ITEM PHOTO BY SPENSER HASAK
Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo and members of the Revere Police Department pose with the graduates for the Revere Citizens Police Academy Class of 2016.
The Revere Police Department citizens police academy is a model for resident and law enforcement cooperation and interaction that should be copied by other communities.
The department on Thursday saluted participants who paid $50 to spend 10 weeks learning about police work. The academy is similar to the youth-oriented police program hosted by the Lynn Police Department. The goal of both academies is to accomplish an objective that extends beyond the brief introduction to policing Revere adults and Lynn youth experienced.
There is lots of publicity about how cops do their job or don’t their job, but few people understand what the job involves. In a society where jury duty is viewed as a nuisance rather than a civic obligation, even fewer people understand how the American justice system works and the key role probation officers play in ensuring the system functions smoothly.
By introducing residents to police work, Revere officials accomplished several important achievements. They gave citizen taxpayers an up-close look at how their tax money is spent. They gave academy participants a peek at the complications involved in police work and they highlighted trouble spots and problem areas in Revere.
Critics and cynics will suggest that programs like the ones offered in Revere and Lynn are simply tax dollar-funded public relations and recruiting tools aimed at making local departments look good.
The critics should consider the value of looking at local streets or neighborhoods through a police officer’s eyes. The academy participants graduate with a strong sense of public safety and what it takes to keep their streets and their neighborhoods safe. They also graduate with a perspective on how they can contribute to public safety.
Law enforcement sometimes looks like a reactive solution to chronic societal problems that refuse to go away. But the solution moves from reactive to proactive when residents get involved and take a zero tolerance attitude toward crime and problems such as rundown housing, lack of local jobs and positive youth opportunities, the close cousins of crime.
Exposing local residents to police work is a good way to get them to do what they can to enforce the law and increase safety in their community. Taking a proactive approach to crime should not be confused with taking the law into one’s own hands. It should be an opportunity to make changes that will really ensure police can do an effective job reducing, if not eliminating, crime.
Police critics have recourse to public forums and redress in a free society, but the critics — and all citizens — can benefit from learning about what it really means to be a cop.
