Photo by Lisa Aurand
The Dublin Citizens Police Academy is having a ripple effect, creating informed volunteers who assist the community.
The citizens police academy is wrapping up its second 12-week session with a class of 27 city residents who learned the intricate workings of their police force.
The initial class of 23 last year spawned a 10-member volunteer force of Community Service Officers who perform police-related but not law enforcement functions, as well as a group of 17 alumni who strive to help police with personal social matters, among other activities.
Sgt. Rod Barnes, who oversees the annual academy – which is similar to those in other cities – says the goal is “to involve the community and give people a snap-shot view of what it’s like to be a police officer.”
The academy has been an unqualified success, Barnes says. Class size is limited to about 25. Applicants must be Dublin residents without serious criminal records, and are asked to explain why they want to be in the class. Only one person per family is accepted.
“We’ve had to turn people away,” Barnes says. “The quality of the experience diminishes” in larger classes.
The classes are hands-on. Instructors are police from various units, such as patrol, detectives and firearms. “We try to tap into our expertise. We don’t want to just be up there reading slides,” Barnes says. “We try to give them as much as we can (in the way of) an in-depth look.”
Topics include use of force, arrest procedures, use of firearms and a litany of other things police do.
“It’s an eye-opener. I thought I knew what police do,” says John League, a Muirfield Village resident and newly retired Battelle project manager who attended the class this fall. “Some of the stuff they presented is surprising.”
Also a retired member of the military, League is licensed to carry a gun, so he didn’t expect many surprises during the lesson on firearms, one of the academy’s most popular.
After completing the class, League will be eligible to become a Community Service Officer, a task to which he can easily commit the time. League says he can easily afford the eight hours monthly members are asked to put in.
The academy became a stepping-stone for service officers because it provides a fairly thorough background of police work, though Barnes says qualifying service officers was not the original intent.
Lt. John DeJarnette, who researched citizen patrols, says more than half the first academy class applied for the officer program. “We didn’t expect that much interest,” DeJarnette says.
Applicants for the community service patrol received an additional eight hours of instruction in two sessions before donning their blue and khaki uniforms to “do jobs you don’t have to be a police officer to do,” DeJarnette says. That includes assisting with motor vehicle lockouts, home vacation checks, parking tickets and crime prevention, which includes leaving pamphlets on parked cars warning of thefts of visible valuables.
The patrol was first rolled out to help with crowd and traffic control at the Dublin Irish Festival and the Fore!Fest event in Historic Dublin during the Presidents Cup, DeJarnette explains.
Cpl. Kevin Keiffer, who oversees the program, says the group spent 128 hours volunteering in September, most of them on crime prevention and house checks. Three were on the streets on Halloween, armed with candy, creating “an extra presence connecting with the community and spreading good will,” says DeJarnette.
Patrol members get around in a fleet car – not a cruiser – that has been equipped for them. Next year, it’s expected the city’s budget will allow for buying and outfitting an SUV for the patrol, which also helps maintain, place and move speed-warning trailers.
Abdul Sawah, a two-year Dublin resident and computer consultant, says he spent about 15 hours on community patrol assignments the first two weeks of October alone. Besides The Presidents Cup, he and two other patrol members helped at the auto safety event police staged to vividly show teens the potentially deadly aftermath of reckless or careless driving.
Sawah, a father of three, enrolled in the first citizens academy because he was looking for ways to volunteer as he had with police and fire departments while living in Fairfax, Va.
Besides serving as a community service officer, he’s at the fore of organizing the academy alumni to function for the benefit of the police force. “We decided at the end of the class we would like to continue to associate with police on social issues for them and their families,” Sawah says.
Last summer, the group raised money and food donations for a police family picnic at Scioto Park. And alumni provide food for academy classes, which begin at 6:30 p.m., dinnertime for many. Both service officers and alums helped police during The Presidents Cup by shuttling officers who could not park their cruisers at Muirfield Village Golf Club. In November, they assisted in police during screening of recruit applicants. The alumni group has no time requirement.
“I volunteer as much as I can. If I have the time, I’m going to go ahead and spend it,” Sawah says.
As it becomes an official nonprofit organization – The Dublin Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association – members are setting goals from a list of suggestions to help police and non-police division employees.
While academy classes will remain at current capacity, the service officer corps is expected to gradually grow to 30, which is probably the maximum manageable without a full-time supervisor. Membership likely will fluctuate since some may quit after fulfilling a one-year commitment.
Duane St. Clair is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at laurand@cityscenemediagroup.com.
