Ten-week course teaches how departments work
Gilroy – Police work isn’t just the high-glamour chases and arrests on shows like ‘COPS,’ officers say. To share the skinny on how Gilroy police quash crime, the department is holding its annual Citizen Police Academy, a 10-week course that teaches the A to Z of local law enforcement.
Even Jennifer Silveira, an office assistant at the department, said she learned from the weekly class, which she took last year.
“I’d been working here for about a year, and I still felt like I didn’t have the big picture of how the department runs, and all the different units,” she said. “You learn about what each unit does. It’s not just patrolling the streets … it’s the behind-the-scenes people you don’t hear about too much.”
Applications are available from Community Service Officer Maribel Gutierrez, who is running the program for the fourth time. Participants must be at least 18 years old, free of felony convictions, have no misdemeanor arrests in the past year, and live or work within Gilroy’s city limits. Background checks are also run on each applicant. Chief Gregg Giusiana makes the final call as to who gets into the program, which accepts between 20 and 25 students each year. Applications are due by Dec. 29.
The course is required to become a police department volunteer, but not every graduate goes on to do so, said Gutierrez. But whether graduates hit the streets or head back to civilian life, they’ll go back better-informed about police work.
“So many people get their information about police from TV shows,” said Silveira. “Here, you get to see the real-world workings of a department.”
