Residents get chance to be cops, firefighters

The Public Safety Citizenship Leadership Academy may sound like a school, but much of the learning will take place outside of the classroom.

“They are going to have so much fun,” said Sgt. Hal Koozer, the program administrator and Maricopa police officer. “People are going to learn exactly what the police do.”  

While there will be some focused lectures — one night, for examples, will highlight detectives and real-life sleuthing — that doesn’t mean students will be stuck at a desk taking notes.

The 11-week course begins Sept. 18 with classes every Tuesday 6 to 9 p.m. in the Butterfield Elementary School library.

Much of the curriculum is designed to give the students real-life working knowledge of what police officers and firefighters do on a daily basis.

On the police side of the class, in addition to being required to do a ride-along, students will learn patrol tactics, traffic enforcements and defensive tactics and basically “understand exactly what a recruit goes through,” Koozer said.

Another class will center on the Maricopa Fire Department.

During that class, students will have an opportunity to handle the equipment and learn how firefighters and paramedics do their jobs.

“It’s an opportunity for the participants involved to see our equipment and see what we do,” Brad Pitassi, MFD public information officer, said.

Students will climb into a ladder truck, a fire truck and handle tools of the firefighting trade, ranging from the axes and spreaders firefighters use to get into burning structures to the Jaws of Life used to extricate victims from car accidents.