The University Police Department hope to give the Ball State University community more insight into what they face daily at their jobs.
Ball State's first Citizen's Police Academy began Sunday in the basement training room of UPD headquarters.
The program's participants will spend their next nine Sunday evenings learning about UPD and police work.
Cpl. Michael Baker, who is running the class, said the major goal was to give people at Ball State a better insight into UPD's inner workings.
"We are going to expose you to what we are exposed to" in order to help citizens learn about police work, he told the 16 participants.
Baker said the program also hopes to give participants information about areas of police work that are prone to controversy or misunderstanding.
During the 10-week program, participants will get training and demonstrations about police work. They will learn about use-of-force rules, evidence gathering and domestic violence.
Director of Public Safety Gene Burton said all the Citizen's Academy instructors are state certified to train in the areas that they will be teaching.
Burton gave a presentation about the history of security at Ball State and its emerging role, from the first night watchman when the school opened in 1918 to the current police department's efforts to engage with the community for crime prevention. The night watchmen were responsible for locking the doors until they gained some police powers in 1957 when they became reserve officers as part of the Muncie Police Department. But, as reserve officers, they still served a mostly security role and did not carry guns.
Indiana granted public colleges the right to establish their own police departments in 1971. And in the late '70s, the state granted university police departments the exclusive right to perform police functions on campuses, Burton said.
Surrounding police departments could only enter the universities' jurisdiction if invited. Permanent agreements allow university police to patrol in surrounding jurisdictions and vice versa.
Burton said when Ball State was named one of the country's top party schools, the administration decided that it wanted to be taken off of that list. This marked the first time that University Police entered into partnerships with the state excise police and local police departments to focus on underage drinking and noise complaints.
Burton also spoke to the class about the changes and challenges since he became chief in 2002.
One of the most significant incidents under Burton's watch was the shooting death of a Ball State student by a UPD officer in November 2003.
In that incident, UPD and the Muncie Police Department responded to a call about a break-in at a campus-area home. University Police officer Robert Duplain was the first officer to arrive. He shot and killed 21-year-old Michael McKinney, whose blood alcohol level at the time of the shooting was 0.34.
Burton said he did not think the officer did anything wrong, but still looked to see if there was anything the police department could change.
Duplain was new to the UPD and had not yet gone through the police academy, for which he was on a seven-month waiting list. As is common in Indiana, Duplain was allowed to patrol after going through a basic training course.
Burton said Ball State is now one of the few departments that has its officers go through academy training before beginning to patrol. The department now hires officers only two weeks before they begin their academy training, although this is difficult because the academy won't allow spots to be reserved until there is a specific name.
Burton said he was encouraged by the participant's reactions on the first day.
"The history of the department is not really that exciting," Burton said, but he thinks the students seemed interested.
Junior criminal justice major Jeff Reuter said it was difficult to make the three-hour time commitment for ten weeks, but ultimately decided to sign up. He said he wants to go into law enforcement, and hoped that the program will give him more exposure to law enforcement and help him get a job.
Architecture master's student Brandon Gore said he was always interested in law enforcement, but cannot be a police officer because of a joint problem.
Gore said he is excited to see how things like evidence collection are different in real life than what is shown on television. He said he thinks the participants in the class will be able to raise awareness outside of training.
Baker said the first session left him excited for the rest of the academy. He said his enjoyment of working with people is what drew him to police work.
He said police are often criticized, but "without them it would be chaos." Though police work is a high-stress and high-profile job, Baker said he hopes the program will help participants see police officers as people.
While police officers aren't always perfect, he said Ball State Police does hold its officers to high standards.
"Everyday we have to work towards those standards."
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