One only has to glance at professional publications, websites, conference topics, and recent initiatives to appreciate that effective, positive community interaction is a flagship issue for law enforcement. Innovative ideas for strengthening relationships between police and their communities are enthusiastically sought. One of the lingering challenges for law enforcement executives, however, is the reconciliation of limited resources with program priorities. Outreach and education programs often equate to impacts on operations and a drain on the budget. However, a tried and true relationship-building tool, the citizen’s police academy (CPA), can be enhanced using technology to extend the agency’s capacity, increase the inclusion of heretofore inaccessible populations, and conserve human and fiscal resources.¹ Through “online micro-CPAs,” agencies can enjoy the benefits of a perpetual citizen’s academy experience without the commitment of precious resources, while simultaneously expanding  their capacity and the diversity of attendees, creating a value-add to their agencies and communities.

An online micro-CPA promises a number of advantages including

• Vastly expanded community participation. Unlike traditional CPAs that have notoriously small class sizes, an online version can be accessed by anyone, from anywhere, 24 hours a day.

• Opportunity to attract a much more diverse group of attendees. Because online access minimizes traditional barriers to participation (discussed in detail below), this CPA model can increase inclusion.

• Minimal operational impacts. Once deployed, there are no recurring resource requirements for delivering a digital CPA program.

• Ability to develop agency-specific content and deliver a program that is customized to the agency and community.

It is important to stress that  online micro-CPAs, as detailed herein, are not intended to replace existing traditional CPAs. Rather, this CPA version is intended as a supplemental tool for expanding an agency’s audience, generating interest in the traditional CPA program, and greatly enhancing inclusion.

Background

For those not familiar with the CPA, a brief explanation may be helpful. Today, the terms “Community Policing” and “Problem Oriented Policing” are well entrenched in law enforcement vocabularies. They arose during the movement toward a more intelligent, transparent, and collaborative style of policing that has occurred over the past several decades.

These contemporary policing strategies are based on a couple of core assertions:

1. 1. 1. A law enforcement agency relying upon internal assumptions, past practice, and insular leadership to inform its operational decisions and priorities is incapable of meeting the needs of its customers. When a misalignment exists between police operations and community concerns, the community members feel underserved and the police feel underappreciated. The logical conclusion is that police and the community need to establish enduring relationships and communication between both groups must be free and regular.
      2. In the absence of facts, members of the public will forge their perceptions of law enforcement independently, aided only by the information that is readily available to them—past experience, uninformed observation, television shows and movies, rumor, social media, and news reports. The predictable outcomes area distorted impression of law enforcement in general and a “them and us” mentality on both sides. Here, the logical conclusion is that, somehow, law enforcement needs to expose community members to the realities of police work. If law enforcement wishes to influence the way the discipline is perceived, the public must be given an opportunity to access the truth and gain knowledge and experience that will better inform their beliefs.

If law enforcement wishes to influence the way the discipline is perceived, the public must be given an opportunity to access the truth and gain knowledge and experience that will better inform their beliefs.

Over time, police have been collaborating with stakeholders in nontraditional and increasingly significant ways. Input from community members and other industries has resulted in a higher-resolution view of the operating environment. The more police communicate and collaborate with partners, the more they enjoy the benefits of a shared safety vision. Constituent input in creating that vision means shared ownership of the process and outcomes. It also equates to a higher level of trust and support. This support can manifest itself in many different forms, including a reduction in community tensions, budget advocacy, expanded services, access to privately owned resources, and even the ability to “weather the storm” in the wake of a difficult decision or tragic event.

The CPA has emerged as one of the best methods for building bridges and cultivating enduring relationships with community members. In a CPA, participants experience all aspects of police work through a series of classes presented by officers, staff, and administrators. Topics vary from agency to agency, but typically involve everything from budget to use of force. Community members gain an appreciation for the rigorous hiring practices, professional standards, liability, rules of evidence, policy and procedure, accreditation standards, use-of-force decision making, emergency vehicle operations, court procedure, law, emerging issues and challenges, and much more. CPAs are an invaluable method for overcoming misperceptions, shifting public opinion, sharing important information, enlisting community participation, and forging new inter-organizational opportunities. CPAs have been successfully used since the 1970s, and as early as 1998, more than half the agencies in the United States were either offering some form of a CPA or were preparing to do so.²

When one considers the breadth and nature of the stakeholder group in law enforcement now—community members, special interest groups, nongovernmental organizations, other city departments, elected officials, counties, schools, external agencies, and countless others—a CPA seems almost essential.

