SOUTHWICK – The Southwick Citizens Police Academy graduation took place at the town hall auditorium on Wednesday evening.
A program that is eight weeks long, people from Southwick ranging in ages from 18-84 participated in the academy. It is based on allowing every-day citizens to experience what it is like to be a police officer on a daily basis.
The 27 participants in the fall 2016 class are the most that the Southwick Police Department has seen since the academy started in 1996.
Participation in the program has been up and down in the past and stopped after 1996 but returned in 2001. Since 2001, Southwick Police Sergeant Kirk Sanders has been running the program.
From 2001 until 2008, the academy was going strong until there was no more grant money to keep it going.
But, in 2013 when Chief David Ricardi became the Chief for the police department, he was determined to bring the Citizens Police Academy back into the community. Since 2001, there have been 425 people that have experienced the program.
Now in its twenty first year of graduating the citizens, Sanders and fellow police officers make it a point to get a diverse group of people together for the program.
“You get the group as one,” said Sanders.
To start the graduation ceremony, guest speakers took the podium. One of those was Select Board Chairman Russ Fox, who is a graduate himself of the academy, and then Chief Ricardi took the stage.
“I want to thank everybody for participating in this program,” said Ricardi.
Twenty seven people graduated from the Citizens Police Academy on Wednesday night. (Photo by Greg Fitzpatrick)
During his speech, Ricardi also acknowledged the dedication that Sanders has had with the academy over the years, including the outreach for help he has gotten from nearby cities like Springfield and Holyoke for their own citizen police academies.
“He does deserve a big round of applause,” said Ricardi as he addressed the crowd. “So Kirk (Sanders), thank you.”
A few students of the class then came up to the podium and made their respective speeches. Edward Abbe mentioned the part of the academy after week eight, when the citizens engaged in “You be the cop”.
That segment allowed the students to be put into real-life situations that cops face with actors and allows them to make a quick decision.
“No matter how much prep time you’ve had, nothing can prepare you for situational awareness,” said Abbe.
Another student speaker, Diana David, backed up Abbe’s statement about “You be the cop”.
“It was something I will never ever, ever forget.”
David urges the rest of the Southwick community to give the Citizens Police Academy a try.
“This was an unbelievable experience that every Southwick person should participate in,” said David.
Student Daniel Coogan described the time during the academy when Detective Sergeant Robert Landis and other officers had the class play the role of a detective.
“They had us at the edge of our seat trying to solve this robbery,” said Coogan.
Sanders and the rest of the officers also showed the students other aspects of being a police officer, which may require several hours at their desk. Student speaker Beth DeGrande talked about the amount of paperwork they had to do.
“There’s an awful lot of paperwork,” said DeGrande. “Every “t” must be crossed, every “i” must be dotted.”
Once the student speakers finished, gifts were given by citizens to some of the police officers present at the graduation that helped throughout the eight weeks.
All of the students were then given certificates for graduating. They were also given t-shirts that have a message on the back of the shirt saying, “A partnership of police and community through education.” An award was also given for the best shooter at the gun range, called “Top Gun”, which was given to student Arthur Lawlor.
Closing out the ceremony, Sanders gave a speech that included his appreciation for the graduates that decided to join the academy.
“We have enjoyed sharing what we (police officers) do with the community,” said Sanders. “I thank you students for making this commitment.”
