Citizens Police Academy Graduates Latest Class

Popular Program Returns After Four-Year Hiatus

For four years, the Wheeling Police Department had been unable to hold a new class of its Citizens Police Academy. Between COVID-19 issues and the department's move to a new building, a program that WPD officials consider an important one in building a bridge between the department and the community stayed on hiatus.

That hiatus was broken this fall and, on Wednesday, the latest 14-member class celebrated completing its 13-week program, which allowed them to gain a deeper understanding of what law enforcement does and how they do it.

The class held a dinner Wednesday at West Virginia Northern Community College to honor its milestone. WPD Lt. Josh Sanders said the program is a crucial tool in helping the public understand officers' jobs.

"The police are the community and the community are the police," he said. "This is one of the foundations that modern law enforcement is built on. So these folks having an interest in us, getting to know us, how we do our job, what we can and can't do and building those relationships with the community, not only does that help them to understand what we're doing, they can educate their friends and their friends and their friends."

This class' members included Susan Baire, William Burkle, Bruce Chuff, Ann Coleman, Nicholas Gulisek, Ruby Haynes, Sandra Letzelter, Janet Metzner, Karen Shaffer, Paula Smith, Debora Stanton, Bryan Terrill, David Watkins and Ryan White.

During the 13 weeks, class members get up-close observations and hands-on interactions with various policing topics. They hear from local criminal justice professionals like local and federal officers, prosecutors, attorneys and victim advocates.

Members were able to take field trips to sites like the Northern Regional Jail and the City-County Building.

They took part in police ride-alongs and had the opportunity to try out many of the new features at WPD's new headquarters, like the building's firearms simulator and its drone program.

Sanders said the course scratches the surface of a law enforcement officer's day-to-day, but that knowledge puts those class members ahead of the game.

"Even that little scratch on the surface is deeper than most people know," Sanders said. "They become ambassadors for us and help educate their friends. Perhaps they'll bring more people to this class to get to know us."

Smith has several members of her family in law enforcement, which was one of the reasons she wanted to become part of this academy class. Now that it has concluded, she said she has an even greater respect for the jobs they do.

"The things they deal with day in and day out are sometimes just unbelievable," Smith said. "So there's an even bigger appreciation now that I've actually rode around with police officers and saw some of the things that were going on in the public."