Citizen’s Police Academy – Week Two

So today was week two of the Citizen’s Police Academy. I have to apologize that I don’t have any pictures today, after all, we sat in a training room and listened to presentations all night. I’m not complaining, just stating the facts.

Today we talked about Support Division. In Carmel, the Support Division has four lieutenants, one sergeant, six police officers, twelve civilians, and four chaplains. They are responsible for: accreditation, records, media relations, city garage, crime watch, school resource officers, DARE, training, hiring, and other things.

The two things that astonished me the most was the accreditation and training process. Anyone that has lived in Carmel or Northern Indianapolis has probably joked once or twice about Carmel PD. Often times you’ll see two officers pulled over behind a car or someone got pulled over for going a few miles over the speed limit (which hasn’t been true lately). But I have to say that the more I learn about this department, the more impressed I am with it.

These men and women put in a lot of time in training. Prior to heading to the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy, they spend time at Carmel PD learning the ropes. In addition to their initial training, the State of Indiana requires that officers have twenty-four hours of continuing law enforcement training each year which should include: firearms, defensive tactics, domestic violence, CPR, hazardous materials, Spanish, EVO (Emergency Vehicle Operations), ethics, law update, roll call training, and specialized training. Carmel spends 120 hours per officer, per year on training. This is five times more than the state recommendation.

I also learned that CPD is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). First off, I think that agency needs a shorter name, we’ll call it CALEA for short. CALEA really sets the standard for operating procedures in police departments. It is not mandatory for a police department to join CALEA, nor does it really come with any rewards. In its most simplest form, I suppose we could compare it to a college accreditation agency. Colleges don’t have to be accredited, but if they want to do things in a professional manner that can be transferred across to other colleges, it’s a good idea. In the same way, departments of CALEA share standards: organization, management, administration, personnel structure, operations, etc.

One of the big things we talked about was officer recruitment and the interview process. It’s not so easy to get into the police department. First there’s the pre-application. One must not have any felony convictions, class A misdemeanors, or selected class D misdemeanors.

If the prospect passes the pre-application process, they’ll be asked to come in and take a written test administered by Institute for Public Safety Personnel. Then there’s the physical fitness standards. When you go to the law enforcement academy, there are standards to get in and then there are standards to pass. Right off the bat, Carmel expects their recruits to be able to pass ILEA physical fitness exit standards.

There are also firearm standards that one must pass in order to move on in the process. According to the recruiter, few fail the firearms testing, but it is still required.

I’m sure I probably missing some steps. But if the prospect is able to pass the pre-app, written, physical fitness, and firearms tests, they’ll make it to the next stage. Are you ready for this? Polygraph tests. All candidates who get this far in the process not only have an interview with an interview board, but they are also hooked up to a polygraph machine and asked questions. Surprisingly, around half of the candidates fail this test because of various reasons. Some contradict what they write on their application, others fail for other reasons.

If the candidate passes all these tests, then the department runs some background processes. They talk to friends, neighbors, do a home visit, talk to the candidate’s husband or wife (if applicable). They look at how the candidate handles themselves, how they keep their home, etc. Here’s a short clip from one of my favorite old shows that talk a little bit about the process….

Well, are you bored yet? I personally found a lot of this interesting. We covered some other things tonight include some more support division stuff, as well as talking about the chaplaincy and basic training. But in the order of keeping things short, I’ll stop for now.

I hope you’ll check in next week, we’ll be doing criminal investigations and crime scene stuff. Everyone has told me that it’s more hands-on, which means that I should have some pictures for all of you. In the mean time, keep your nose clean, kid.