Informational Course On Law Enforcement Offered

By Andrew Gorosko

Police Patrol Officer Domenic Costello will again be coordinating the town police department’s informational program for the public known as Citizen Police Academy.

It is the police department’s 14th annual session of the free program. Former police chief Michael DeJoseph started the educational effort in the mid-1990s.

Officer Costello explained that the academy provides town residents and local business people with an overview of local law enforcement, within the context of the broader criminal justice system.

“Through classroom and hands-on instruction, the students will learn what it is like to be a police officer,” he said.

The academy will start on Wednesday, March 25, with its classes meeting on each Wednesday night through May 27. There will be a total of ten academy sessions. Each class will run from 6 to 9, including a 20-minute refreshment break. The last class will be a graduation ceremony.

The initial class will be held at the police station at 3 Main Street. Subsequent classes will be conducted at the town offices at 31 Peck’s Lane. Field trips also will be held.

Officer Costello explained that the academy provides an introduction to law enforcement topics, generally similar to the subject matter which is taught to police recruits at actual police academies.

The Citizen Police Academy will cover a range of topics including subjects such as: a tour of the police station and the town’s Emergency 911 dispatch center; becoming a police officer; patrol operations; crime prevention; domestic violence; police dog usage; crime scene investigations; fingerprinting; firearms instruction; police weaponry; criminal law as its applies to juveniles and to the schools; and drunken driving enforcement.

Officer Costello said that academy members will tour the state police’s firing range as a field trip in the program.

Speakers during the academy will include members of the police department, as well as a US Secret Service agent, he said.

To provide academy participants will an opportunity to view police operations first-hand, they will be able to spend four hours riding with an officer on patrol. The students would not be placed in any dangerous situations during the four-hour tour.

The academy is a free program open to people who are at least 18 years old. Space is available for 25 students. Preference will be given to town residents and to local business people who have not attended a prior Citizen Police Academy.

People who want to attend are required to complete an application form. Applications are available at the police station at 3 Main Street, as well as on the Internet at www.newtown-ct.gov.

Completed application forms may be hand-delivered to the police station, mailed in, or faxed in. Applicants will be subject to a computerized background check, including criminal history records, prior to acceptance into the academy.

Students are required to attend at least seven of the ten academy sessions to graduate from the course and to receive a certificate of completion.

People who have questions about Citizen Police Academy XIV may contact Officer Costello at the police station at 3 Main Street, Newtown CT, 06470. Telephone: 426-5841. Fax: 270-0637. Email: domenic.costello@newtown-ct.gov.