Carol Stock (left) is seen among fellow graduates from the Medicine Hat Police Service Citizens Police Academy during their graduation ceremony Thursday night at police headquarters.--NEWS PHOTO BRENDAN MILLER
bmiller@medicinehatnews.com
Last night 20 residents graduated from the Medicine Hat Police Service Citizens Academy after completing a 10-week outreach program that provides citizens an opportunity to gain a better understanding on what is involved to keep a community safe.
Over the past 10 weeks participants have gathered at police headquarters to participate in three-hour educational sessions. Each nightly session included three presenters from different police units within the service.
“So they’ve been able to see some of the new equipment that we’ve got, some of the files that we get,” explained Sgt. Carissa Witkowski, who organized and hosted the academy. “There’s been some case studies to show exactly how investigations are handled within those units.”
Sessions included presentations from units on Major Crime Investigations, Victim Services, Explosive Disposal Unit and Crisis Negotiators, as well as firearms and control tactics demonstrations.
Witkowski explained to the News that because Medicine Hat is a smaller servicer, many officers undergo training in several different fields of policing, and one officer may be part of several units.
“We might be part of PAC team, we might be part of TAC team,” says Witkowski. “You’re not doing one job, you always have multiple hats and whatever present situation you’re presented with, you decide which hat or which combination of hats you’re going to wear.
“It really opened up the eyes to the civilians of how much knowledge and how much training each officer actually needs to be able to police a community just of this size.”
Carol Stock, who graduated from the citizens academy, told the News that throughout the entire course she was most impressed with the level of “humanity” each officer displayed.
Stock recalled a presentation given by officers of the downtown patrol unit who noticed a street woman sleeping on the street, “And she was just kind of slumped over sleeping, so they sat there and they watched her to make sure that no one took advantage of her or bothered her while she was sleeping,” to make sure she was safe.
“The level of humanity, I mean, they’re really in it to help people,” Stock added. “That’s not always the impression that we get when you’re watching Miami Vice or CSI, but when you see all that they do and all that they risk, it’s got to be in your heart. You are not paid enough if it’s not in your heart.”
Stock, who has experience as a social worker, says she came with an interest to learn more about becoming a volunteer with victims services and is hoping to participate in training following her graduation.
“I think now I’m almost more interested in prevention; is there anything I could do or anything I could contribute to help people make better decisions?”
Along with lectures the academy also provided hands-on learning and practical demonstrations that included forensic identification.
“Being able to do fingerprints and how to be able to find DNA and have it go in through the system search,” said Witkowski. “They also enjoyed our tech unit, when they go online and the different means there are to potentially get evidence from cellphones or from cars, or from IP addresses.”
Graduates were also able to participate in a firearms and control tactics training session where they were able to use police-issued tasers and pepper spray in a shooting simulation.
“This really provided a lot of front row information for them and hopefully they can go out to their communities and be advocates for us and explain how much they’ve learned,” said Witkowski.
This year the Citizen Police Academy received 66 applications and was reintroduced to allow citizens who are interested in learning more about policing and those interested in a possible career in policing, and was last offered to residents in Medicine Hat in 2016.