A Fit for All Agencies

CPAs are viable regardless of agency size, type, or location. Every agency has important information to share. Every agency can benefit from a pool of community advocates. Every agency wants to be perceived as transparent, responsive, and professional. And every agency longs for the opportunity to have their residents as a captive audience in a setting that is not censored or orchestrated by a third party. Aside from the logistical challenges, anyone who has actively participated in a CPA would be hard-pressed to deny the benefits of these programs—and the benefits are not unidirectional. The hosting agencies derive as much reward from the experience as the attendees do, if not more. Every law enforcement executive that the writer has spoken with, in reflecting upon the first CPA he or she sponsored, has described the strategic value of the program as nothing short of stunning. Usually, their comments include some variation of “I wish I had started this many years ago.” Even the FBI has embraced the CPA idea and offers multi-week academies in many places. In fact, in the past several years, municipalities and counties have been applying the citizen’s academy  concept to a variety of general government topics. City managers and county administrators have realized the benefits of these programs and employ them  across the United States.

But, if peer consensus isn’t enough to persuade some executives, academic studies have established that CPAs are indeed effective. For example, both social psychologist Dr. Jacqueline Pope and  organizational psychologist and management expert Dr. Bret Becton, using different design strategies, concluded that citizen’s academy graduates  have a more positive perception of their law enforcement agency; have a better understanding of the agency’s role, responsibilities, and challenges; an improved understanding of agency services; and more firmly believe that their law enforcement partners are in touch with community concerns and are sincerely committed to addressing those concerns, than they were before attending the academy.³ CPAs are an invaluable tool in the law enforcement executive’s toolbox.

However, some of the most valuable benefits of the CPA experience remain untapped due to a lack of capacity, a lack of diversity, and inadvertent exclusion.

Traditional CPA Challenges

In most cases, even in the most committed agencies, only a tiny fraction of the community’s population has participated in the CPA. The cost and operational impacts of hosting an academy limit the number of sessions an agency can offer. A typical CPA may have sessions spanning a six- to ten-week period. Sessions are usually scheduled over a combination of weekday evenings and weekends. Some sessions require specialized venues or access to specialized equipment. The sessions are facilitated by agency experts within the topics being discussed. Diverting staff to the CPA can result in operational impacts like scheduling and overtime considerations. Backgrounding attendees, producing student materials, searching for venues, and other necessary preparations add to the work and cost.

One of the most serious and uniform deficiencies of the traditional CPA is a lack of attendee diversity. This seems to be the result of a somewhat limited approach to recruiting attendees. Many agencies are very selective in their recruitment efforts, often soliciting prominent community members, accomplished business leaders, elected officials, media representatives, or others who promise some strategic advantage to the agency if favorably impressed. This is a sound practice – in moderation. But, as several studies have suggested, attendees not specifically invited tend to become aware of the CPA by word-of-mouth.⁴ More specifically, they hear about it from a family member, friend, or coworker who previously attended the CPA. If subsequent attendees are largely socioeconomic extensions of the initial handpicked group, diversity has no opportunity to flourish. In fact, the writer would argue that the majority of the people who attend the traditional CPAs are not the people law enforcement most needs to build a relationship with; they are not the people whose perceptions agencies would most like to influence; they are not the people who feel intimidated by or alienated from their police; and they are not, in most cases, the community members who have the most real and pressing public safety concerns.

Agencies are using a lot of resources to host CPAs, but they are largely missing the target by disproportionately excluding minorities, young people, low income community members, and people with disabilities.

For example, five well-established CPAs in South Carolina and Florida were the subject of academic study. CPA graduates were surveyed and it was found that 70 percent were over 40 years of age, 62 percent earned over $75,000 annually, 84 percent  were white, and the majority were civically engaged prior to attending a CPA.⁵ The message here is obvious—agencies are using a lot of resources to host CPAs, but they are largely missing the target by disproportionately excluding minorities, young people, low income community members, and people with disabilities.

Online Advantages

Most people simply are not going to make a commitment of multiple evenings and weekends to attend a structured, in-person CPA. Life’s demands simply won’t allow it. Therefore, if the exclusive CPA offering requires physical attendance, then this has already eliminated the vast majority of the  population as attendees. Additionally, the most vulnerable community members and those whom agencies would benefit the most by reaching are largely excluded from participating by a variety of circumstances. Typical barriers to participation include childcare, transportation, shift work, disability, distrust of police, language barriers, cultural barriers, and past experiences. The ability to access a CPA online, however, renders most of these barriers moot.

