By Ajit K. Thavarajah
Daily Staff Reporter
By overseeing a crime scene investigation or learning defense tactics to fend off potential attackers, residents can join forces with local officers at Ann Arbor's Citizens' Police Academy.
Tonyia Kwiatkowski, an Ann Arbor Police Department community service assistant and one of the head coordinators of the academy, said residents can improve communication with officers in the program.
"Say for instance, someone sees a suspicious car continually passing through the neighborhood," Kwiatkowski said. "One of the things that I picture are people who are afraid to approach officers because they are in such an authoritative position - which leads to a lack of crime being reported and prevented."
LSA senior Eryn Smith, who graduated from the academy this past December, said he was surprised by the activities in the program.
"My original decision for signing up was to gain experience in law enforcement because it was an area of study I was interested in," Smith said. "I saw a flier and thought it would be a worthwhile lecture," he said.
"Once I was here, I was blown away by the amount of hands-on experience that was demonstrated," Smith added. "What kept me in it was the whole community involvement interaction."
Ann Arbor Mayor Ingrid Sheldon said the program is successful despite some ill feelings toward the police department.
"I had a friend who recently attended and had negative feelings towards the police department, and after just one session he found it extremely involved and interesting," Sheldon said.
"I also attended the graduation in December and saw how happy the residents were for being involved in this program."
The Citizens' Police Academy curriculum consists of 13 programs ranging from criminal law enforcement, firearms and domestic violence cases. Currently, there are 25 participants enrolled in the academy.
Kwiatkowski said the biggest surprise for participants is the amount of interaction with the officers.
"I think one of our more popular sessions is the traffic stop, where they actually participate with police officers and are put in various scenarios," she said. "It can really come as a shock to the students on how fast police officers have to react."
Smith, who has worked as a student volunteer at DPS for the past three years, said the experience showed him other aspects of a police officer's job.
"I worked for DPS for the past three years and learned more in the three-month session than I did working at DPS," Smith said. "They put you in realistic police situations where you had to make decisions in a split second."
Kwiatkowski said officers also learn from the training session.
"One of the important features of the program is getting direct feedback from the citizens who have the opportunity to voice their concerns about issues they have with the community," Kwiatkowski said.
LSA first-year student Joel Murray had her doubts about the potential success of the program.
"I think it is important for residents to be involved, but it seems if the academy has such a small number of participants that it can't have a lasting effect on the community," Murray said.