Citizens Police Academy Binder

By Diana Soliwon
Email the author
April 6, 2011

CCBC Dundalk Offers Cops n' Robbers Scenarios (PHOTOS)

The justice program at the Community College of Baltimore County in Dundalk includes four staged scenario rooms to train its officers.

Comment

‹ Back to Article

new

Embed | Share

"You're always doing this!" Det. Jim Skidmore had shouted at a mortified Sarah Lentz, his "wife" and a clerk in the Baltimore County Police Department's community resources bureau. The two were enacting a scenario in which two officers-- or in this case, Citizens Academy students Cassandra Wallace (left) and Jeannette Perry-- received a call for a domestic dispute at a local bank. The "bank" was called First Academy Bank and operates as a fully staged environment for Baltimore County police officers to test their skills at CCBC Dundalk's justice program.

Photos (11)

Photos

Students of Baltimore County's 30th Citizens Police Academy walk across CCBC Dundalk's campus to the justice department's scenario rooms.

Credit Diana Soliwon

"You're always doing this!" Det. Jim Skidmore had shouted at a mortified Sarah Lentz, his "wife" and a clerk in the Baltimore County Police Department's community resources bureau. The two were enacting a scenario in which two officers-- or in this case, Citizens Academy students Cassandra Wallace (left) and Jeannette Perry-- received a call for a domestic dispute at a local bank. The "bank" was called First Academy Bank and operates as a fully staged environment for Baltimore County police officers to test their skills at CCBC Dundalk's justice program.

Credit Diana Soliwon

(From left) Citizens Academy student Jeannette Perry tries to get the story from Det. Jim Skedmore, the victim of a domestic dispute call, while student Cassandra Wallace does the same with Sarah Lentz, Skidmore's "wife." The two were enacting a scenario in of the justice department's fully-staged scenario rooms at CCBC Dundalk.

Credit Diana Soliwon

The scenario rooms are meant to test officers in real-life situations and were fully-staged by members of the department.

Credit Diana Soliwon

Bartender and Det. Carl Lindhorst pours a patron another drink in the Terry Stop Inn Bar & Grill before the beginning of a scenario on the CCBC Dundalk campus. The scenario was a call made by Lindhorst to report that he had seen one of his patrons was carrying a gun.

Credit Diana Soliwon

Det. Carl Lindhorst informs student Sean Rutherford which patron has the gun during scenario training at CCBC Dundalk. Rutherford proceeded to address the patron, who ended up reaching for his cell phone and his gun before Rutherford was able to contain him.

Credit Diana Soliwon

Upload Photos and Videos

Ain't nothin' like the real thing—or something pretty close to it—for students of the justice program at the Community College of Baltimore County's Dundalk campus.

The latest class of Baltimore County's 30th Citizen's Police Academy brought a group of us to Dundalk Tuesday for an opportunity to train for "calls to service" first-hand.

Our tasks? To respond to a domestic dispute in a bank, drugs found in a teenager's bedroom, a bar patron with a gun and a gas station patron ripping up magazines.

"You're always doing this!" Det. Jim Skidmore shouted at his scenario-wife Sarah Lentz, who began hitting him in a bank after he forget a check for the umpteenth time. Students-turned-officers responded by confirming their relationship and eventually charging Lentz with assault.

Students based their actions on whether a suspect offered them reasonable suspicion, indications that something criminal was afoot, or probable cause, such as when a bartender or a parent serves as a witness.

See our photo gallery on the right for your own sneak peek at what a police officer's call to service can entail.

About this column: Local editor Diana Soliwon was accepted to Baltimore County’s 30th Citizens Police Academy, an annual 16-week program designed to give residents a first-hand look at what police work is all about. She will blog about her experience after each class, which are mostly on Tuesday nights with the exception of one Wednesday and one Saturday class.