Just the facts about Citizen Police Academy

GARNER -- Ever wonder why police officers seldom wave back at people who wave at them?

Well, it's not because of institutional protocol or that they are a stuck-up, collective bunch of stick-in-the-muds.

Instead police officers are focused on other matters, such as whether you are rolling down the road with an expired registration sticker or whether that dent in the front quarter panel of your Ford Taurus might be evidence of a hit-and-run reported the week before.

Not to mention that the officer might be listening to his radio scanner or trying to respond to a computer that's binging with new information.

"Imagine if the desk in your office is beside a window," said Troy Young, senior officer with the Garner Police Department. "You aren't going to wave at every car that goes past. Well, a patrol car is an office on four wheels."

Triangle residents can learn such subtleties about police work at the Garner Police Department's eighth annual Citizen Police Academy. Police say the program allows residents to get hands-on experience about law enforcement training and police operations. Participants range from twentysomethings interested in careers in law enforcement, to middle-aged residents and senior citizens who simply want to know more about police work.

The 10-week academy begins Sept. 11. Topics include domestic violence investigations, drunken driving detection, use of force and building searches. The first year of the academy, five people signed up. Now the instructors expect 10 to 20 people to enroll.

The academy is one of a handful in the Triangle. Cary police started the first citizen police academy in Wake County a decade ago. The Durham Police Department began a Spanish-language citizens police academy three years ago, the first of its kind in North Carolina.

The classes are an abbreviated introduction to the 602-hour, 16-week basic training every police officer in North Carolina must complete before being sworn in.

The classes are not all sitting behind a desk listening to an officer drone on about police tactics, Young said. Instead, residents work with two to three officers each session and act out scenarios based on what they have learned.

"We may tell them, 'You have people injured by an active shooter still inside of a business. Now, go get him,' " Young said.

The officers watch as the students' adrenaline pumps and beads of sweat appear on their foreheads.

Or, during class for DWI detection, the students are asked to put on goggles that impair the vision to simulate a DWI stop, while their fellow classmates put them through sobriety tests.