Tuesday nights aren’t always uneventful, but the LaGrange Police Department had a few things to do. The department was re-accredited for the seventh time in a row by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. Also, the members of the Citizen’s Police Academy graduated at the LaGrange City Council meeting last night.

Members of the LaGrange Daily News staff participated this year to connect with the police department and learn valuable information when it comes to working with law enforcement in their jobs.

The Citizens Police Academy held two hour classes for the last ten weeks, teaching civilians why the local police department acts the way it does in certain situations. Civilians learned about drug and gang awareness, code enforcement and K-9 units.

Members of the class also participated in activities for better understanding, such as acting as officers in traffic stops and shoot-don’t shoot training.

Officer Jim Davison and Lt. Eric Lohr instructed the class weekly and made sure to make the training as realistic as possibly based on their experience.

In addition to conducting traffic stops, participants also got to do ride alongs with officers for firsthand experience into what working for law enforcement entails.

The police academy is one of the ways the LPD is reaching out to the community and it’s a great thing.

The classes were informative and objective for the citizens. With the amount of detail necessary to conduct traffic stops and confidence to take control of the situations, we quickly learned that the job was not easy for officers to do. The high standard of which the local police department operates at showed.

We on the news staff are grateful for the better understanding of the LPD and look forward to finishing our separate ride alongs with the officers.