OPELIKA’S FINEST AND ITS CITIZENS

Story By Hannah Goldfinger Photos Contributed By OPD

The Opelika Police Academy has been in business a long time, close to a decade, and has just finished its spring course.

“[The Opelika Police Academy] is an eight-week course offered to citizens in the East Alabama area, predominately Opelika, who are interested in learning more about the Opelika Police Department and what we do, basically,” said Allison

Duke, community relations administrator for the Opelika Police Department.

Over the eight weeks, a new topic is introduced each week from investigations to traffic control, patrol, canines and more.

The final week is an introduction to the virtual reality system the police department has called the Apex Reality System.

“[It] puts them in real-world situations to see how they might react,” Duke said.

Each class lasts about two hours, from 6 to 8 p.m. every Thursday. For example, the detectives’ week began with a PowerPoint with information on detectives with pictures, videos and examples.

There is a video of a robbery, and it walks participants through the scene and what responsibilities are.

“It’s not just what they show on CSI or crime scene shows where they solve the case in 30 minutes or 45 minutes,” Duke said. “[The detectives] want to really kind of give them the different aspects that go into the job. And then it kind of talks a little bit on the court process, and that’s about an hour of the class, and then we’ll break them into two groups. And one group will go out, and they have a mock crime set up outside, so they’ll get to kind of put their detective hats on and go and look at the evidence that’s marked, and kind of try and figure out what they think happened in that situation because that is basically what the detectives are doing when they arrive on scene.

“… While that group’s doing it, the other group will be with our drugs and narcotics unit, and they have a bunch of different things that they’ve seized in cases — some different types of drugs and paraphernalia and they kind of just educate them on some of the things that they do.”

The groups switch and get to participate on both sides.

The canine week is also a favorite of participants, Duke said. Some participants are hesitant; others want to learn more.

“We had one lady a couple years ago that had been recommended to take the course by a police officer and she was scared to death,” Duke said. “She stood up the first class and said she was scared to death of law enforcement. She had had a terrible experience in a different area it wasn’t with Opelika Police but it was with a different agency — and she was very emotional throughout the few weeks. And we slowly just allowed her to open up and ask questions and she saw different sides, and she saw the ‘why’ behind why things happen.”

Duke said by the time the course ended, she felt more secure. There has even been a participant who is now pursuing a law enforcement career with OPD.

“You get a great inside look at the department,” Duke said. The Police Academy did take a break for a few years, but it began in the fall of 2004 and ran until the fall of 2007; there was a break until 2016 when it resumed.

For those interested, unfortunately, the next course won’t take place until the spring, but go ahead and mark it on your calendars. Information about the class can be found on the OPD app.