Police officers do more than just write traffic tickets and drink coffee. A lot more. Adults enrolled in Lake in the Hills' 10-week Citizen Police Academy are getting a behind-the-scenes look at police work and the men and women in blue who perform it.

From crime scene searches and the finer points of forensics to combating the proliferation of hardened criminals who haven't even reached puberty, police officers in this southern McHenry County village have been taking turns over the past year leading weekly three-hour classes designed to foster a feeling of teamwork between the police and the public.

Indeed, probably the biggest benefit of the program is that it breaks down some of the barriers between police officers and the citizens and gives residents a good, honest (as opposed to what they see on TV) look at what police officers really do. This in turn leads to a populace that's much more involved and interested in what Lake in the Hills Police Chief James Wales call "community policing."

Lake in the Hills first offered the Citizen Police Academy in the Spring of 1994. The program was so successful, the community added a fall session that year. The Village is currently on its fourth session, and has plans to offer a fifth in January,

The course, which was modeled after a similar program in England called The Police Night School, covers practically every aspect of police work performed by the Lake in the Hills police department, including traffic, criminal law, evidence technician work, patrol, computers, and gangs.

Officers who teach the course say they enjoy the interaction with residents and are pleased with the sometimes lively question and answer sessions at each class.

Residents enjoy a chance to experience police work first hand. They learn how to protect crime scenes, they climb into police cars and search for criminal histories or arrest records on mobile data terminals, they learn interrogation techniques and they learn about police fire power — those who wish to participate even shoot 50 rounds with a revolver or semi-automatic at a shooting range.

Because the firearm demonstration is one of the more dramatic subjects in the class, officers also spend time talking about what they go through mentally in a situation that involves gunfire — how they have to react in certain situations, when they can and cannot use force, and what kind of force can be used.

While backgrounds, ages and professions of the 15 to 20 participants enrolled in each session vary, an informal poll showed most signed up not only because they were curious but because they were interested in becoming more involved in their community.

Residents said they came away with not only a heightened sense of what goes on in the day of a life of their police officers, but, thanks to an atmosphere that's relaxed and often punctuated with laughter and good natured teasing, an appreciation for the police officers as people.

Noted one officer, "It definitely makes the police officers seem a lot more human to the people. We don't want them to be afraid of us in Lake in the Hills, we want them to think of us as their friends." •

January 1996 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 19