It’s a new outreach effort for the St. Cloud Police Department reaching a specific audience in the community.

The St. Cloud Police Department will be conducting the inaugural Senior Citizen Police Academy beginning March 18.  

Sergeant Tad Hoeschen who works on community engagement says the academy is an eight-week course offered to seniors who live in the St Cloud Metro area.  If you sign up you will experience first-hand in many areas of police training. The classes will go in-depth into the training curriculum that police officer candidate’s experience including basic criminal law, defensive tactics, canine officers, patrol, crime scene and evidence, mental health response and pursuit driving.

Hoeschen says it’s imperative that participants understand that the Senior Citizen’s Police Academy is solely informative and in no way trains or promotes citizens to act in a law enforcement capacity. 

The classes begin the first Wednesday, March 18th, and run for eight weeks and will be held from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at Whitney Senior Center. Registration for the academy can be completed by calling Whitney Senior Center at (320)255-7245.  They are taking registrations until March 13^th.