Evanston’s Community Police Academy, formerly known as the Citizen Police Academy, kicked off earlier this month — the 55th time the program has run since 1995.
This 11-week program, which is free of charge to anyone who lives or works in Evanston, aims to introduce citizens to the work of the Evanston Police Department.
“The goals are pretty much the same as they’ve always been, and that’s to engage and educate our public about what we do and give people an inside view on how our particular police department runs,” said Enjoli Daley, a Community Engagement & Outreach Officer at EPD, who leads the CPA.
The academy offers two annual sessions that welcome between 20 and 30 participants. The fall session is taking place in-person from Sept. 6 until Nov. 15 on Wednesday evenings from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Each week, participants have a chance to learn more about investigations, crime analysis, patrol, traffic stops, court procedures, domestic violence incidents and other areas of police work. Daley said there are also some hands-on activities that allow participants to get a look into the department’s operations.
“We do a station tour, we have a graduation, (participants) get to ride along with an officer, they also get to sit in our dispatch center and hear some of the calls that are going on and get a better and bigger picture of what police work in this town looks like,” Daley said.
Participants also engage in a service project, Daley said. The last project included collecting donations to nonprofit organizations. This year’s planned project includes collecting toys that will be given away to local youth.
Jamie Reid, an Evanston resident, said she learned about CPA during the National Night Out, an annual event that promotes community-police relationships.
“I was glad to get the opportunity because the initial email said there’s a waiting list so that’s good to know that people want to do this,” Reid said. “I’m enjoying every minute of it, and everyone has been very professional.”
Daley said every year the CPA receives many applications and engagement has been high. While preference usually goes to applicants who live and work in Evanston, Daley said the CPA tries to accept everyone.
Brook Redemann, a Glenview resident, volunteers with Evanston’s Community Emergency Response Team, a unit of trained volunteers who are available to assist first responders during times of need. He had already graduated from Glenview’s CPA but wanted to learn more about policing in Evanston.
“I really wanted to understand what it is that they (police) do and how we as CERT members can work with them to take a little bit of their workload off of their shoulders,” Redemann said.
While the fall session is provided in English, the CPA offered the program in Spanish for the first time last spring.
“We needed to make sure that we’re being inclusive of as many people as we possibly can,” Daley said. “Then we changed the name from Citizen Police Academy, which it had been since 1995, to Community Police Academy, just to be more inclusive and recognize that everybody doesn’t have the same citizenship status.”
Daley said that both the Spanish and English CPA programs have been successful and people who sign up for it stay engaged and active.
Following graduation, participants can join an alumni association that already has over 1,000 graduates.
“Most of the people that come through CPA, we’re able to maintain a relationship with, and to me, that’s a really good impact metric to know they still want to engage,” Daley said.
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