First Night of Citizen's Academy

Wow! What a cool experience last night. It was the first class of the Richland County Sheriff's Department Citizen's Academy. The class is held at Headquarter's on Two Notch Road and I arrived about 6:30 and we all took our seats in the Media Room. We got started around 7:00 and the class has about 20-25 people in it. We met Deputy Kevin Steegal and Deputy Steven Tapler who will be leading the class. Soon after we started Sheriff Lott came in and spoke with us and thanked us for being there. He talked alot about the department and how that everyone that works for him are one of his "kids". He talked about how they take physical fitness very seriously in the department and how the sheriff's department cannot do their job without the members of the community's help. He seemed very sincere to me and seems like he would be a good man to work for. We then went around the room and introduced oursleves and told why we were there. There were several employees from the records department and other positions in the Sheriff's office in attendance as well as several retired persons who were there to learn more and learn how to volunteer. When it came my turn I told them who I was and where I lived and that I was there to learn more and was thinking of a career change. I also commented after Sheriff Lott's speech I had some serious work to do on the physical fitness side of things if I ever wanted a job, this got some good laughs...

We were informed of what the CAT team does and basically they are the community's link to the Sheriff's Department. They are officers whose main focus is to work with the community and identify problems. They hold meetings, offer classes on crime prevention and numerous other things in the community. Their main mission is to to develop long term solutions for areas of Richland County with specific problems. We went through a presentation and they showed us pictures of the Departments website and told us a little about each member of the CAT team. Some things of interest are that the Department offers free home security checks. They will check on your home at least once a shift if you are out of town and request it. Also they will do a free home/business safety inspection of your home. All you have to do is call the Sheriff's office and schedule it.

At a participant's request Deputy Tapler showed us and explained everything on his duty belt and told us what it was like to get hit with the tazer. He actually showed us the video of him getting tazed during his training. It is required that all deputy's that carry the tazer see what it feels like during training.Deputy Steegal activated his tazer and that is the first time I saw one up close. That thing looked like it would do some serious damage. They also went in to some of the vice work they do and told us a couple of stories about running prostitution stings and a certain rookie hazing incident Deputy Tapler underwent on one bust.

Overall I was really impressed with Deputy Steegler and Deputy Tapler. They seemed genuinely focused on the class and answering all of our questions. They were very professional and in our short time last night covered a wide range of topics. I am really looking forward to the rest of the class and can't wait until next week. Next week the topics are Region Overview and PIO and Media in Law Enforcement. So far this has really peaked my interest and I hope it can serve as motivation to make some chages and do more things if I want to move forward in this possible career change.

There is still time I believe if anyone else wants to join the class, just give me a call or email if your interested.

Jason