Citizens' Police Academy Kicks Off
The first class of the latest session of Shorewood's Citizens' Police Academy covered recruiting, the application process and training of cadets, up through an officer's first weeks on the job.
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Police work is a unique career opportunity, Cmdr. Aaron Klima said on the first night of the Shorewood Citizens' Police Academy.
"It's one of the only jobs where you can take a life, save a life, or lose your life," Klima told the 16 men and women in attendance Monday night.
And that kind of stress takes a toll, he said, with the police suffering a relatively high rate of both divorce and suicide.
"It's not just a job, it's a career," Klima said, and went on to explain how one pursues a vocation in law enforcement, from the application process, to testing, to training at the academy, up through learning on the job.
This first session of the Citizens' Police Academy will be followed by 12 more, with classes in crime scene investigation, drunken driving enforcement, the use of Tazers and pepper spray, and white collar crime, as well as a field trip to a firearms training facility.
The 16 citizen cadets in attendance Monday night ranged in age from 20 through 80. The quarter-year academy curriculum will give them a glimpse of the day-to-day duties of Shorewood's police officers.
"It's very interesting," said Kim Shanahan, who was attending the class with her husband, Mike, and son William, who was recently commissioned as an officer in the Marines and is waiting to be deployed.
Village Planner Karen James also signed up for the class. Even though she has worked closely with police officers on such tasks as securing grants, James still saw value in finding out even more about the department.
"I think it's very important to learn from their perspective what they do," James said.
Klima not only told the class about the rigorous selection process cadets are subjected to before they are hired on, but touched on the department's relationship with the community and how it is responsive to the wants of the people.
"The chief would tell you, the No. 1 complaint in Shorewood is traffic," he said. "So what do we concentrate on? Traffic."
Traffic troubles aside, Klima pointed out that the village has a high quality of life.
"We don't have prostitutes and drug dealers on a lot of street corners in Shorewood," he said. "This is a great place to work and live."
Shorewood Citizen
9:55 am on Saturday, May 28, 2011
Shorewood is a two-mile square radius town, a mostly residential community. The main thorough fare are Rt. 59 & Rt. 52. The Shorewood Police Department focus is to generate revenue to keep its way over staffed Police Department employed. It is not about safety in the community it is about, how much revenue can we generate by pulling over our own Residence in residential area due to light out on license plate, or going 3 miles over the speed limt. It is a little bizarre when you see 5 squad cars pulling a older female passenger over for a traffic violation in the middle of RUSH hour traffic near I-55 & Rt. 52. Definite display of WOW we have nothing else to do & boy we better look busy. I would be curious to know how much money the City of Shorewood brings in to the Village & County for its traffic violations in comparison to other surrounding communities? And how many Police Officers they have per Capita & square miles territory? My guess is someone should be looking @ the Police Department staffing budget?