THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 9, 1996 TAG: 9604090291
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 114 lines
The police academy student lifted his Smith and Wesson pistol and pointed it at the video screen where actors played out a disturbing scenario.
A disgruntled customer is arguing with the owner of a gun shop. Both are armed. Tensions are high.
``Talk to them,'' encourages range officer Rhonda Bider. ``Tell them what to do.''
Of course the life-sized actors on the big screen can't hear the student, but the student still must command them.
This student is silent.
``Talk to them,'' Bider repeats.
Nothing.
At the end of the student's tensed arms, the pistol begins to waver. First, gently, then wildly.
He swallows hard. His knees wobble. Sweat glands across his brow begin working like bilge pumps. He squints through bifocals.
The on-screen drama is escalating. The customer yells and the owner yells back. They move face-to-face.
The exercise is called ``Judgment Under Stress Training,'' or ``JUST'' for short.
Most veterans call it ``shoot, don't shoot'' because some situations require shooting and some don't.
It's like an expensive video game. Shoot the bad guy. Don't shoot the good guy. But it's hard to tell them apart.
Finally the student mutters,``Hey, you punks.''
Too late.
The bad guy begins hacking the good guy with a large knife and the good guy sags to the floor.
The student stands frozen. No words. No shots. Nothing.
Then the screen goes blank.
``Uh, let's try that one again,'' Bider says.
The student won't be bounced from the class because it's not the real police academy. It was Week No. 5 of the Citizens Police Academy.
For nine weeks, a class of about 40 ordinary citizens met three hours each Monday evening to learn about the inner workings of the Police Department. Police procedures. Undercover investigations. SWAT tactics. Search-and-seizure laws. Firearms.
Monday night, the citizen students graduated.
The ``shoot, don't shoot'' exercise put the citizens where most won't ever be - in the shoes of a police officer. The decision to shoot or not is perhaps the most difficult an officer will ever make.
And for one night, 40 people got to make that decision, with mixed results.
``Did anybody shoot the bad guy?'' Lt. Jim Cervera asked after the shooting class.
``I shot the bad guy!'' one woman boasted. ``And the hostage, too. Matter of fact, I shot through the hostage to get the bad guy.''
``I shot a kid who pulled a wallet on me,'' another student said.
And that's the purpose of the Citizens Police Academy, to give city residents an opportunity to go behind the scenes, from academic lectures on manpower and staffing to a face-off with video bad guys.
Organizers hoped the citizens would learn about law enforcement and become civic ambassadors. It's a step toward more widespread community policing. Sharing knowledge and responsibility, as Cervera puts it.
For the students, the class was a compressed tour of what actual police recruits study and learn in about four months. It was the first of two citizen classes planned this year.
Graduates of the citizens academy, however, aren't bestowed with any police powers.
Like the nervous man with the shaky pistol and his fellow trigger-happy classmates, members of the first citizens academy were mostly gray-haired, mostly retired. Nearly all were city insiders - volunteers, Rescue Squad members, Neighborhood Watch leaders - picked to attend by Cervera. He said he wanted to test the concept and lesson plans for future classes.
The next class will be filled with more regular folks, he said. A date for that class hasn't been set. The Police Department will announce through the media when applications will be available for the second academy session.
The classes cost nothing, but required a commitment to attend all nine weeks. Each student is also required to ride a shift with a city police officer.
The first academy began in February with close to 50 members, but a few dropped out.
Also embedded in the lessons were attempts to explain to civilians why police do the things they do.
On the first week, the class stumbled onto the topic of stolen cars. Specifically, why officers aren't generally dispatched when someone reports a car stolen.
``Unless there's some evidence left behind, all an officer would be able to do at the scene is say, `Well, if that's where you parked it, you're right, it's not there now.' '' Cervera said. ``So why would you need an officer to go to where it was stolen?''
``To hold my hand,'' retorted a gray-haired man wearing a pink cardigan sweater. Obviously a car-theft victim. ``That car meant everything to me, and I wanted someone to hold my hand.''
By the end of the nine weeks, each student rode a shift with a city police officer, toured the city jail, studied a briefcase full of simulated street drugs, learned when and why officers can stop suspects, shot the laser gun at the firing range and attended a graduation banquet.
``To have people like you tell the story of the Virginia Beach Police Department is really going to be an asset,'' Vice Mayor Will Sessoms said at the graduation. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by CHRISTOPHER REDDICK, The Virginian-Pilot
POLICE AMBASSADORS GRADUATE
Phyllis Millette, one of 42 Beach residents to graduate, gets her
certificate from Capt. Ernest E. Rorrer on Monday.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT by CNB