Unit 1A: Day One
Open PDFThe first day of the Junior Police Academy is vital to setting the stage for the rest of the program.
Your cadets will not only be sizing you up, but they will be forming opinions about law enforcement in general.
For this reason we have provided you with an abundance of materials for launching your Academy.
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The First 10 Minutes:
Strategies for Introducing Youth People to Law Enforcement in the United States.
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Distributing Cadet Handout:
We have provided three different handouts. Choose the one most appropriate to your cadets.
Junior Police Academy: The Cadet Code
Notes on “Junior Police Academy: The Cadet Code” Handout:
You will want to establish strict, unwavering rules among your cadets.
The Junior Police Academy draws upon, at least in spirit, the experience of attending an actual police academy. As with an actual academy, you will need to articulate and enforce rules governing cadet conduct.
Every officer will have their own personal take on setting the rules.
While deference should be given to the school's existing rules, don't hesitate to institute a code of conduct that goes well beyond what is expected of the general student population.
Setting a higher standard of ethics and integrity for cadets can itself become a learning experience. Just as a higher standard is required of police officers, so too will it be required of cadets.
Best advice: Be consistent with your enforcement of the rules.
Statistics for Face to Face Contacts with Police
Information to help overcome some of the misconceptions young people have about the relationship between the police and the public.
Skills Critical to a Good Police Officer
NOTES on “Skills Critical to a Good Police Officer” Handout:
This handout is primer for cadets, outlining the skills critical to the profession. Each skills set offers the instructor an opportunity to share his own experience on the job.
While you are not a professional teacher, you are professionally engaged in what you are about to teach.
So don’t be afraid to pay your ace card: your experience!
We encourage our law enforcement instructors to invest their own professional experiences into the learning process. Tell the story of policing as only you can – the profound joy, sadness, courage, despair and hope!
Stories have the power to reveal truth in a way that raw facts cannot.
Choose the one most appropriate to your cadets.
First Day Slideshow
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Print Article Unit 1B: Strategies for Introducing Young People to Law Enforcement
At the Junior Police Academy, we believe that public safety officers provide an ideal role model for mutual respect, tolerance and the peaceful resolution of conflict.
I hope these strategies will encourage you to catch the spirit of JPA and give reality to a noble historic tradition: police are the public and the public are the police.
My profession....
Where do I begin?
Each strategy below is a framework for a potentially compelling narrative.But that's all.
The magic really happens when our law enforcement instructors completely depart from my poor words and tell their own story. Remember, you have one great advantage over an English lit teacher, your stories of heroic deeds and a quest for justice are true!
Introductory Statements
And a question to frame the discussion.
INSTRUCTOR:
Welcome to the Junior Police Academy. My name is Officer__________.
In this Academy you will learn about my profession - law enforcement.
Graduation from an actual law enforcement academy, like the one I attended, the Smithville County Law Enforcement Academy, was required before I could be placed on active duty.
Graduation from the Junior Police Academy will not make you eligible for active duty with the Smithville Police Department.
It does, however, confer on you a certain rank and distinction that we hope will follow you into adulthood.
You will graduate from the academy with a special insight into policing that few citizens possess.
Tell them you will return to the question at the conclusion of your presentation.
Strategies for Introducing Young People to Law Enforcement
Each are written in the voice of the law enforcement instructor.
Like No Other Job in the World
INSTRUCTOR:
Imagine it's your job to uphold the law fairly and firmly.
You must strive to prevent crime.When a crime is committed, you must pursue and bring to justice those responsible.
You need to be professional, calm and restrained in the face of violence and apply only that force which is necessary.
You must protect, help and reassure all members of your community, striving to reduce their fear of crime.
In doing these things, you must be compassionate, courteous and patient, acting without fear or favor or prejudice to the rights of others.
You must act with integrity, common sense and sound judgement in all that you do - while on-duty and off.
You will experience life like no other profession on earth. You witness the best and the worst behavior in your fellow citizens. You must deal with good people on their worse day and bad people on their best.
People at their extremes - not from the comfort of a classroom - but in your face or worse yet, just over your shoulder.
As a police officer, you don't read about history, you are an eyewitness, sometimes a participant.
You must possess good judgement and display character. Why?
Because you are entrusted with enormous power: to deprive a fellow citizen of their liberty. As a police officer you are entrusted with the power to take into custody citizens - by force if necessary.
On rare occasions, you may even have to use lethal force and deprive a citizen of their life.
The Pillars of Democracy:
INSTRUCTOR: As enforcers of the law, police play a crucial role in upholding democracy.
