Brownwood Police Department’s 2nd Citizen’s Police Academy held their session on police firearms and participated in a day at the shooting range on Saturday. Participants were able to view police weaponry and learn how officers use certain guns and tools in raids and what the typical officers have at their disposal day-to-day.
Officers who participated in the day at the range included Range Master Richard Williams assisted by Trey Weathermon and Brian Tompkins. Other officers participating in Saturday’s range session were Chief Mike Corley, Assistant Chief James Fuller, Officer Chandra Means, Leiutenant Tracy Delgado and Lieutenant Randall Krpoun.
The class began in January and will continue through the end of this month when CPA students will graduate and receive recognition and a certificate for their participation. The CPA classes are 2.5 hours each session and run for ten weeks.
According to Brownwood Chief of Police Mike Corley, this year’s class had a good variety of students participating and has been very successful.
“The students were great, we had a great diversity from all walks of life and from all age groups,” said Corley. “They were very involved in the classes which never seemed dull due to their participation and questions.”
Chief Corley stated that they hold the Citizen’s Police Academy to help the department have more transparency and show the public the inner working of the police department.
“We have a Citizen’s Police Academy for many reasons. One of the primary reasons is transparency. We want you (the public) to know how your police department is run and how your tax dollars are spent. We open up our doors to the students. There are no unanswered questions and there are no secrets,” said Corley. “We want the students to learn police techniques and on a more basic front; find out why police officers do the things they do. We want the students to use police equipment. For instance, we will have you dusting for fingerprints, using a radar gun, watching a taser demo, and shooting a variety of firearms, just to name a few. We also want the students to ride patrol with our officers. We want the students to experience what our officers experience on a regular duty shift in Brownwood, Texas. Students will probably see Brownwood as they have never seen it before.”
The following schedule shows the classes this year’s CPA experienced:
Week 1 Introductions, tour of the facility, and Chief’s Philosophy (Chief Corley)
Week 2 Patrol & Uniform Operations
Week 3 Investigations
Week 4 Traffic Enforcement/Accident Investigation/DWI & Public Intoxication
Week 5 Dispatch/911/Tour of the County Jail
Week 6 Family Violence/Officer Safety/Use of Force
Week 7 Student Resource Officer/Crime Prevention/Mental Health Issues
Week 8 Municipal Court/Drugs/Drug Investigations
Week 9 Internal Affairs & Ethics (Chief Corley)
Week 10 Graduation
CPA students experience ride-alongs with officers and share with each other their experiences during these ride-alongs with BPD officers. BPD tries to use as many different officers teaching classes as possible Corley said. Several “guest” instructors from different areas such as prosecutors, and social agencies that law enforcement works with are also present during the CPA classes.
For photos of the day at the range, please see photo gallery below.
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