Public Safety hosts police academy

Sure students see GCSU’s public safety officers around campus, but most aren’t invited to squeeze off a few dozen rounds at a live firing range with them.

That’s exactly what students who attend the GCSU Student Police Academy will do.

The GCSU Department of Public Safety plans to begin a new free program for students, faculty and staff to partake in. The academy is designed to give any student hands-on criminal justice and law enforcement experience while participating in the academy.

Starting the second week of September, each class will cover various law enforcement topics. The class topics will range from ride-a-longs, traffic stops, emergency preparedness, mock trials and firearms training.

“We want to open the police department up to students, faculty and staff,” Greg Williams, sergeant of support services, said. “We want people to know about the inter-workings of the police department and that we are here to support them.”

“We also want students to become more educated,” Williams said. “We also want them to learn from the class in a way that will help prevent crime”

The goal of the nine week academy is to help students have a higher appreciation for the important role that the university police play in their college experience, while strengthening bonds between the students and the university police department.

Public Safety took the idea of a police academy from the citizens police academy in Milledgeville. The goal of both academies is to make a clearer understanding of their department’s role in the community.

“We wanted to create a equivalent program, but we wanted it to be geared toward student participation,” Williams said.

Michael Baker, a detective for public safety, will instruct the investigations class. The mock crime scene will give an idea of all that an investigator’s role entails and how important it is to secure a crime scene.

“This will be an eye-opening experience, better than what someone might see on TV,” Baker said.

The academy will be another opportunity that GCSU offers to prepare for a future career and to be a better citizen. Blake Denna is a senior criminal justice major and sergeant of S.N.A.P., the student night auxiliary patrol. He is looking forward to the unique opportunities the academy will offer.

“I plan on participating in the academy to get to know better the police officers and to gain experience in the many different activities throughout the semester,” Denna said.

Denna is hoping to be an investigator one day and expects to take a lot from the investigations session.

“I encourage everyone to partake in this experience. It will be a great learning opportunity for more than just criminal justice majors, ” Denna said.

The GCSU Student Police Academy will meet once a week for nine weeks. Each class will take about two hours and is open to any GCSU student, faculty or staff 18-years-old or older.

A criminal background check and driver’s history check will be conducted on all applicants. Applicants with a criminal background will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 4 2009. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry