UPD Finds New Way to Connect With Students and Community

Trevor Frank
News Reporter

This semester the University Police Department is trying something new by creating the first ever Citizen Police Academy.

The academy will give interested students and faculty a chance to see first hand how UPD operates on a daily basis.

Sergeant Roland Belmares is the Academy Coordinator, and says the goal of the academy is to educate people about what UPD does, highlighting “The citizen police academy is a thirteen week program designed to have students faculty and staff get together and learn about UPD. We get together and we educate them in law enforcement and educate them about what UPD does.”

“A lot of people dont really know what UPD does, so this kind of brings them together to interact with officers on a daily basis and to see what we do on a daily basis,” said Belmares

Once accepted, the program is completely free and after graduating students are able to do a variety of things with UPD

“Once you successfully complete the Citizen Police academy you are able to volunteer and help UPD with events and things like that and do ride along with officers and help is at football games or help us with big events,” adds Belmares. 

Jonathan Kim, a senior, and current citizen police student says he loves getting the first hand experience the academy offers, adding “My favorite part first and foremost is getting to work with other people that are within the academy. And then on top of that meeting officers from all different parts of the organization not just police officers or patrol officers but from every single division like the investigation and detective division. So it’s pretty cool getting to meet with officers of every aspect of the police decision”

More information about the Citizen Police Academy at Texas State can be found online.