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KIRKSVILLE, MO --
The Kirksville Citizens’ Police Academy kicked off their 13-week course on Tuesday Night.

The first class consisted of an orientation and the history of the Kirksville Police Department.

The purpose of the academy is to give citizens an idea on how the Kirksville’s Police Department operates and the different departments within the police force.

“The number one thing I would like to see is for the students to go away with an understanding of what police do and how we do it and I think more importantly the underlying reasons why we do some of the things we do,” said Kirksville Police Chief Jim Hughes. “If they walk away with that then I think the program is a success.”

The 27 students enrolled in the course are diverse and are all taking the class for different reasons.

“Well I'm on the fence about what I want to do,” said Abby Cordray. “I'm a Criminal Justice department major so I'm thinking law school, but there's also potential for law enforcement so I'm just trying to get information.”

“I just want to get an overall view of what police officers go through,” said Kirstina Imes. “I was an EMT for six year and worked a lot with police officers, but didn’t really get to see what their side of it was.”

After Tuesday night's lecture, students were able to get an inside look at the police department. They saw everything from the evidence room to the Kirksville Regional Computer Crimes Unit Lab.

And while students in the program will learn what law enforcement is all about and how the different departments operate, Chief Hughes says it's a learning experience for his police department as well.

“Well I think it's a two way street. I think we are going to get something from them [the students] as well just by the questions they ask, but I'm hoping they can take away from this the true idea of what policing in general is like and more specifically what policing is like in the city of Kirksville,” Chief Hughes said.

The nearly 40 hours of training, classroom instruction and real-world scenarios will give participants a glimpse of law enforcement with something different each week.

“I can’t wait until we go to the shooting range,” Imes said.          

This is the first citizens’ police academy sponsored by the Kirksville Police Department since 1994 and its something that has been in the works for some time now.

“Well we started working on this program five years ago and once we got the funding for it, it took about 6 months to put it all into place,” said Chief Hughes.

The course will end on November 15 with a graduation ceremony.