In democratic societies, citizens grant increased authority to police in order to live in a safe community. They give police the power to detain, search, arrest citizens, and lawfully use physical force when situations dictate.This authority is unlike any granted to other members of the government. In this sense, police officers are the very pillars of a democratic society.
There is a social contract between citizens and law enforcement officers. This Trust is critical to a functioning democracy.
In the United States our rights are set forth in the United States Constitution. They are the rightful heritage of every citizen.
In a very real way, day in and day out, it is a police officers' responsibility to safeguard a citizens' constitutional rights.
The way that police officers talk to citizens;
the way that they interact during a traffic stop;
every sentence that they put together;
every comment that they make to the community...
...all have a profound impact on how citizens view their government at large.
Every time a police officer has contact with the public, the citizen who is involved makes a judgement.
And studies have shown that the single most determining factor for how a citizen evaluates that contact is not "did I receive a ticket", but rather "was I treated fairly."
How a citizen answers that question will renew or erode their confidence in democracy and the fairness of our system of government.
Life is Not Fair. But I Am
The police are the most visible pillars of a decent, harmonious society. When they act with predictability, restraint, and fealty to the rule of law, ordinary people gain faith in their government.
When the most dispossessed person in the poorest neighborhood receives the same treatment as the rich man living high upon the hill, civil society is strengthened and the police are ennobled.
The Guarantors of Personal Dignity
No doubt some will protest that human dignity-centered policing is a simplistic solution to a set of complex, often unique police challenges. But as the most visible public institution that is charged with maintaining justice, the police in their ordinary duties have the power to be guarantors of personal dignity and even-handed treatment - truly heroic figures in their own right.
These duties are a professional calling. They cannot be outsourced or privatized.
Unit 1C: My Profession
The First Hour
We suggest that you start with the UNIT "Introduction to the Junior Police Academy”. It suggests several options for starting the program off with some dramatic flare. It’s important to provide cadets with an overall vision of the program, while furnishing them with a glimpse of the incredible scope of American law enforcement – as well as the stakes involved.
2
Good morning cadets. My name is Officer Sam Jones, I serve as a School Resource Officer with the Smithville Police Department.
Welcome to the Junior Police Academy.
In this Academy you will learn about my profession – law enforcement.
Graduation from an actual law enforcement academy, like the one I attended, the Smithville County Law Enforcement Academy, was required before I could be placed on active duty.
3
It does, however, confer on you a certain rank and distinction that will follow you into adulthood.
What I'm talking about?
Well, for one thing, you will graduate from the academy with an insight into policing that few citizens possess.
4
Imagine it’s your job to uphold the law fairly and firmly.
You must strive to prevent crime.
When a crime is committed, you must pursue and bring to justice those responsible.
You need to be professional, calm and restrained in the face of violence and apply only that force which is necessary.
You must protect, help and reassure all members of your community, striving to reduce their fear of crime.
5
In doing these things, you must be compassionate, courteous and patient, acting without fear or favor or prejudice to the rights of others.
You must act with integrity, common sense and sound judgement in all that you do – while on-duty and off.
6
You will experience life like no other profession on earth.
You witness the best and the worst behavior in your fellow citizens.
You must deal with good people on their worse day and bad people on their best.
7
People at their extremes – not from the comfort of a classroom – but in your face or worse yet, just over your shoulder.
8
As a police officer, you don’t read about history, you are an eyewitness, sometimes a participant.
9
You must possess good judgement and display character. Why?
Because you are entrusted with enormous power: to deprive a fellow citizen of their liberty.
As a police officer you are entrusted with the power to take into custody citizens – by force if necessary.
On rare occasions, you may even have to use lethal force and deprive a citizen of their life.
10
Police authority is unlike any granted to other members of the government.
In this sense, police officers are the very pillars of a democratic society.
11
Trust between citizens and police is critical to a functioning democracy.
In the United States our rights are set forth in the United States Constitution. They are the rightful heritage of every citizen.
In a very real way, day in and day out, it is a police officers’ responsibility to safeguard a citizens’ constitutional rights.
12
The way that police officers talk to citizens;
the way that they interact during a traffic stop;
every sentence that they put together; every comment that they make to the community...
...all have a profound impact on how citizens view their government at large.
13
Every time a police officer has contact with the public, the citizen involved makes a judgement.
And studies have shown that the single most determining factor for how a citizen evaluates that contact is not “did I received a ticket”, but rather “was I treated fairly.”
That judgement has the power to renew or erode the citizen’s confidence in democracy and the fairness of our system of government.
Unit 2: Law Enforcement in America
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