“You’re going to jail!” Delta College Police Academy training is a great success

By Courtney Elisech

UNIVERSITY CENTER – On Oct. 26 and 27, the Delta College Police Academy held scenario training at the main campus. 31 recruits had a chance to run eight different training areas throughout the day. At the end of each one, they held a debriefing and talked about what went well and what could have been better.

The situations the recruits found themselves in were similar to ones they could encounter on patrol. Included in the scenarios were a felony stop, reckless driving, drunk driving, a suspicious person on campus, and more.

Over the two days, ten police vehicles could be spotted around campus chasing down volunteer bad guys.

Michael Goodall is the coordinator of the Police Academy and worked with the Delta Collegiate to obtain footage of the scenario training.

The volunteers and cadets were confused to see a camera and people watching at first. One even voiced, “Are they part of the scenarios?” before falling back into character. It made it seem more realistic that people would be staring and recording as they worked, even commenting on what they were doing.

“Most of my volunteers are recruits from previous classes,” Goodall shared. “This is crucial to their training; they spend all this time in the classroom, but this is hands-on and a controlled environment. So, we ask that after they graduate, they come back and volunteer at least once.”

Professors in the criminal justice program also offer extra credit to students to participate.

The driver was a volunteer in a red man training suit at the reckless driving station. A red man training suit is used to protect against blunt force trauma. The volunteer was a great sport and took off, making the cadets pursue on foot during one scenario. In the next, he tried to run away but was stopped and tackled to the ground before he made it far. The passengers in the vehicle also hassled the cadets and pretended to record what was happening on their phones.

The suspicious person on campus was spotted by a student who waited around for the police to show up. She proceeded to yell at the perp that he was going to jail and then explained to the officers that the man was approaching students to take their photos. The cadets quickly separated the victim from the suspect and began questioning. They were very thorough and professional with the suspect and the student who reported it.

Each situation was different in crime, response, and activity. At times the cadets calmly talked to the suspects, and others they had their plastic weapons drawn yelling for the perp to put their hands up.

You could see some cadets were still unsure of themselves, looking to the supervisor of the group for help. Others were very confident and burst into motion as soon as it was needed.

The scenarios will be back on campus in April before graduation. If you want to volunteer to help with the scenarios send Goodall an email at michaelgoodall@delta.edu.