Georgetown Police holds academy program for teens

GEORGETOWN, Ky. (WKYT) - The Georgetown Police Department is hosting its first Junior Citizen Police Academy.

It’s a weeklong education in law enforcement for 13 to 17-year-olds.

Police Chief Darin Allgood says the experience helps build bridges between the police and the community, and it’s shown through teamwork.

“It’s important to interact with the youth, especially this age group, to show they can trust us. We are humans. They can come to us with problems,” said Chief Allgood.

This week the teens received hands-on experience in crime scene investigations, traffic stops and hostage negotiations, just to name a few.

“People think of it as just when you’re a police officer, you just sit in your car and eat donuts, but there’s so many parts of being a police officer that people don’t know about,” said 13-year-old Noah Lindon.

The Scott County teen is aware of the potential dangers of the job. He reflects on Scott County Deputy Caleb Conley’s recent death in the line of duty.

“it shows you how much they’ll do for you even when they know they may not make it,” said Lindon.

17-year-old Catherine Monroe is interested in becoming an officer as well. She says the general public has a misconception about police.

“I think the general public doesn’t like the uniform. They see police, they think they are in trouble and that’s not the case,” said Monroe. “Police do get more of a bad rep.”

13-year-old Chanelle Davis says the Junior Citizen Police Academy has enhanced her trust with the police.

“We should trust policemen these days because they actually work their butts off for us,” said Davis.

Chief Allgood says this program has become so popular they are looking at doing another one in the fall.

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