After a five-year hiatus, in part due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the Town of Lloyd Police Department is again sponsoring a Civilian Police Academy, which is being held on Wednesday evenings from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Highland Fire House and will run through July 3.

The academy gives residents an insight into what the police force does and how they approach their jobs. The six-week course covers a wide variety of topics in depth: a history of the Lloyd Police department; a tour of the police station and their equipment; community policies and traffic stops; Reality Based Training [RBT] scenarios; Presentation of a Mock DWI Accident; Bail Reform/Discovery and Court Protocols and Domestic Violence; Civilian Response to Active Shooter incidents with an emphasis on how to help protect oneself and how to assist Law Enforcement; and a graduation at the end of the program.

Police Chief James Janso said, “the goal of the Academy is to show our community what police do by giving them a first-hand experience of our station, our equipment, why we do certain things on car stops, why we carry equipment and what the purpose is.”

Janso said the Academy means to “pull back the curtain” on Law Enforcement.

“They get to see who we are and they take away from it a whole new perspective on Law Enforcement and it shows honestly that we are people first and they understand who we are and what our job entails,” he said.

Janso said each week there are new class activities that are, “eye opening for people because they get to actually see and be like a police officer. They walk away with a little more respect and understanding of our job and that’s our goal. I want the community to know who we are and what we do.”

Janso said they will show the participants a few “live” scenarios where an officer, “in a split second must make a decision on what we see, what we perceive and how we are going to react to an issue, where months or weeks later they can be challenged by judges, lawyers or people where it’s not that easy to be a Monday night quarterback if they’re watching or doing what we do to still see it.”

Janso said people were “amazed” when New York State came to review their departments policies.

“We in our department were exceptional; we were ahead of a lot of agencies in our training, our equipment and it reiterated that we are a good police department,” he said. “We’re always looking forward, you have to, and need to know the laws, the equipment and the technologies that are always changing and you have to progress with it; you have to keep up, you can’t catch up.”

Chief Janso said the Academy is a good experience for those in attendance as well as for his department, “to interact with the students and for them to interact with us and the best part is the question and answer periods and it is well worth the time we put into it.”

For more information on joining the Academy, call Chief Janso or Lt. Roloson at the Lloyd Police station at 845-691-6102.