BENTONVILLE, Ark. — The Bentonville Police Department (BPD) created the Citizen's Police Academy in 1999. Since then, they've had over 300 graduates.
Their goal is to explain the operations of the police department and police procedures. The program hopes to promote a crime-free community as well.
"It's a seven-week program where we just get an opportunity to engage with the community, show them what we do on our side, and then also have them participate in a lot of the different work things that we do," Cpl. Melissa Fox with BPD said. "We've also had some people that are interested in becoming police officers who want to do this first and kind of see what it's like firsthand."
BPD holds the academy twice a year with 17 spots. Each session is held on Monday night and explores a different department, such as K-9s, SWAT, Patrol Division, and more. This week's session was all about the Bentonville Bomb Squad. They cover nine counties all the way to Jonesboro.
"We're very fortunate here in Bentonville to have one of the six bomb squads in the state of Arkansas," Fox said. "They're also at major events, such as sporting, music, events, just safeguarding all of the citizens of Northwest Arkansas."
Fox said a big thing with the Citizen's Police Academy is building a trusting relationship with residents and encouraging them to report any crimes they see.
"They're the eyes and ears when they go out to the community," she said. "And so if they learn something from this, whether it's just to make the call if they see something suspicious [or] if they're concerned about something. Just be that community member that we all need to have in order to make it a safer place for everyone."
Denia Taylor is one of the 17 participants in this academy. She said she joined the program out of curiosity.
"The police have a really hard job. I wanted a little better understanding of what they do," Taylor said. "I think it's kind of neat to be out here, so you understand and you can be more supportive of them because you know what they're doing and what they're going through."
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