LONGVIEW CITIZENS POLICE ACADEMY- Folks living in Longview, Texas have an opportunity to learn what goes in to Policework as the Longview Police Department offers a Citizens Police Academy. Our reporter Gary Borders in Longview tells us more.
The Longview Police Department now operates three programs that encourage citizen involvement and education in police operations. The longest running program is the Citizens Police Academy which kicked off its 6-week program this month for the 27th year with a couple dozen participants. A new program, the Business Police Academy is also underway while the Teen Police Academy is in its second year and begins in January.
Lt. Ben Kemper has been managing these programs since 2011. He explained the purpose behind the program. "It's kind of two-fold, for us it's to get to know our community better. And it's for the community to come in and get to know more about their police department. We want to teach the public what its police department really does. What you see on TV is not really what you get in real life policing. So we want to talk about those things but we also want to get feedback from each one of these groups on how we can better serve them and maybe where we're falling flat in that area."
The public is invited to participate in the free Citizen Police Academy, scheduled 6:15pm to 8:30pm every Tuesday and Thursday from Sept. 6 - Oct. 18.
Longview/Texas.gov/CPA or call (903) 237-1199
