene search, criminal investigations (I have a souvenir of my own fingerprints), training, communications, an exhibition by Kilo (our amazing police dog), the SWAT team (just lifting that vest they wear could be considered intensive exercise), and hands-on traffic stops. Let me state now that traffic stops are not as simple as I imagined. In my role-play of an officer stopping an elderly lady with a belligerent son, I foolishly forced the son to return to the car after he exited it, and was “shot” with a gun that he had left in the car. And they did not let me have a do-over.
After completion of the Academy, I was allowed to participate in a ride-along with an officer. I spent from 7pm to about 6am with Officer Griego one Friday. A citizen on a ride-along is bound to the squad car, but can observe and hear much of what is going on outside. Traffic stops are quite entertaining. No one is ever speeding. “Why didn’t you stop all those cars that were passing me?” “You stopped the wrong car.” “I want to see the radar gun.” “This is harassment.” I really heard all of those statements. If, or when, I am stopped for a traffic infraction, I think I will just say I did it as soon as the officer appears at my window and save myself some embarrassment.
We also were involved in setting up a perimeter when a man in a white t-shirt abandoned his car after running from an officer. A perimeter is the use of multiple squad cars strategically placed to contain the offender to a small area while Kilo and several officers do a search on foot. This was interesting in that everyone who came out of their houses to watch what was going on was wearing a white t-shirt. I believe God gives policemen special patience.
My next step will be to attend Citizens on Patrol (COPs) training this fall. This special training focuses on detecting and reporting criminal activity to the Police Department. There will be training on how to recognize unusual or suspicious behavior, focus on details and trust your instincts, while following specific rules of conduct.
The COPs patrol commercial parking lots during the holidays and have spent many hours in the Sky Watch Box observing the commercial businesses. COPs also perform house watch patrols.
This is an amazing program that is very enlightening. After I finish the COPs program, I get to do another ride-along, and that will be FUN.
Jennifer Maddux, Hi-Line Account Manager