After eight weeks of interactive classes, 38 Santa Barbara County residents graduated Nov. 12 from the Citizens Academy. The participants ranged from 18 to 82 years of age with different backgrounds, life experiences, and perspectives.
The group included students, business owners, an author, media members, activists, and retirees, just to name a few. This is the largest Citizens Academy class and the second time the Sheriff’s Office has collaborated with UCSB, the UCSB Police Department, and the city of Goleta to put on the free program.
The Citizens Academy is designed to give the public an inside look at some of what law enforcement does on a daily basis to keep its citizens safe. During the course of the program, the participants toured the jail, fired a handgun, and took interactive classes in active shooter training, use of force, search and seizure law, building searches, arrest and control, and more.
On graduation day, the participants finished their last two classes at the Sheriff’s Training Bureau. They watched a K-9 demonstration followed by a presentation from Sheriff Bill Brown on the history of the Sheriff’s Office. The group then received their certificates of completion at a graduation ceremony and celebratory barbecue attended by family and friends of the graduates, their instructors, and past Citizens Academy graduates. At the ceremony, the crowd applauded each graduate as Sheriff Bill Brown and UCSB Police Chief Dustin Olson presented them with their certificate of completion.
Upon completion of the Citizens Academy, the graduates agreed it was an eye-opening experience and said that they are glad they signed up. Ken Partch, a retired stockbroker said in a statement, “I wanted to know the story of the Sheriff’s Office and I was pleasantly surprised. Now I can help tell their story.”
UCSB student Sean Shuster said in a press release, “After going through this course I now see that law enforcement officers are not just robots walking around with a gun and a badge. They are meaningful members of the Santa Barbara community as a whole.”
Organizers plan to hold more Citizen’s Academies in different areas of Santa Barbara County in the near future to allow more people to participate. To find out when the next Citizen’s Academy is, sign up for Nixle alerts at sbsheriff.org.
This article appears in Nov 24 – Dec 1, 2016.
