APD Zone 2 Fangirl Report – Citizen’s Police Academy Training

Hey – it’s me #ZONE2FANGIRL again coming at you fresh off of my first session of the Citizen’s Police Academy training – and it is off to a great start!

After having severe road rage experiencing pre-pandemic levels of traffic through Midtown, running a no turn on red (I had my “headed to police academy training” excuse ready to go if needed),  ignoring Google maps much to my peril, circling the block twice to find the entrance, and getting lost in the dank dismal parking deck, I finally made it… only a few minutes late. Great way to win friends and influence people… not.

All of the APD command staff were there – and I was pretty excited that I actually already knew six of the key leaders! Zone 2 was recognized for having the most people taking the class (Buckhead representin’- woot woot) and several of us had been recruited by our own Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods chairperson Debra Wathen… even her daughter!

My class includes 14 people ranging from an historian, to a commercial property manager, to a nightclub owner, to a woman writing a crime novel to community activists from across the city. It is an interesting group of people with a lot of different perspectives and a lot of questions!

The best part of the class was Interim Chief Of Police Darin Schierbaum.  I’m not typically super impressed by people, but nix that for this one. He is da bomb. He is smort and noice! (Brooklyn 99 fans you get that right?!?) He is a total history buff and took us through the structure and composition of the department, explained how officers are certified, the regulatory framework plus a whole bunch more.  He did it with no notes, no hesitation in his remarks and didn’t stumble over A. SINGLE. WORD. I kid you not. Dude should teach a public speaking Masters level class!

Here are some things I found interesting:

• I now know why all the local cities poach APD’s officers. It’s all about training – they want trained up officers but don’t provide the training themselves.
  • APD requires and provides 22 weeks of training plus 12 weeks of field training
  • State of GA only requires ~10 weeks TOTAL y’all. That’s insane!  Oh, but thanks to Mississippi for beating us to last place with even fewer required days.
  • What’s really interesting is the things APD focuses in on for their training – they include things like
    • Diversity
    • Deescalation techniques
    • LGBTQ
  • Check out this chart that shows the differences between the state and City training programs.

• Hiring:
  • The Chief believes in quality over quantity and will boot you to the curb if you can’t cut it. He sees hiring a bad officer as breaking trust with the community and he means it.
  • APD is currently about 400 officers lower than they want to be, but they aren’t going to cut corners to fix that.
  • There are currently 140 officers in the academy.
  • Only ~70% of the recruits will make it through the training.
  • Keeping up with pay scales and benefits of local competitors was described as an “arms race.” Not sure who is in higher demand police officers or nurses!
• This is a hiring thing, but is important enough to call out on its own. APD has been working to ensure the composition of the police force matches the composition of the community since the 1970s – they look at everything race, gender, nationality and sexual orientation. That is pretty darn awesome particularly in light of recent events that have been racially motivated.  I was proud to hear Atlanta was so far out front on this.
• But the most incredible thing I learned is where to buy the most unusual presents for people – propertyroom.com  They actually auction off all the stuff they confiscate – I see a white elephant gift in the future…or maybe a new car! Wait – I just spotted an awesome Louis Vuitton handbag – for real!

I can’t wait for the next weeks of this class – we will get to see the 911 call center in action, go to the crime lab, hear from the SWAT team, ride along with an officer for a shift and experience the shoot no shoot simulation…HOW COOL!

If I was you, I’d wanna be me too!   😊