{"id":13004,"date":"2016-02-17T15:09:03","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T15:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=13004"},"modified":"2016-02-17T15:09:03","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T15:09:03","slug":"police-academy-training-can-open-ones-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=13004","title":{"rendered":"Police academy training can open one’s eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

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Calling all cadets!<\/p>\n

Randall County is looking for some good men and women who want to get a taste — and that’s all it’ll be — of police work.<\/p>\n

Take it from me: It’s an investment in time well worth making.<\/p>\n

The sheriff’s department is looking for participants in its next Citizen’s\u00a0 Academy. Read about it here.<\/a><\/p>\n

I went through an Amarillo Police Department Citizen’s Academy some years ago. I did so on something of a challenge from a senior officer at the PD, who had read a column I wrote for the Amarillo Globe-News that was mildly critical of something I\u00a0 witnessed involving an APD officer.<\/p>\n

My friend called me and said, in effect, “OK, buster, if you think you know so much about police work, apply for a spot in the citizen’s academy and we’ll show you how it really works.”<\/p>\n

I accepted his challenge.<\/p>\n

The academy lasted about 11 weeks, if memory serves. It was an eye-opener, to say the very least.<\/p>\n

My classmates and I learned about dispatching calls, aerial surveillance, drug-sniffing dogs, the use of a Taser, simulations of the kinds of calls officers have to answer, firing pistols and other firearms. We all had a chance to be stung with a Taser; I chose not to do that.<\/p>\n

We all got to ride along with officers and we received essentially a lifetime pass if we want to ride along in the future. All we have to do is request and the PD will make it happen.<\/p>\n

I told my friend who challenged me to attend the academy that he would find no greater supporter of those in law enforcement than yours truly.<\/p>\n

My support only grew as I attended the police academy.<\/p>\n

Yes, it’s good PR for law enforcement agencies to ask constituents to take part in these sessions. I get that part of it.<\/p>\n

It’s also good education for constituents to get a small — but important — taste of what these men and women do every day they go to work.<\/p>\n

It’s sometimes dangerous. It’s damn sure never “routine.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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Calling all cadets! Randall County is looking for some good men and women who want to get a taste — and that’s all it’ll be — of police work. Take it from me: It’s an investment in time well worth making. The sheriff’s department is looking for participants in its next Citizen’s\u00a0 Academy. Read about … Continue reading Police academy training can open one’s eyes<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[325,5973,5974,5669,4511],"class_list":["post-13004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-amarillo-police-department","tag-citizens-police-academy","tag-drug-dogs","tag-randall-county-sheriffs-office","tag-taser"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13004"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13007,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13004\/revisions\/13007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}