City of Douglasville Citizens Police Academy – Week 1

Sara here 🙂

Last week I started the 10 week City of Douglasville’s Citizens Police Academy which I was SO excited about!  As a mother of three children, it is hard to find time to do things for myself – even with the help of my very loving and supportive husband.  Timing finally worked itself out and I was finally able to sign up for the class!
Let me back up a bit and explain why I wanted to go through this program.  Everyone at our meeting had their reasons, and here is mine.  I participated in the Chamber’s Leadership Douglas program last year (Class of 2011 – best class ever!) and one of our classes focused on Public Safety.  It was the day I was most excited about and let me just say (without divulging all the cool things you do in LD) that it exceeded my expectations!  One of our activities was touring the new Public Safety Building and by the end of the tour led by our fearless leader, Chief Womack, I was still left wanting to know more!  How cool is it that through this FREE program, I get 10 weeks of information and am able to go behind the scenes and learn even more than I did at LD.  Sign me up!
Tuesday was our first class.  I have a few partners in crime that are participating in the program who I am sure you will hear about through this journey!  Ruby Byers from the School System and Patty and Stan Wenck with Wenck Travel & Shopping are also participating.  The Chamber is well represented!  Our teachers for the course are Officer Matt Underwood and Lt. Brad Stafford – both VERY entertaining and I can already tell this class is going to be not only informative, but very fun too!

Our first class was pretty basic – we got an overview of the program, got to know everyone, and then toured the facility!  It’s a very dynamic group including former Marines, retirees, recent high school graduates, and even one person who has been through the program before and came back for more!

Here is what we have coming up!

ID Theft & Investigations

DUI & Traffic Control

Gangs & 911 Center

Traffic Stops

Special Ops & K-9

SWAT

FATS (fire arm training simulator)

Firearms – yes – we get to learn how to shoot a gun and about gun safety!!

Crime Scene Investigation