Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 6, 1992 TAG: 9202060208
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ACADEMY RECRUITS NEAR FINISH
It was a rare opportunity for police recruit Randall Cox, and he was determined to make the most of it.Cupping a water balloon in his hand, Cox eyed an approaching police car and waited for his best shot. As the car passed, he hurled the balloon.
"Man, I got him good," Cox gloated as the balloon burst onto the driver's side windshield.
Inside the car, fellow police recruit Harold Smith was taking protective action. He rolled up the car window, called on his radio for help, then sped off to find cover.
That's what Smith and his classmates were taught to do at the Roanoke Police Academy should their patrol cars be firebombed with Molotov cocktails - or, in the case of a simulated training session Wednesday - water balloons.
It was part of performance-based evaluations the recruits are taking in the Police Academy's final week of mental and physical testing.
Next Monday, they will enter the real-life world of police work, leaving behind the water balloons, blank starter pistols and hypothetical situations they have experienced during the past 14 weeks of training.
The mood of the class is far more relaxed this week than during the first week of the academy, when nervous recruits were told that not everyone usually makes it to the graduation ceremony, which now is just one day away.
Everyone will make it this time; that was essentially decided Tuesday when the class averaged a 94 on the final written exam.
With the test behind them, recruits loosened up Wednesday - soaking patrol cars with water balloons, cracking jokes between training sessions and sticking around afterward for a game of touch football.
"You can tell that they're getting excited about it," said Sgt. Eric Mills, who evaluated recruits on part of their performance-based testing. "It's like they're in school right before it lets out for summer."
When the recruits graduate Friday, it is bound to draw more public attention than any of the other 35 classes that have preceded them.
That's because this class is the most racially mixed in Roanoke history; a result of higher emphasis on recruiting minority police officers. The step-up came in response to community complaints about the shortage of black officers and the department's alleged racial insensitivity.
Of the 14 police recruits, seven are black. Four Roanoke County officers also are part of the class.
Once the city recruits join the rest of the force, it will nearly double the representation of blacks in the 244-member department - bringing the total to 16. Roanoke has a black population of about 25 percent.
Although the police academy class received a day of cultural awareness training that is new to the curriculum, recruits have said they have been more consumed with their overall lessons than with issues of race.
In fact, the class has spent the past 14 weeks training at a shooting range that includes a statue of a black man that was once common and is considered by many to be racially offensive.
Asked Wednesday about the statue, after a news photographer pictured it in a photograph of recruits training, Police Chief M. David Hooper said he had not been aware of its presence or why it may have been there.
"It's not something that I would have there, and it won't be there tomorrow," Hooper said.
What is taught at the academy is that responsibilities and risks are the same for everyone, and the recruits were reminded of that again on Wednesday.
In another performance-based exercise, each recruit was tested on what to do when fired upon.
With Mills watching over him, recruit Jimmy Lee Goad pulled a patrol car up to a false-front building on the range. As Goad walked closer, his eyes narrowed and darted from the door to the three windows of the makeshift building.
Suddenly, a man appeared in the door and fired a pistol - blanks, actually - at Goad. The recruit hit the ground and rolled to a fence for cover, pulling his service revolver as he went.
"Everybody get back," he yelled, then barked into his radio: "Shots fired; Code 27."
A Code 27, in police parlance, means: "Officer needs help; responded immediately."
In that and other simulated exercises Wednesday, Mills emphasized repeatedly that the most important thing is to react quickly - before it's one second too late.
"If you freeze and don't do anything," he said, "you could be dead in a split second."