Police Academy teaches a reporter a few new tricks

The Havre Police Department Citizens Academy took a group of interested community members through a crash course in what it's like to be an officer.

The class met every Wednesday for around two months and topics were varied. Each class would explore one aspect of the officers' line of work. Classes covered topics including crime scene investigation, how to safely pull over a vehicle, gun safety, recognizing when lethal force is applicable and others.

The first class covered how to become a police officer.

Becoming an HPD officer is not as easy as walking into the station and asking for an application. The path to becoming an officer is long and arduous.

A physical test that has a pass rate floating somewhere in the 70-percentile must be passed, along with a written test. When applying to a police department, the investigation into your past is extensive, to put it lightly. They will call people you haven't spoken to in years to ask about your character in the past. Neighbors, teachers, strangers and anyone else might have a say about you. Once, and if, you pass that, psychological evaluations and multiple interviews must be completed.

You also must complete a weeks-long academy to learn how to be an officer.

If you succeed in the long process of becoming an officer and are hired at the Havre station, you still have a probationary year left before you're a full-fledged officer.

The citizen classes were scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, but never ended at 8. The vast amount of information they tried to package in the time slot never fit, and engaged discussions with the audience often ran after 9 or close to 10 p.m.

--

Two or three hours is enough time to gain an insight into an aspect of the life of an officer, but to say one could know what the officers go through in that time is a falsity.

A few classes later, I would find myself pointing a practice Glock with paintball bullets at a police officer who was yelling at me from behind a mask. He had a revolver, held upside down in one hand. My partner and I had just rounded a corner to find him in an altercation with a woman.

He could have taken my gun a beaten me with it.

The exercise had to do with when and how to use lethal force on someone and I failed it miserably. Quick on the draw, I faltered on the trigger. Even knowing full well the situation was fake and performed, adrenaline still rises up when a man half a foot taller than you and a hell of a lot stronger is coming at you with a gun in his hand.

I was later told he even touched my gun with his other hand. I had no idea. This is something officers have to deal with in the field. Days later, they will remember something that happened in an incident. Adrenaline and stress does funny things to a human brain.

It was easier shooting paper men at the law agency shooting range. One Saturday morning, the class followed police to the range near the Border Patrol administration building to shoot pump-action shotguns, Glocks and AR-15s. My beard grew two inches that day.

The final day of the class was Wednesday, and we learned how to measure motor vehicle crashes and laws. The night ended with a presentation of certifications and everyone got their own copy of the recognizable patch the officers wear on their sleeves.

The citizens' academy was extremely informative and eye-opening. The entire program is public relations and it works. However, what in life is not public relations? And the police force is the ultimate PR agency. They live their lives at work dealing and communicating with the public.

I highly recommend the citizens academy, for many reasons. The information alone is intriguing, but getting closer to knowing what it takes to be a cop is the best aspect of the course. Until you go through the intense process of becoming one, you'll never really know what it does to a person and what it takes. But, options to further your understanding their lives are out there, and the academy is a good one.