LP_071918

4 | July 19, 2018 | The Lockport Legend NEWS
lockportlegend.com
8/18/18
8/18/18)
Lockport Citizens Police Academy
promotes partnership with residents
Jacquelyn Schlabach
Assistant Editor
The Lockport Police Department
is currently accepting
applications for its annual
Citizens Police Academy,
which starts this September
and looks to continue building
partnerships with community
members.
The academy is open to
anyone age 18 and older
who either lives, works or
goes to school in Lockport.
Participants are to meet at
the Lockport Police Department
located at 1212 S. Farrell
Road from 6-9 p.m. every
Monday starting Sept. 10
for 12 weeks.
“Chief Terry Lemming is
extremely big on community
policing, and these days obviously,
with what’s going on
in the media and how things
are played out, the police are
kind of getting a bad rap these
days, and we really want to
focus our police department
more on the community and
partnering with the community
in order to decrease
crime and prevent crime
and things of that nature,”
program coordinator officer
Jeren Szmergalski said.
There are already nine
spots filled of the 16 allotted
for the program. Participants
are to not only get a chance
to learn about the various
aspects of the police department
through this interactive
program, but they are to also
learn a lot about the people
behind the badges.
“So this course gives the
opportunity to the citizens
of Lockport to kind of come
into our world, I guess you
could say, and get to know us
not as the officers but as the
people who do the job and
protect them,” Szmergalski
said. “And it gives them a
little sense of what we go
through as regular people
in this profession, how it affects
us, how it affects our
families, [and] what mindset
we’re in when we’re out doing
our various jobs.”
Szmergalski said having
a relationship with those
in Lockport helps the officers
do their job effectively
by putting everyone on the
same team. The citizens of
Lockport are the eyes and
ears of the police department,
preventing crime and
helping the officers solves
cases faster, she said.
Good Hands ®
Within
arm’s reach.
Claudia Gamache, CPCU
815-834-2700
16614 W. 159th St., #320
Lockport
agents.allstate.com/cgamache3
Subject to terms, conditions and availability. © 2018 Allstate Insurance Co.
242803
Throughout the 12 weeks,
a speaker from WesCom
Emergency Dispatch is to
come in to talk about what
they do on a daily basis. Different
LPD officers are to
come in as well to share information
about the Illinois
criminal code and domestic
violence laws, which Szmergalski
is to lead. The LPD
K-9 officer and officers who
have been undercover drugbuying
agents are also to
come speak about their jobs.
There is also to be a use of
force lesson, where participants
will be put through a
shoot-don’t-shoot training
that officers go through using
devices similar to paintball
guns. Last year, assistant
state’s attorney’s presented
one of the courses about the
court system and took the
participants through a trial.
Szmergalski hopes to have
them return again this year.
The Citizens Police Academy
is offered at no cost to
the participants, and guest
speakers come in and volunteer
their time because they
and the LPD feel it’s important
to have a relationship
with its community members.
“We want people to come
here on their own free will,”
Szmergalski said. “We want
people who are interested in
what we do as a police department,
and we want them
to be positive people who
come in that want to help our
police department.”
Applications can be found
online at www.lockportpo
lice.info/citizen-police.html
or at the Lockport Police
Department. The deadline
to submit applications is
Sept. 5. For more information,
contact Szmergalski at
(815) 838-2132 or by email
at jszmergalski@lockport
police.info.