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Chicopee to start first Citizen Police Academy next month

Date: 8/28/2015

CHICOPEE – The Police Department will host its first-ever Citizen Police Academy beginning Sept. 28 as one effort to help the department receive state accreditation.

Mayor Richard Kos said during an Aug. 20 press conference the department is reviewing its processes, procedures and facility on the path to accreditation. Another aspect of that accreditation process is community engagement.

“Part of that [accreditation process] involves revising and reviewing our personnel polices, practices and procedures,” he told Reminder Publications after the press conference. “We’ve already indicated that one of the grants we’ve received – we’re going to be implementing Tasers within our community – there are a number of steps to be taken. It’s all not going to be phased in immediately, but it’s going to be phased in over a period of time.”

In some communities, the accreditation process takes up to two years, he noted.

According to information from the Massachusetts Municipal Association, accreditation is a self-initiated evaluation process in which police departments work to meet and maintain common standards.

Those standards include police management, operations, technical support activities in areas such as policy development, emergency response planning, training, communications, property and evidence handling, use of force, vehicular pursuit, prisoner transportation and holding facilities.

There are 50 communities throughout the Commonwealth that have achieved certification and accreditation of their police departments. Additionally, 81 departments are enrolled in the program to achieve accreditation.

The benefits of accreditation include the development of effective risk management tools to help prevent and reduce loss in professional liability claims.

In Massachusetts, accreditation is overseen by the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission, a nonprofit corporation governed by an 11-member board of directors.

Kos said he hoped the academy would help generate ideas to increase public safety in Chicopee neighborhoods.

Police Chief William Jebb said the Citizen Police Academy is one way to get the community involved with the department and “break down that barrier” that exists nationally today between law enforcement officers and community members.

“They will go over our practices in the police department,” he added. “We’re going to take them through every facet of training … we hope with the Citizens Academy, when we educate them on our best practices moving forward, that they can go out into the community and help us with our initiative to really partner with the community to help self-police to establish some of these neighborhood crime watches as we move forward.”

Jebb said he wants the Chicopee community to know that officers are approachable and “we need their help as well.”

He added that neighboring cities such as Springfield have already established Citizen Police Academies of their own.

“We have reached out to Springfield,” Jebb said. “We have a training division that’s established. We have three full-time officers working on training and they have been working diligently with the Springfield Police Department and other communities that have these citizen programs.”

The department isn’t looking to “reinvent the wheel” when it comes to a Citizen Police Academy, he noted.

“We want to take their best practices and implement them from the onset,” he added.

There will be 16 residents selected for the academy, Police Department Spokesman Michael Wilk said. The applicants would be chosen at random and additional applications will remain on file with the department for future academy programs.

The Police Department announced on its Facebook page on Aug. 28 the September class was full and no more applications would be accepted. Another class will take place in the spring.

The Citizen Police Academy will be hosted every Monday Sept. 28 to Nov. 30 at the Chicopee Public Library from 6 to 8 p.m.

The academy is open to all residents who are 18 years or older.