Citizens Police Academy

Several local police departments participate in a free program to educate the public on law enforcement in collaboration with the University of Illinois' Police Training Institute called the Citizens' Police Academy. This year's classes included at least eight police departments, other agencies, some current and former elected officials, etc. The 10 week program consists of a weekly 3 hour night class at the Police Training Institute on campus (free parking was provided) and a few other local facilities. At the end of the program, participants are encouraged to participate in a ride along with their local police department.

The Daily Illini had an overview and coverage of the first day of class back in April:

Police Training Institute begins 10-week course for citizens
The University’s Police Training Institute began its annual 10-week public course, Citizen Police Academy, on April 4. The program is offered to all citizens residing in Champaign County.

The interactive 10-week program will cover topics such as de-escalation, DUI enforcement and crime scene investigations. Students taking the course will also have the opportunity to visit the Champaign County Jail and meet some of the Champaign Police Department’s K-9s...

Michael Schlosser served as a lieutenant for the Rantoul Police Department before retiring. He is currently the director for the Police Training Institute, as well as the main instructor for the 10-week course.

“When citizens have the opportunity to gain knowledge and learn about all the different aspects of policing … then that gives them a better perspective when they’re trying to understand things they see on TV or read in the paper,” Schlosser said...

If the students attend 7 out of 10 classes at the end of the program, they will have the ability to graduate and get a small certificate saying they completed the course.

Full article here. Departments are generally trying to increase awareness of their various outreach programs, so if you have questions about this or any less intensive outreach options they may offer, they'll probably be happy to get you all the information you need. I'd strongly encourage this one if it's possible for you to attend regardless of any views one way or the other on the police themselves. The instructors encourage questions and criticism to have an opportunity to explain their perspective. Signing up was easy, but required a background check.

Below are some highlights from the course:

Week 1: An introduction to the class and how it's laid out. A brief history of the Police Training Institute and the role it plays in training officers from all over Illinois. An introduction to Dr. Schlosser, the Director of the Police Training Institute and general ringleader of the 10 week program. He covered the first subject of de-escalation and "verbal judo" involved in gaining voluntary compliance. Some may notice that some of the "verbal judo" techniques are being used as the class proceeds.

Week 2: Former Champaign County Sheriff, attorney and PTI instructor Dan Walsh explains the structure and authority of various law enforcement agencies in the State of Illinois down to local departments. He also explained various aspects of civil and criminal law, enforcement and prosecution. The limited options in dealing with mental health issues and the current role the criminal justice system plays in mental health intervention and treatment was raised. This is a recurring theme throughout the course.

Champaign Police Deputy Chief Troy Daniels explained "community policing," the history of it, and the principles behind it. Topics ranged from intelligence based policing and spearfishing to the mutual benefits of community policing for law enforcement and the community. He emphasized the sudden dangers involved in policing and argued that police constantly put their life at risk giving people the benefit of the doubt. He also tried to dispel the myth that local violence is a Chicago imported problem. He noted that it is overwhelmingly home grown local disputes between local people and cliques. There was also an overview of the local Crime Stoppers program.

Week 3: At the Willard Training Center by the airport, the class learned about use of force balanced with the situation at hand and the use of Tasers. The seating is a bit more Spartan here, so you might consider bringing a little seat cushion. The material covered various control tactics, from verbal to defensive  depending on the subjects cooperation or aggression. The use of deadly force in response to risk of life or severe bodily injury were detailed as well. Four student volunteers from the PTI, later in their academy training, were on hand for demonstrations. Including to be "exposed to Taser" as they prefer to say instead of "Tasing" someone. Various technical and legal issues were covered on the use of a Taser.

The use of force scenarios demonstrated an attempt to apply the most simple and effective tactics to deal with chaotic situations with endless variables, all within the legal limits set by courts and legislatures. A lot of the questions and concerns raised were dealing with those variables and complications.

Week 4: Judge Jeff Ford of the 6th Judicial Circuit Court explained DUI Court, DUI statutes and enforcement as well as Drug Court programs and drug enforcement. State Trooper Tony Micele explained DUI enforcement details on everything from sobriety tests and the legal framework they have to operate within to help ensure convictions. He repeatedly emphasized that they were "not out to get people," but also that these offenses have deadly consequences for both offenders and innocent people.

