The Citizen Police Academy

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,The, May, 2000 by Giant Abutalebi Aryani, Terry D. Garrett, Carl L. Alsabrook

In the long run, citizen cooperation with police officers can benefit the agency in lawsuits, jury trials, witness canvasses, public perception, and in city council meetings, as well in upcoming bond issues furthering the agency's goals and needs. Additionally, an actual reduction in offense rates in the long term provide measurable benefits of such community cooperation.

COSTS

With appropriate implementation, departments can limit CPA program costs to fit within their budgets. Departments should cover material costs, such as binders, handouts, and T-shirts, if not fully recovered through tuition and application fees, which some CPAs may charge. Materials costs remain minimal compared to labor costs. Labor costs represent hours necessary to organize and teach classes, as well as to perform background checks on applicants. Ideally, officers should volunteer their time for course instruction, or a department must decide whether to offer compensatory time or overtime. To alleviate advertising costs from local newspapers, departments should use city newsletters or press releases through their public information office. One of the most effective and least expensive advertising tools remains word of mouth.

Further, agencies might incur potential liability costs from accidents during ride-alongs, equipment demonstrations, and firing range segments of the class, despite liability waivers signed by applicants. Providing participants with extensive classroom instruction prior to allowing them to perform practical exercises can minimize such potential accidents before they happen.

EVALUATION

Law enforcement agencies should evaluate their CPA programs. This review helps to determine whether the CPA successfully benefits the community and the department, or if the program needs improvement.

City of Rockwall CPA

The Rockwall Police Department continuously evaluates its CPA program through feedback from its police officers and citizen-graduates. Initially, officers had negative comments toward the implementation of the CPA; however, these doubts quickly faded when the officers experienced the positive citizen-police interaction in the teaching environment. At the beginning of the program, agency administrators "volunteered" most of the instructors to teach CPA classes. For subsequent CPA classes, officers enthusiastically volunteered to teach. In fact, the positive teaching experience and the sharing of common concerns between officers and citizens has helped the department to curtail the "us-versus-them" mentality often found embedded in the police culture.

The Rockwall Police Department asks citizen graduates to complete a course evaluation form at the end of the CPA program. These evaluations reveal that the participants' overall impression of the course remains extremely positive. Citizens relay that they have a much greater appreciation for police officers and that the CPA eliminated many misconceptions. The CPA stimulated citizen interest in emergency services and provided a better awareness for the concerns of police officers and the department.