Unless the issues of scope and inclusiveness get resolved, the full potential of the CPA simply cannot be realized. This is where the online micro-CPA becomes a vehicle for achieving almost unlimited scope and inclusion. The scope issue is instantly addressed because anyone with Internet access is capable of accessing the course.⁶ If the course is built to contemporary accessibility standards, most people with vision, hearing, cognitive, and mobility disabilities can participate wherever their assistive tools are available to them. The challenge of the time commitment is overcome because the CPA is available on-demand and attendees can self-pace their experience. Childcare, shift work, transportation, and all the other scheduling barriers become less relevant. Every socio-economic stratum has an equal opportunity to learn about their law enforcement agency. Those who are distrustful or fearful are empowered to explore this opportunity anonymously from a safe, comfortable place. An online micro-CPA gives an agency the power to penetrate every nook and cranny of its jurisdiction. It enables agencies to open a dialogue with the most vulnerable community members and to potentially influence, in a positive way, those who harbor neutral or even hostile perceptions. Realizing these outcomes should be at the heart and soul of any meaningful outreach strategy.

Furthermore, an online CPA allows the content to be tailored to the agency. Once built, this program does not require an attendee vetting process, a special venue, or human resource commitment. The online CPA runs silently in the background. The intended message is seeping into the community continuously without distraction to the agency. There is no variation in the quality of content or delivery, and the relative ease of content editing ensures that the message remains timely and relevant. At the agency’s discretion, an array of participant data can be tracked for internal use such as for reporting purposes.

Online Limitations

It would be disingenuous to claim that online education has no disadvantages or that it is a one-to-one alternative to instructor-led training. Both models have distinct advantages and limitations. One must remember, however, that a micro-CPA is not intended to replace a traditional program. Rather, it is intended as a means of getting the most critical information, in a concise format, to the stakeholders that cannot attend a regular CPA (most community stakeholders). It is also a means of generating interest in future regular , serving as a CPA “teaser.” Most importantly, it is an effective way to reach the more elusive populations including minorities, seniors, young people, low-income individuals, and others on the fringes of the community. Also, in cases where agencies have no traditional CPA, this is a cost-effective way to realize many of the benefits while side-stepping most of the demands on their already thin resources.

In most traditional CPAs, hands-on experiences with tools such as firearms and emergency vehicles are incorporated. These are not experiences that can be effectively replicated in an e-learning format. Another outcome of the traditional CPA that is challenging to realize through e-learning is the cultivation of personal relationships between attendees and the law enforcement personnel who provide the instruction. Lastly, a traditional CPA provides many, many hours of instruction. For the vast majority of agencies, it would be impractical and cost prohibitive to create an online course of similar duration.

Nonetheless, most of the essential information about the agency, such as mission, values, roles and responsibilities, structure, personnel bios, agency services, activity levels, crime statistics, policies and procedures, training, force decisions, and active shooter protocols, can be very effectively communicated online.  Additionally, to address the challenge of personal relationship development between staff and attendees, those who complete the online course could receive an enticement for future interaction. Perhaps an invitation to a “Meet the Chief and Staff” event scheduled once or twice a year? Maybe an invitation to a future in-person CPA? The possibilities for incorporating deeper engagement opportunities are limited only by the imagination, and these features can be automated to alleviate any investment of staff time. Again, the purpose of the micro-CPA is simply to open the door to populations that agencies are otherwise unable to reach and to sow the seeds for relationships they will otherwise never enjoy.

Notes:

¹ Purdue University Police Department, Citizen’s Police Academy.

² Todd J. Dicker, “Tension on the Thin Blue Line: Police Officer Resistance to Community-oriented Policing,” American Journal of Criminal Justice, September 1998.

³ Jacqueline Pope et al., “Citizen’s Police Academies: Beliefs and Perceptions Regarding the Program,” Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice 3, no. 1 (2007): 42–53; J. Bret Becton et al., “Can Citizen Police Academies Influence Citizens’ Beliefs and Perceptions?” International City/County Management Association 87, no. 4 (May 2005): 20–23.

⁴ Giant Abutalebi Aryani, Terry D. Garrett, and Carl L. Alsabrook,  “The Citizen’s Police Academy,” The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin 69, no. 5 (May 2000): 16; Elizabeth M. Bonello and Joseph A. Schafer, “Citizen’s Police Academies:  Do they Just Entertain?” The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin 71, no. 11 (November 2002): 19;

⁵ Julie Robyn Hochsztein, Citizens Academies: A Tool for Increasing Civic Engagement (master’s thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2011).

⁶ Becton et al., “Can Citizen Police Academies Influence Citizens’ Beliefs and Perceptions?”

Please cite as:

Chris Brown, “Next-Gen Citizen’s Police Academies,” Police Chief Online, July 31, 2019.