St. Cloud Area Law Enforcement Offering Citizens Police Academy Classes This Fall

(KNSI) – Several area police departments are coming together to offer classes that teach residents about police training and procedures.

The Metro Citizens Police Academy, ran by the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office and the police departments of St. Cloud, St. Joseph, Sartell, Sauk Rapids and Waite Park, is made up of one four-hour class on Thursday evenings through eight weeks in September and October.

St. Cloud Police Sergeant Tad Hoeschen says the program goes over much of the same information that police officers learn about during training.

“We really believe in that experiential learning, so we have them do some of the things,” Hoeschen said. “We actually go out to the driving academy and they do pursuit driving.”

Participants also experience simulated calls for service and have them apply their knowledge in making use-of-force decisions, Hoeschen said.

“We do traffic stop scenarios, we do K-9 demonstrations, we do a SWAT demonstration, we have a helicopter from the [Minnesota] State Patrol land for them and show them the different capabilities that we have,” Hoeschen said. “We talk about some of the community engagement efforts and the mental health response that we do — really try to open up everything that we do to be as transparent as humanly possible.”

Students can also, if they wish, learn how to use a pistol or a Taser, but Hoeschen says the class does not lead to any weapons certifications or count as training to become an officer.

“This is an amazing opportunity for us to engage with our community on so many different levels to learn from them as well as to allow them just to have the opportunity to hear our side of things and see our side of things,” Hoeschen said. “We encourage them to come basically with an open mind and have good dialogue.”

The class starts on September 9th and runs through October 21st. The classes take place on Thursdays from 6 to 10 p.m. Registration is open until August 28th. A press release from the St. Cloud Police Department says applicants must be at least 21 years old, be a Stearns County resident or a resident of a city that one of the participating agencies serves and must not have a criminal record.

Hoeschen says there will be about 20 to 30 participants in the class, which he says area law enforcement has offered for around 20 years.

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