Explosions, Tasers and meeting a K9 have all been a part of the Junior Police Academy experience this week.
The academy, with the St. Joseph Police Department, is geared toward area students ages 12 to 14 who have an interest in a career in law enforcement.
“I came here because I want to do a line of work like my father. My father is a St. Joe police officer,” said 12-year-old Autumn, who is attending the Junior Police Academy. “We’ve been learning how to tase people, how to book evidence and we learned about Thazer.”
Thazer (pronounced like Taser) is a Dutch Shepherd and the St. Joseph Police Department K9. Officer Dillon Powell, the department’s K9 handler, spoke to the over 20 students Thursday morning and introduced Thazer. Other activities during the week included going to the gun range, hearing from the Bicycle Unit, riding in a squad car and more.
“SRT, on Wednesday, surprised us with an explosion,” said Officer Devin Kallauner. “They had two breach explosions and then they had a very large explosion that the kids absolutely loved. The bad part is, it was in the middle of the week so we have to follow the big day with some boring days, but they got a kick out of it.”
Kallauner said the Junior Police Academy offers an opportunity for students to learn more about law enforcement and what officers do on a daily basis.
“This camp is geared towards kids that are interested in law enforcement.. there are kids that also want to be in the FBI and this is a start,” Kallauner said. “This is something they could put on a resume for a law enforcement career… that they went through this and they see how the day-to-day operations of a police department work.”
Kallauner said this is the first year of the academy and they plan to continue it. The department is also considering another program for 15 to 21-year-olds.
“That’s something where you can graduate from the Junior Academy and you can move up to, I guess we’re going to call it an explorer program… we are just talking about it and, right now, our thoughts are meeting once a month instead of having it one big long week,” Kallauner said. “We’ll just span it out throughout the year to keep them interested in law enforcement, not necessarily tell them they have to come here, it’s a good recruiting tool for us, but it’s going to help other departments and other agencies throughout the state, throughout the U.S. and maybe other countries, if they decide they want to be a police officer somewhere else, but this is a good start for all the kids.”
The Junior Police Academy will wrap up with a graduation Friday. Next week, the Cops Care Youth Camp will be taking place for students ages nine to 12.