The Falls Township Police Department worked for the last year to bring a police academy experience to the area’s youth – and last Friday the first students to take the plunge graduated.
Lt. Nelson Whitney and Officer John Yeager of the police department worked tirelessly for two weeks with youth in grades 9-12 from across the area at Pennsbury’s West Campus. Students came from Nazareth High School, Council Rock School District, Neshaminy, Pennsbury, Truman and even area alternative schools – all with an interest in emergency services and law enforcement.
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They were immersed in a true police academy experience. It was one officials designed to push and challenge them and strengthen their love and desire to join the force.
Yeager told LevittownNow.com he traveled to departments from around the area taking the best from each program and combining it to create the Falls Youth Police Academy experience. The undertaking took him an entire year.
“It’s really been quite nostalgic for a lot of officers by reminding them of what the academy was like and reigniting why they became an officer in the first place,” said Whitney.
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Students that enrolled in the program were given the opportunity to work alongside Falls officers and experts in the emergency services field and were trained on vehicle code, firearms, traffic stops, SWAT, crime scenes, DUIs, CPR, K-9, and ethics. The upcoming high school seniors even traveled to Cooper Medical Center where they were given exclusive access to their trauma center and the trauma experience.
Whitney said the program, which is in it’s first year, will expand to include middle school students in the future.
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