First time DHS Citizens' Academy - pilot program in LA

Classes dates are July 25-26 (Department of Homeland Security Training)

by Bill Murray

My good friend, Cliff Cheng, Ph.D., will be our "Community Matters" talk radio show's special guest on Thursday, July 23rd. An active participant at LACP, Cliff is part of the Disasters Volunteers' Training Network of Greater Los Angeles. He's coordinating a very special US Department of Homeland Security training for volunteers, which teaches them to recognize vulnerabilities to terrorism.

Dr. Cheng notes that, until now, DHS has not permitted volunteers to receive this expensive training, normally given only to law enforcement and first resonders.  Instructors are flying in from Washington to teach is as a pilot program, a unique opportunity for community members.

Among other things, Cliff Cheng is a past member of the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission, has been a college Professor, is a member of and advocate for the LA Fire Department's CERT program (Community Emergency Response Team), as are we at LA Community Policing, and is an avid ham radio operator.

Call in to the radio show ! Ask him questions !!

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UPDATED: July 22, 2009

from Cliff Cheng, Ph.D.

Dear Friends, Neighbors:

I had a good experience with the citizens' police academy, also called community police academy (CPA) or simply citizens' academy (CA).   A CA is an awareness course.  It is an orientation course about the host agency.  Typically police agencies hold a CA.  My first CA was given by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).  The LAPD CPA taught the public about what LAPD does.  As a neighborhood watch and community activist since 1976,  I believe CAs are good training for people interested in helping their community.  Public safety of one of the most important issues at the neighborhood level.

CA graduates typically get a certificate of completion.  As an awareness course, a CA does not conferred police powers.  Graduates do not get to wear uniforms or carry a badge.  People are not obligating themselves to volunteer; though some do volunteer to help the sponsoring agency.  

In 1993, FBI, Special Agent in Charge Jim Ahearn of the FBI's Phoenix, AZ field office started the first FBI CA based on a CA a local police agency had.  SAC Ahearn wanted to improve the FBI's relationship with its community.  Other FBI Field Offices followed suit.  Local police agencies adopted CAs.  There appears to be uncertainty as to the origin of CAs; possibly from Britain? 

For LAPD, holding a CPA is good police-community relations.   LAPD's CPA also has the goal of recruiting police officers, reservists and volunteers. 

I attended the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Community Police Academy in 2005. I kept a journal of it, which is published here.  When I finished my journal, I emailed a copy to LAPD Deputy Chief Richard Roupoli, then Commander of LAPD Operations West Bureau, which covers 1/4 of LA City.  Much to my surprise, he emailed me back 20 minutes later having read the whole thing.  He said I identified areas that he will improve upon.  In LAPD the Deputy Chiefs have the discretion to run their own CPA.  Each Deputy Chief runs theirs a little differently. 

CAs are an idea which has caught on.  If you do a websearch for Citizens' Academy, you will find county and city governments are doing CAs.  These CAs are in effect a civics class.  A few District Attorney offices, Sacramento and San Diego counties, in California, have started them too.   The term citizen's academy if being used in Cleveland's public education system.  Here is a link to a list of CAs, dated 2005. 

Culver City Police Department saw my journal as they were starting their new CA.  They made my journal mandatory reading for their instructors.  I took Culver City's CPA in 2007.  I started a new journal for the CCPD CPA which is on this website. 

Much of my community service is helping people get prepared for disasters; which is probono for I do this work professionally too.  The lower westside (of LA) neighborhood of Mar Vista invited me over to speak on preparedness at their yearly public safety fair.  Another speaker that evening was Mark Mulchay, President of the FBI Citizen's Academy Alumni Assn.  Mark recruited me into the FBI's CA.  I applied to the FBI and was accepted - on the first try.  There is a 5:1 selection ratio.  Most people apply 2-3 times before getting in; if at all.  My journal and pictures from the FBI CA are also on this site .  I also have pictures from our FBI Citizen's Academy Alumni Assn., LA, insider tours of law enforcement partners of the FBI. 

In late-2008, I proposed to LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo that his office start what could be the first City Attorney's Citizens' Academy in the country.  He loved the idea!  We are in development on this idea.

In early-2009, I did the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Citizen's Academy.  I was in Class 4 of the LA Field Division of the ATF's CA.  At the time, only the LA Field Division had a CA.  Class 4 was the first class to do extensive hands-on training.  In addition to Range Day, we had a tactical training day and another session in which we did a surveillance exercise. 

In closing, I would like to dedicate this website to my undergraduate Criminal Justice Professor at California State University Los Angeles (CSULA), the late Professor Howard H. Earle, DPA.  In this time as an Assistant Sheriff in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, he was a very innovative law enforcement executive.  He was advocating community relations back in the 1950s; a daring idea at the time.  His book Police Community Relations: Crisis in Our Time (1967, 1970, 1980, Thomas Publishers, Springfield, IL) was highly influential in its time.  By the time I was his student in the early-1980s, I had been involved in neighborhood watch since 1976.  Dr. Earle taught me more about police-community relations.  I used what he taught me in my community activism against hate crime when I was Chair of the Asian-Pacific Islander-American Hate Crime Committee of the Asian Pacific Islander American Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON), and when I was Los Angeles City Human Relations Commissioner.  Let this website be a living tribute to Howard Earle and further his work on developing positive police-community relations.  

I would also like to acknowledge another Cal State LA Criminal Justice Professor, Nat Trives whose community service continues to inspire me to this day.  At the time I was his student, he was serving also on the California Police Officer Standards & Training Commission (POST). He was also the U.S. District Court's Special Master over the San Francisco Police Department's consent decree. Nat left Cal State LA to become Vice-President of Santa Monica College.  After retiring from that job, Nat has devoted his retirement to full time voluntary service.  Nat's community service is focused on Santa Monica, where in the 1950s he was the first African-American police Sergeant.  He was a City Councilman and later Mayor of Santa Monica. Nat has served on Boards of Directors of over 20 community based organizations in Santa Monica.  He is known in Santa Monica as “Mr. Santa Monica.” On Martin Luther King Day in 2009, Nat retired after serving 10 years as the President of the Santa Monica Symphony and was presented with an award from LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.  Nat continues to serve on the California Commission on Judicial Performance (which disciplines Judges).

Best,

Cliff Cheng, Ph.D.
Los Angeles, California, USA
http://sites.google.com/site/citacademy/

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Please visit http://sites.google.com/site/disastervolunteers/
for training for volunteer disaster responders

Free Training for WMD/Terrorism - FLYER
Awareness 160: WMD/Terrorism Awareness

Free WMD-Terrorism Training - FLYER - FLYER
MGT 310: WMD Threat & Risk Assessment

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