Citizen’s Academy-abuse cases

Continuing with the Citizen’s Police Academy stories…

This class dealt mainly with child sexual assaults and child abuse. The presenters we listened to handle the younger child assault and abuse cases for the department. They only work on cases within the city but sometimes go out of the city to interview victims and criminals.

The presenters both agreed that they would rather handle a burglary any day than have to deal with a child abuse/assault case. They can understand a burglar but can’t understand why anyone would want to harm a child.

One of the most important things they wanted us to remember is that these horrible acts do happen to children. Some of us don’t want to believe that humans could be so capable of committing such horrible acts but they do. It’s important to remember this if we ever sit on a jury.

They told us of a story about a class they attended on internet crimes. (I may not have all the facts straight, but it is a true story). The instructor was on the internet during class talking to a pervert while pretending to be a 13 year old. Within five minutes someone responded and arranged for a meeting. So the instructor asked the class if they wanted to follow through with the meeting. They were thinking no one would show up. So the class of about 35 officers showed up at a restaurant and waited for the guy. They already had a description of him and his vehicle.

A man walks in fitting the description and sits down. The instructor walks over and asks him his name and the guy says “no, that’s not me.” The instructor tells him who he is and that he’s the “13 year old” that he’s been talking to and shows the guy his badge and then so do all the other 35 or so officers that were waiting there. They said the color just drained from the guy’s face. It must have been priceless.

Two CSI classes

Citizen’s Police Academy-CSI

The second and third classes we attended had a serious, somber side to them. It was on Crime Scene Investigation. The detectives told us accounts of cases that stood out to them. They showed us some pictures of these cases. We couldn’t help but wonder how it is that humans could be that cruel to another person.

The cases of child abuse were the ones that were the most horrific. One case involved a 15-18 month old child, ending up with wounds so bad, they didn’t think the child would survive the night. The description of the crime scene was one I still have with me today. It’s hard for us to imagine being the detective, responding officers and EMS and walking through a crime scene as bad as that one. How can they deal with these crimes? I know I couldn’t handle it.

One of the detectives told of an instance where he was taking a statement, from either a child molester or the child (I forgot which one), and after taking the statement, he was so sickened by what he heard, he went out and vomited.

They warned us that the details of the cases were going to be hard to listen to and if we needed to leave, it was understandable. I wish I had left when they showed the pictures, those are images I will never forget. Can you imagine being an officer on the scene at some of the crimes we read about in the paper?

I know it was important to listen to what the officers were telling us, important to know our world is not what we think it is. Evil is everywhere and sometimes we don’t want to think about that but it is important if we are going to understand what the police have to deal with when it comes to crime. I wish the public were made to sit through some of these descriptions of crime scenes, maybe they wouldn’t be so quick to mouth off about the police.

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Another part of the CSI class was how they approach a crime scene, how they make a cast of a footprint, and impressing on us that the TV show by the same name is nothing like real crime scene investigations (one of the detectives hates that show). We made an attempt to do some fingerprinting. I had a hard time getting one that you could see. I got a great one of the detective though. It’s not as easy as TV makes it look (most of which is just nonsense). It’s one thing to see these things on TV and quite another to actually do it yourself.

And of course we heard…my favorite…idiot criminal stories. No matter how hard they try not to leave clues behind, criminals end up hanging themselves (and sometimes literally). Idiot criminals spend most of their brain cells planning out their crime and the celebration afterwards but forget that one important detail….don’t leave clues (or your tools) behind. The detectives have time too. And resolve. No matter how long it takes, they will get their man. And another important thing to remember, don’t brag to your friends about your crime or use the stolen items just after a robbery.

Citizen’s Academy Narcotics class

I apologize for posting these classes in random order. I should have posted them in the order I took them. I’ll just blame the meds for it.

First class

This was the first Citizen’s Police Academy class we took. We had signed up for it the previous fall, but because of the amount of applicants and that they took people who lived in the area first, we were told we wouldn’t make this class. I was very disappointed. But a couple of weeks later we were told that a few people dropped out and if we were still interested, we could attend even though we missed the first two classes.

