Community Police Academy for Adults
July 23, 2002 - October 1, 2002
by Bobbie Logan

The graduation ceremony for Operations-Central Bureau's "Community Police Academy for Adults" commenced October 1, 2002, at the Elysian Park Academy Gym at the Los Angeles Police Academy.

In attendance to honor the students and present graduation certificates was the commanding officer of Central Bureau, Deputy Chief Margaret A.York, along with Sergeant Daryl M. Russell, Officer Mary Balchowsky, and Hollenbeck's C-PAB Co-Chairman, Ross Valencia.

The Bureau's five Division Captains were on hand, too ... Charles L. Beck, Central, Paul S. Pesqueira, Hollenbeck, Thomas Regenald Maeweather, Newton, Kyle B. Jackson, Northeast, and Douglas E. Shur, Rampart.

The 32 graduates represented them all.

Three of us were asked to give a short speech on behalf of the class, Klaus J. Glaser, M. Linda Solares and myself. Perhaps the best way to express how I felt is to share my talk with you here.

Click here for --> Bobbie Logan's Speech

Created in 1998 by current Oxnard Chief of Police Art Lopez, the Community Police Academy for Adults is, quite simply, a wonderful program. The ten-week class is tuition free for all students, and offered an invaluable, inside look at LAPD, its policies and procedures.

Held but once a year, there's also a Spanish and a Youth version of the Academy convened.

The Department opens its doors to give students a peek at its inner-workings. Officers provide tools for the students to protect themselves on a more personal level, too. For example, Detective Lindsay of the Financial Crimes Division taught us how to guard ourselves from becoming an unwitting victim during his Identity Theft class.

The courses were enjoyable and informative, with instructors often staying well past the time class was due to end, mainly because of the large amount of interest being expressed by the students.

Many instructors apologized for the relative brevity of the classes, stating that it wasn't easy to condense what was normally taught as an eight-hour class into one. But they all did a great job of it.

It did not go unnoticed that there were many days when I would see either Sergeant Russell or Officer Balchowsky early in the morning, and then again late in the evening as a class was running late. I would once again like to give my heartfelt thanks for all their hard work and enthusiasm.

Some of the subjects shared with us concerned LAPD's policies and procedures on:

The class was taken on tours of Air Support and Communications. We also got to experience a state-of-the-art firearms training simulator (FATS), a video assisted system that records a trainees every decision.

On a more personal note ... the only drawback to having some of this knowledge (even though my brother is a Deputy Sheriff so I'm not completely unaware of what a cops life entails) is the fact that I won't be able to watch a movie or TV show about law enforcement without becoming irritated as to how inaccurate so much of it is!

Also of interest was the racial and cultural diversity among the group of students. Many questions were asked, and points of view expressed, that simply would not have occurred to everyone had the group not been so mixed.

Just as interesting were the different reasons classmates had for joining the class to begin with ... we had everything from students preparing to become police officers themselves, to a variety of community activist types (like me), and we even included a screen writer!

As pointed out by a fellow graduate, one of the many highlights of the ceremony itself (besides the wonderful potluck provided by all) was knowing that Chief Pomeroy, who's fine command of the department was all too brief, had personally signed all the graduation certificates ... making them one-and-only documents.

Once again, I know I speak for the entire graduating class when I thank everyone in the Department for making this program such a success ... and we wish the officers all the very best in the future.

Click here for more information on the next
Operations-Central Bureau Community Academy

or contact Central Bureau
Sergeant Daryl Russell - - Officer Mary Balchowsky

213 / 485-2651