The Citizen Police Academy: Assessment of a Program\u27s Effects on Community and Officer Attitudes

The study was conducted in order to determine the effects of the Citizen Police Academy (CPA) program on community and officer attitudes. The two main goals of this program are to increase officer awareness of community concerns and to raise community awareness about the police department. Surveys were distributed to three groups: employees of the Bowling Green Police Department, all alumni of the CPA, and a random sample of the local community. Participants were asked their attitudes regarding crime prevention, awareness of police officers\u27 activities, and the effectiveness of the CPA program. T-tests and ANOVAs determined that police officers who had participated with the CPA did not express significantly more support for the CPA program than did those who had not participated with the program. Community members rated officer awareness of community concerns lower than did the officers themselves. Finally, alumni were able to identify obscure programs discussed by the CPA significantly more often than were community members. Results of this assessment seem to indicate that the CPA is successfully meeting its goal of increasing community awareness about the police department. Use of these results for improving the program are discussed