Monroe Citizen's Academy

Jason and I are taking the Citizen's Academy from the Monroe PD. It's an eight week course where we learn all about the police department including many hands on events. Its open to people who live or work (me - at City Hall) in Monroe. The first night was last week where we got a tour of the police department and then had a presentation from a sketch artist. I always wondered how a drawing could be made from someone seeing the bad guy for mere seconds. I now understand better how its possible and how accurate the drawing can be compared to a photo of the bad guy...pretty cool.

We also have a few Saturday sessions, the first was last weekend. We first received instructions on how cops are taught to drive better in order to keep up with fast cars during a pursuit. We then headed out the fair grounds where an obstacle course was set up so we could test our new skills! We all got to drive the course a few times with a cop in the passenger seat. When Jason drove I rode in the backseat and he did pretty good! The first time I drove Jason rode in the backseat then the second time he hopped out to video tape me. For some extra flare Jason asked the cop if he would turn on the lights. He abliged and even went so far as to flip the siren once I started driving. I have to say the first time through the course is a little slower to get the feel of it but I still pushed it and my heart raced a little. The second half of the course is backwards which is just slow no matter what. So anyway, my second time through once the siren started I really pushed it and felt like I had to drive as fast as possible. I was surprised at how the sound of the sirens really affected my effort. It was a BLAST and I wish the course was longer! The video below is my experience and it does not do it justice. I was seriously driving as fast as possible around the cones. And the cop said as long as the cones don't tip over - I passed!

Last night we learned all about the Police K-9s, specifically pursuit dogs (versus drug dogs). Then we got a demonstration of Joker, the German Shepherd, attacking the "sleeve" used in training. After that we went to a warehouse where the SERT (swat) team performed demonstrations.

We are really looking forward to the Saturday night ride-along coming up in a few weeks! We will also be shooting firearms at a shooting range and visiting the prison. More to come....