Citizen police academies (CPAs) are police programs intended to educate members of the public about the general duties and problems of policing their community. CPAs are intended to improve police-community relations by informing citizens about the structure and operation of their local police department. Using a common curriculum and structure, CPA programs teach citizens about the challenges and realities of police work. It is hoped that CPA graduates will become more sympathetic to the difficulties of modern police work, both in general and within their own community. CPA graduates are expected to serve as informal advocates for the local police, exponentially increasing the benefits of these programs.
CPA programs are based on the theory that educating small groups of citizens on how local police agencies and officers operate will improve broader community support. The idea dates back to 1977, when the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary in the United Kingdom established a ten-week “Police Night School.” Select citizens from the area were invited to attend the school. Students and their police instructors met one night a week, with different police personnel volunteering to teach various topics to the citizen-students. The school and its curriculum were created to educate attendees about general issues in British policing, as well as the challenges faced by the local constabulary. The night school was well received by both constables and citizens, and similar programs were implemented in other British constabularies.
The first American CPA program was sponsored by the Orlando (Florida) Police Department in 1985 (Greenberg 1991). The Orlando program based its structure and curriculum on the British model; it also offered attendees the opportunity to observe an officer during a “ride-along” and to receive basic training in the use of police firearms. In the following years, CPA programs were adopted by a number of agencies across the United States. CPAs are now a common programmatic element that agencies use to educate the public about the challenges and realities of crime and police work. As the label implies, these programs expose citizens to an accelerated course about police work; in many ways they are similar to some of the topics new police officers will learn in their training academy.
Although their exact structure, content, organization, and length might vary, American CPAs tend to be alike in many regards (Bumphus, Gaines, and Blakely 1999). Most programs meet one evening a week for three hours and last a total of ten to twelve weeks. It is common to have a voluntary weekend meeting where citizens can learn basic firearm usage and safety, while being exposed to the policy and legal frameworks within which police officers use deadly force. Many programs also offer students the opportunity to “ride along” with an officer to observe police work with their own eyes. Course materials are delivered by a variety of speakers, including patrol officers, detectives, police leaders, prosecutors, judges, and social service providers. Common lecture topics include an overview of the community and its crime problems, an introduction to the sponsoring agency and its structure, patrol operations, investigative operations, the prosecution and adjudication of criminal cases at the local level, special weapon and tactic teams, canine and special service units, and criminal law and police policy. Programs typically end with a graduation ceremony in which those completing the program are given a certificate and other commemorative memorabilia.
By exposing citizens to CPA programs, it is hoped that departments will generate more support and understanding within their community. Much of the focus of CPAs can be on differentiating between the media image of police work and the realities of policing in a community. For example, discussions of patrol operations provide insights into the realities of how officers spend their time. Lectures on law and policy shed light on the complex decisions officers must make and the context within which they do so. Courses on firearms use and safety are also mechanisms for introducing citizens to the complexity of using deadly force in a legal, ethical, and moral manner. In the end, agencies hope to create “goodwill ambassadors” within their community; in this way, CPAs can be seen to serve important public relations functions.
Another objective of CPAs is to build citizen support for, and involvement in, local police operations. Graduates of some CPA programs have created “alumni associations” that volunteer in support of other departmental efforts and raise money to support departmental needs and causes. For example, alumni might hold a car wash to raise money for a bulletproof vest for an agency’s canine. In other communities, CPA graduates are encouraged to volunteer their time doing basic clerical work, answering nonemergency phone calls, and staffing information desks. Even in the absence of volunteer involvement, it is expected that CPA graduates will be more informed citizens who can serve as an agency’s ”eyes and ears” within a community.
Some agencies have experimented with CPA programs targeting select populations, including youth, senior citizens, and business leaders. These focused CPA programs modify their content to present important information for their specific audience. A youth academy might focus more on policing as a career and the importance of cooperating with the police. A senior’s academy could explore issues of public safety and crime awareness, and could also encourage retirees to volunteer their time and talents to support the sponsoring agency. A business academy may serve a crime prevention function by discussing facility security, how to avoid being the victim of fraud, and how to train staff members to respond to criminal events.
Despite their strong potential, we know little about the actual outcome of CPA programs. One of the greatest problems CPAs have is attracting participants from segments of the population that mistrust the police. In one community, the average CPA graduate began the program with a positive view of the sponsoring agency (Schafer and Bonello 2001). Although including ”pro-police” citizens has many merits, the absence of ”anti-police” citizens limits the ability of CPA programs to truly improve police-community relations, particularly where such improvements are needed the most. In this same agency (Schafer and Bonello 2001), it was found that 56% of CPA participants had already volunteered their time prior to entering this program. Although both volunteerism and positive attitudes toward the police increased after participants graduated, it is reasonable to ask whether the program was reaching deep enough into the community in an effort to achieve its goals.
CPAs hold the promise of being effective dimensions of departmental efforts, but whether they are having the impact agencies hoped to achieve remains unclear. In addition, CPA programs can be moderately expensive, costing agencies several hundred dollars per participant in addition to the time personnel must devote to operate the program and deliver lectures. It is reasonable to ask whether the resulting benefits are worth the associated expenses.
