CITIZENS POLICE ACADEMY

Since 2004, the Purdue University Police Department has offered a Citizens Police Academy. Twenty-two members of our community graduated from the first session. The class was comprised of participants from the community ranging from University Vice-Presidents and Senior Directors to Purdue students. We have since repeated the Citizen's Police Academy once each fall and spring semester. The Citizen's Academy is one of our most popular community outreach programs.

During the 11-week academy, sessions include presentations from members of the department discussing their areas of expertise. The Citizen's Academy also offers participants a variety of hands-on experiences and allows us to cover a variety of law enforcement topics, a few of which include:

• Fire Arms Training System (FATS)-participants are provided the opportunity to simulate 'shoot-don't shoot' scenarios on a life-sized interactive computer simulator
• Emergency Vehicle Operations-participants drive fully-marked police cars on a controlled course and receive instruction on field sobriety testing and traffic stops
• Crime Scene Management-class members participate in crime scene management and work in a 'crime lab' taking latent fingerprints, analyzing blood spatter, and practicing other forensic techniques