Week 5 was on active shooters and responding to them. This is covered in a separate Cheat Sheet post here.

Week 6: Tours of the Champaign County satellite jail and METCAD. The jail tour was instructive regardless of one's views on the various contentious issues on jail expansion, criminal justice reform, etc. Some of the logistical and security issues are made more clear regardless of what future direction one supports. It can also make clear the very real safety and security concerns with a county budget stretched to the brink when you see how that affects the lives of both the jailed population and jail staff. The life and safety of everyone in the facility (staff or inmate) depend on other people being able to assist them and functioning equipment.

The METCAD presentation was similar to the one I saw with the Champaign City Government 101 course, but I was able to get an update on the backup center that was being upgraded. The backup center ran a couple hours of a shift back on April 14th and on its way to being ready to handle operations if the main METCAD facility goes down for some reason. Here's a quick overview of METCAD from a previous post:

Champaign County's METCAD system handles calls for 25 Fire Departments including Champaign and Urbana Fire Departments as part of its emergency dispatch services. This is on top of their services to 12 area police departments. It's an impressive collaborative agency with employees of the City of Champaign, an Urbana location, in a County building, and U of I phone systems. Its board has administrative and public safety representatives from local governments, the University of Illinois and rural representatives of police and fire departments.

The Q&A part of the presentation got into some of the technical hurdles in the long term goal of a fully integrated system and software updates to the system with varying local government and police department communications systems.

Week 7: Mike Metzler, the Chief of Police in Mahomet and a PTI firearms instructor led the class at the Tactical Training Center focusing on firearms and tour of the gun ranges. This class covered a lot of technical details on typical law enforcement firearms and an overview of marksmanship training. It highlighted the various training and requirements, including scenarios to prepare officers for situations they may face one day. The instructor explained the differences in various firearm laws, such as Illinois Firearm Owners ID card versus concealed carry permits. He also explained the difference and downsides of "open carry" laws in other states.

Week 8: Lt. Bruce Ramseyer of the Champaign Police Department explained Crime Scene Investigations and how a real life Crime Scene Unit operates locally versus what one sees on television. In real life people aren't experts or technicians in everything, a lot of the work is low-tech and certain testing is done by other laboratories and everything takes a lot longer. He explained the differences between elected coroners and (often appointed) Medical Examiners and their differing responsibilities. The whole process involves constant paperwork and a huge amount of evidence storage.

He explained how fingerprints are collected, analyzed and compared. He then covered a variety of evidence collection, chain of custody, and even his trip to "the body farm" at the National Forensics Academy. He outlined good calling advice if you contact the police. He encouraged people to not jump to conclusions, take a breath, and try to think positive — look for the facts.

Week 9: SWAT, K-9 and Bomb Squad demonstrations. Down at the U of I Stockyard Pavilion families were invited as well to check out the hardware, canine cops and explosive demonstrations. There were overviews of the local Metropolitan Emergency Tactical Response Operations (METRO) SWAT Unit, the types of K-9 dogs and their training, and Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams and robots.

A couple highlights included the multi-agency collaboration that forms our local SWAT team, including the SWAT medics who operate unarmed and work through a collaboration with Carle via the University of Illinois Police Department medical support unit. K-9 dog vests are available, but their use is limited by a more common danger to the dogs: overheating. The EOD unit is also a collaborative unit, currently with 6 techs split evenly from the Champaign Police Department and University of Illinois PD. There were a couple big booms in this class session.

Week 10: States Attorney Julia Rietz and Judge Randy Rosenbaum (who was the public defender years ago) explained the roles of the prosecutor and the public defenders office in the legal process. The SA explained various issues such as the plea bargain process, limits on evidence admission, and legal requirements and rights that have to be ensured. The former PD explained in more detail the rights of the accused and the ways how public defenders are appointed by the judiciary.

Afterwards those who attended enough classes graduated and got a certificate of completion and thanks from the chiefs of the participating police departments for taking the time to get to understand law enforcement better. Contact information and forms for scheduling a ride along with your local department was then sent out.


What next?

I'm looking forward to the ride along opportunity when that gets scheduled. I still have to finish the post on the Week 5 course on active shooters and catch up on several other topics that I've been collecting information on lately, including immigration and refugee services locally.