Chat With The Chief: An inside look at the Community Police Academy

The Oklahoma Police Department is preparing for its next community police academy. The 10-week course is designed to give citizens an inside look at what it's like to work as a law enforcement officer.

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Ahead of the academy, OCPD Chief Ron Bacy joined the News 9 team to discuss more about what participants can expect.

Q: If people are interested in this, what can they expect out of this 10-week course?

Bacy: This is a great, great opportunity for our residents to learn about their police department. This is the 20th largest city in the country, and it's the sixth fastest growing, but it takes a special police department to police an area and provide professional police services to this community. So it's a 10-week course, one night a week, three hours each class, where you meet various people from around the department, who work in different areas, who present what it is they do. Our training, our job functions, how we impact the community, and what our goals are, it's just a great inside look at the police department.

Q: A 10-week course sounds like a big commitment. Why so long?

Bacy: We have a very large department, and there's a lot to learn. We do a lot of stuff that people don't realize that we're doing something as robust. Youth outreach is not one program, it's several, and so 911, some of the things that they do, are a little more intensive. So it takes that long to actually get a 360-degree look at the police department.

Q: Mental health has been a big topic for the Oklahoma City Police Department lately, is there anything that attendees could expect to learn that they may be able to apply in daily life with their family and friends?

Bacy: First and foremost, we want every resident of Oklahoma City to know what resources are available. If you go to the city's website and click on the Mental Health tab, all of those resources are there. But if you go to the academy, you're going to get an in-depth look at how we train, what our goals are, what resources we have, and what we see for the future. It's just a great opportunity, and we expect those attendees to not only be class members of the Community Police Academy, but ambassadors for the police department to go and share that knowledge with the community.

Q: It is free to attend, and although no physical fitness will be required, you do have to go through a background check. Can you tell us a little bit about why that's important?

Bacy: The background check is just something that we do for, obviously, the safety of everyone that's attending. Certain criteria need to be met before you can do a ride-along, or before you can enter into any of our programs. So that's just standard.

Q: Do you think that this particular academy is like "dipping your toe in" if you're not sure if you want to go to the police academy?

Bacy: Could be. It's an opportunity for you to learn more about it and understand if this is a calling. If something speaks to you in this academy, we've had that happen before, and it draws their interest in, it's just great exposure to who we are, what we do, and how we serve you.