graduated from the police academy

Yup. Tonight I graduated from the police academy. We were “Class 20” to have completed the Decatur Police Department’s “Citizens’ Police Academy”.

Other than having always been a closet “siren chaser”, I’m not sure why I enjoy the “public safety” kick that I’ve been on so much. As far as I can tell, it comes from having been a toddler in Brooklyn and having the firetrucks come to my house. And then hoping that the sirens I could hear were going elsewhere, not coming back to my house once again.

For years, we’ve had a police scanner in the house. I’d go through phases of listening to it and then turn it off for years. Now that we live in “downtown” Decatur, I hear sirens. Often. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but I want to know “What’s going on??” without actually leaving the comforts of home (or getting in the way!).

So for Christmas last year, Rob bought us me a new scanner that works on the new digital frequencies. And now the Decatur 911 dispatchers are my constant companions. After a couple of months listening, I had figured out many of the 10-codes and signals. But I still could not figure out a number of them. Different municipalities use different codes. The confusion that can be caused by this is what has led FEMA to promote “plain language” for radio communications, but Decatur PD likes their codes and they’re sticking to them.

Absolutely sure that Decatur PD was not taking nearly so many people into custody as what I was hearing based on my “best guess” at the 10-codes, I knew I needed to get ahold of the “cheatsheet”. When I found myself in the communications room at the police department during my Decatur 101 class, I took the opportunity to request a printout of the signals and codes. Clarity, at last! Now, as long as the dispatchers speak clearly enough, I have an idea of what is going on around town.

Soon after the Decatur 101 class ended, the opportunity arose to participate in Fire CAPS (Citizens’ Assisting Public Safety). Over eight weeks, we learned about the fire department, the fire trucks, FEMA Incident Management, first aid and more. We got to ride in fire trucks and rescue vehicles to respond to fire/rescue calls. And we got to hand out band-aids at festivals and give tours of the fire station.

Not long after I graduated from Fire CAPS, I learned that a similar program would be offered at the police department. Sign me up! During our eight weeks in “Citizens’ Police Academy”, we learned about patrolling, criminal investigations, search and seizure laws and more. In addition, we were given the opportunity (required) to ride-along with a patrol officer for part of a shift.

And tonight we graduated from police academy!