Registration open for new free sessions of Sheriff’s Citizens Police Academy which starts Aug. 29; Call 278-7628; 550 residents have attended since 1999

It’s the best way to learn about law enforcement short of actually attending a police training academy. And, specifically, participants will hear what police work entails in St. Bernard Parish.

Parish residents who want to learn and have a chance to ask questions should register for the new free, 12-week Citizens Police Academy sessions which begin Aug. 29 at Nunez Community College, Sheriff James Pohlmann said. Classes meet each Wednesday night through graduation night in November.

To register, residents should call (504) 278-7628 and speak with Capt. Charles Borchers, head of Community Relations and Neighborhood Watch programs for the Sheriff’s Office. Borhers also runs the Citizens Police Academy classes.

Pohlmann said, “This course will answer a lot of the questions you have had about law enforcement and why things are done the way they are.’’ Graduates, he said, become “ambassadors for law enforcement because it gives them a vested interest in what happens in St. Bernard.’’

He also said there are frank discussions about specifics of law enforcement in St. Bernard and chances for residents to ask questions and give their in-put.

There are numerous features to the Citizens Police Academy program, such as:

– Hearing from sheriff’s commanders on various phases of law enforcement including patrol work, narcotics enforcement, detective duties, SWAT team demonstrations.

– Receiving boating safety tips.

– Lectures from law enforcement agencies from outside St. Bernard.

– Touring Parish Prison and experiencing a firearms simulator and other hands-on use of equipment is a part of the program.

Without actually firing a gun, the firearms simulator – using computerized videos – puts residents in the shoes of a sheriff’s deputy and lets them decide when they would use deadly force on a criminal suspect.

Some 550 parish residents have graduated Citizens Police Academy in St. Bernard since its inception in 1999.

The classes, which will feature speakers from the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, are geared to fostering good relations between the community and law enforcement.

This is the fifth class for the Sheriff’s Citizens Police Academy since Hurricane Katrina and more than 130 people graduated those last four sessions, said Borchers, who coordinates the programs.

Borchers said the program “has been a great success since we started back.”