Citizen Police Academy offered by YPD
The Yuma Police Department has created a program called the ‘Citizen Police Academy’ where throughout a 12-week course the community can learn the basics of being an officer.
Sergeant Lor Franklin shared with News 11 that it is easy to forget how law enforcement put their lives on the line every single day, and this course gives the community a better understanding.
“Being in this job for sixteen-years you know I’ve kind of lost that mentality of the why you know, and people should know and try to think back, before I was an officer, I had questions as to why they did that and did this, so it’s always new it’s always refreshing,” said Sergeant Franklin.
Classes are held at the Yuma Police Department, and to enter the course you must pass a background check. You must also be over the age of 21 to participate.
“You can’t be a convicted felon or anything like that because you are going to be in this building, with our stuff, our officers,” said Sergeant Franklin.
Hands-on activities similar to their daily operations is shown throughout the course, and the community even hs an opportunity to learn about other departments within the force.
” You learn everything, I mean you get a class from an Investigations Unit to forensics, to what the patrol guys do, to DUI class, to the canines. I mean they go through so much stuff but I mean it’s being transparent with our community,” said Sergeant Franklin.
Sergeant Franklin says the application to enter the course every year can be picked up at the police department or requested online when the press releases go out to the community.
