The Peabody Police Department held their last Citizens Academy meeting for the fall season Wednesday night. The program shows the public how the police department runs. At the last meeting, attendees learned about elder affairs and the department’s community policing initiatives, Captain Scott Richards said.
Dianne Full, Peabody city treasurer and Citizens Academy attendee, said she learned that there is much more to community policing that she thought.
“There are different programs that they have for the city, and it just doesn’t include bad guys, it’s helping everybody,” Full said.
Last night’s class was “wonderful,” she said.
“Plenty of food, lots of laughs and I think we’re all going to miss going in every week and seeing the guys, the officers and each other,” Full said.
She decided to join for the fall session because she has heard many good things about it from people in city hall as well as friends. Over the past 10 weeks she has discovered how dangerous policing can be and how “fast they have to get on their feet.”
“Sometimes I think we take police for granted, and they’re really only looking out for us in the town and everybody around them — whether they live here or not,” Full said.
Anyone who is thinking about joining Citizens Academy should because they will get a lot out of it, she said.
“They’d have a better appreciation of what the police do for work. [The officers are] putting their work and dedication into every day that they’re there,” Full said.
The Citizens Academy program was started so Peabody citizens could come into the police department and see how it runs, Richards said. It was a program he saw in other police departments in the past and thought it would work for Peabody.
“We try to show them what we do every day, and hopefully, provide them with a newfound understanding of what police work is all about,” Richards said. “I think by opening the doors and bringing folks in, like this, you get to build a partnership with the people in the community. And they get to learn a lot more about where the tax dollars are going and how we serve them as a police.”
It is an amazing experience, he said, for both the people who attend the classes and the police officers who teach and present to the group.
“It’s a great two-way dialogue, and I think it’s fantastic for both sides,” Richards said.
Evangeline Brown, attendee of the program and business owner in Peabody, said she learned a lot of useful information during her time with Citizens Academy.
“As a recent graduate of the Citizen Police Academy of Peabody, I believe attending this program will better educate the youth and our own future elderly needs, help secure a better life and a safer future for us all,” Brown said.