The topic was narcotics. I thought I was pretty knowledgeable about drugs so I didn’t think there would be too much information that would be new to me. I was wrong. I was amazed as I heard what types of paraphernalia dopers will use to take drugs and what they will do to get those drugs.

They are incredibly paranoid people. They always think the police are following them or that the police are right outside their windows watching them. We learned about the different drug paraphernalia, which again, I thought I knew about. Anything goes when it comes to that. And they will hide their drugs in anything they can get their hands on.

After hearing stories about the people they arrest, my daughter and I were almost afraid to drive home. A lot of people in that city shouldn’t have a license, much less a car. They hear music coming from stop lights. They think the police are following them so they’re very paranoid when they drive. And they’re also on drugs when driving. Yikes.

The presenter was a detective who is also an undercover officer and often makes drug buys. I worried about the safety of these officers, they’re in so much danger, how can they possibly do this line of work. But, as I found out, they are also very good at what they do and take every precaution to make sure they’re safe.

At the beginning of class, we were asked what questions we would like to have answered and then were given the opportunity to ask more at the end of class.

Unexpected gifts

We were all given a bag of candy(which was used as a teaching tool about the drug problem) and a tiny badge (lapel pin). I carry that badge around with me and treasure it as a reminder of a department that made room in their academy for a couple of strangers. It reminds me of their warmth and hospitality.

Welcome mat

It was very apparent that they wanted us to feel welcome and were eager to help us in any way. We met at the police department and were taken to areas that normally are off-limits to the public. We were allowed to use their break room during the breaks we took. It impressed me that they never said any part was off-limits. We were never made to feel unwelcome.

Isn’t it interesting that when the police come to our door, we’re afraid to let them in, yet here they are showing such kindness as this? It should be that when an officer comes to our door that we welcome them in and treat them with the same hospitality this department did to a group of strangers.

How NOT to drive a squad car

Another in a series of posts on my experiences with a Citizen’s Police Academy.

This class was Emergency Vehicle Operations. Which means fun with the squad cars! Or at least it should have been. I ended up getting a little carsick.

An auxiliary officer took us out and drove us through the course to show us what we were supposed to do. By the time he got done swerving, accelerating and stopping, forwards and backwards, I was ready to reach for the motion sickness bag. It was like being on an amusement ride. If I had known how horrible and frightening accelerating backwards would feel with an officer intent on giving us an experience we’d never forget, I would have screamed and gotten out of the car sooner! Almost immediately, I sensed I needed to either, hang on to whatever I could, or try to speak and let the officer know he needed to let me out, NOW! I couldn’t do either.

Finally, I got out of the car to switch places to do the driving. But when I stood up, that’s when things really got bad. I could have sat in the back of the squad while the others went through the course but I knew that wasn’t a good idea at all. The officer had to drop me off and then continue on with the others. After I thought I had recovered enough to make another attempt to drive (both physically and emotionally), I went out in a different squad car with a different officer with only my daughter in the back seat.

I wasn’t recovered enough I guess because I got sick again (and here I was the driver!). I could tell things were not going to go well. Instead of turning on the lights, I turned on the wipers. I tried to move the seat ahead and I locked the doors instead. Too many buttons to deal with…too many decisions to make. I wonder what the officer was thinking at that point. My daughter was laughing at her mother and enjoying the scene. In my defense, I was sick and couldn’t think straight.

Out on the course…I was supposed to go around cones quickly but all that swerving again just added to the nausea and I didn’t do too well on that. I wanted to go slow, very slow. But even at around 25 MPH, swerving around cones still had a bad effect on me. And there was no way I was going to do the backwards thing like the officer suggested. I don’t remember, exactly, what I did going backwards, but a few cones didn’t make it.

Then, going through the cones, I was supposed to accelerate fast and make a turn at the last second. I couldn’t tell my right from left and went the opposite direction of whatever the officer told me to go. Poor guy. I didn’t do a thing right that he told me to do. He was probably as happy to see me get out of the car as I was.

Still, with all those problems, it was fun to watch others go through the course. We got to see a mock chase with lights and sirens. If I ever end up taking the Citizen’s Academy again, next time, I would just watch the officer drive the course and then I would drive it myself, only much more slowly, and then get out before anyone else has a chance to make me sick with their driving.