CITIZEN COPS

The Citizen’s Police Academy gives civilians a closer look at what police

By Kara Hansen

The West Linn Tidings, Dec 3, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

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Part of that appreciation came from her turn in “the scenario,” a video-game-style simulator used for training. Located in a room at the Milwaukie Police Department, the machine — described by one deputy as an “$80,000 Xbox on steroids” — puts the player in a variety of heart-pumping, high-stakes situations.

Holding a laser-shooting Glock and staring at the wall-sized screen, Cook found herself in a school with a shooter on the loose.

“Children were in there, and I’ve never held a gun before,” she recounted. “It was stressful. Very stressful. I was shaking for an hour afterward.”

Each academy session has focused on a few topics, such as police ethics and hiring, gang awareness and enforcement, investigations, and identity theft.

Part of a lesson in firearms and defensive tactics, Cook’s experience in the simulator followed a lecture-style presentation on the use of force.

Officers can use a variety of methods and tools to restrain suspects while protecting themselves and the person under arrest, West Linn’s Sgt. Boyd told the class.

Based on the level of threat, he said, officers might display their authority in relatively passive ways — through body language and overall demeanor — or progress to physical force, including the use of “focused blows” or hair and joint take-downs, and of weapons such as Taser guns, which can deliver five seconds of electric shock to temporarily disable a suspect.

The last option is deadly force, used only when facing lethal levels of resistance.

“Everything we do is based on totality of circumstances,” Boyd said. “What’s the ground like? Is there lighting? What do I know already?”

Other considerations include the suspect’s age, size, strength, fighting abilities and mental state.

Officers have had to adjust their skills to keep up with the times. For instance, in the mid-1990s, many began to learn grappling and ground fighting as mixed martial arts became a mainstream activity, said Boyd, who is skilled in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and taekwondo.

Even so, Boyd said he has only used force twice over more than a decade with the West Linn Police Department.

The citizen’s academy not only enhances participants’ understanding of police operations, he said, it has benefits for officers as well.

“It gives them an understanding of the officers as people, it gives them exposure to what we do and how situations might have evolved. On the flip side, if the only time I interact with high school students is in a corrective role, it could skew my view of all high school students,” he said. “If we can put officers in situations with people in more interactive ways, it’s beneficial for the officers’ mental health.”

West Linn Police Chief Terry Timeus agreed, and he noted the program’s costs are “minimal.”

“The academy is an excellent opportunity for citizens to get a snapshot of what law enforcement does and why we do some of the things that we do,” he said. “I also think the law enforcement community benefits by hearing some of the perceptions that citizens have in regard to law enforcement.”

“Much of what we do is never known to the public,” he said. “A lot of what we do is assisting people with small problems,” offering them advice about making better decisions in the future, and helping them through tough times.

Counter to what some may perceive by relying only on news reports, Timeus added, “Most contacts police make do not result in an arrest or a citation being issued.”

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