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James Mills uses tape to lift fingerprints dusted from the window of a car. Mills and his team processed one of three wrecked cars donated by Fayette Wrecker; empty shell casings from a gun were left in the front seat to add a little realism to the exercise. Photo/John Munford.

Cops+Kids=Fun!

Officers stress teamwork, build relationships at junior police academy

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Police work isn’t always tidy and wrapped up in an hour like it is on TV.

A group of 15 middle school students learned that firsthand at the first ever junior police academy offered by the Fayetteville Police Department this week. They learned and practiced a wide range of police tactics including making a felony arrest, subduing a suspect with physical, non-lethal force and crime scene processing.

Anneliese McCain, 12, got a big kick out of learning the felony arrest process.

“We got to point our fake guns at him,” she said with a smile. “We learned how to stop them and tell them to get out of the car and get on the ground.”

To add to the reality, students got to conduct “traffic stops” with Fayetteville officers playing the role of the motorist who broke the law. Occasionally, one of the motorists would run away, sparking a foot chase, said Det. Debbie Chambers, who organized the class.

There was also an eyewitness test with a set-up “suspect” stealing Chambers’ purse from the classroom. As real officers chased after the “suspect,” Chambers quizzed the students on a description of the suspect.

A lively exchange followed, as some students couldn’t even agree on the gender of the suspect, Chambers noted.

“We told them that’s why we separate witnesses,” for interviews at a crime scene, Chambers said. That’s because sometimes one witness will be prompted by the description of events given by another witness, she added.

And every morning, officer Harold Simmons led the group in physical training, an effort that actually grew on the participants, too, he said.

Chambers said the program opened the kids’ eyes to how real police work. It also has a bigger payoff for the department, she added.

“There have been a lot of good relationships built between the kids and our officers,” she said.

One of the main principles the officers focused on was teamwork, and thus the group was split into three teams, Chambers said. The kids also learned police work isn’t as easy as it seems on TV, when crimes are committed, solved and often tried in court in an hour or less.

“A lot of times we don’t have things fall in our lap,” Chambers said. “It’s not all guts and glory and chases.”

Officers from the police department, joined by a detective from the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department, taught the class on their volunteer time, which Chambers truly appreciated. She also thinks the officers have gotten a kick out of it, as have the participants.

Although the kids brought their own lunches, drinks and snacks were provided. The Kroger store donated ice cream and Papa John’s donated pizza one day. Parents have brought snacks.

Fayette Wrecker donated the junked cars that was “processed” for evidence by the three teams.

None of those donations was solicited by the department, Chambers said.

“It takes a good community to back up a very good program,” she added.