Spending spring break at Junior Police Academy
Posted Mar 30, 2011 3:45 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Twenty-five students from Calgary’s Ismaili community are in the midst of getting a taste of policing, first hand, over March school break.
The Calgary Police Service is running its annual March break Police Academy for students between the ages of 12 and 17. This time, all of families of the students taking part in the program attend the Jamatkhana Centre in the northeast.
Constable Garret Swihart says the participants get a well-rounded look at different careers in emergency services.
“They’re getting kind of a full-meal deal of what some of the areas of options for policing, EMS and fire are,” Constable Swihart tells 660News.
Swihart adds there’s a reason for concentrating this year’s academy effort in one specfiic community.
“We said what we would like to do is get the whole community involved and maybe do one specifically, tailored with the community,” says Swihart, “and they’ve invited us to have graduation at their mosque.”
Grad ceremonies for the students are being held this Saturday at the mosque.
The Calgary Police constable believes the interaction with the Ismaili community has other benefits.
“Maybe break down some of the barriers they’ve had in some of the countries they’ve come from,” Swihart adds, “where they’ve seen police or persons in uniform with guns on their sides as maybe an adversial role rathern than a positive role model.”
The youngsters get to participate in scenarios with the Hawcs helicopters, the K-9, drug, tactical team, traffic and crime section units during the week.
