Maple Grove Police to Host First-Ever Teen Police Academy
Maple Grove police are trying something new this summer in an attempt to garner more interest from young people about possibly pursuing a career in law enforcement.
Maple Grove police will offer a Teen Police Academy for the first time in June.
The Maple Grove Police Teen Academy is taking applications now for its first-ever class. It will be June 10-14 from 12:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and it is open to any 14- to 18-year-old, regardless of whether that person lives in the city.
“One of the main reasons we want to do this is to try to get the youth interested in this profession again,” said Commander Adam Lindquist with the police department. “This is a very honorable, notable, and necessary profession, and we need to really target the youth and showcase our profession and get them interested in law enforcement again.”
Lindquist said the department’s Citizens Police Academy is also very popular, and the goal is to pare down its curriculum to fit the week with the teenagers. They plan to showcase patrol duties, traffic stops, and narcotics detection. There will also be sessions with the department’s K-9 unit and S.W.A.T. team.
“We want to show them first-hand not only what we do, but who we are as individuals. (They can) get a chance to interact with us on a personal level, meet the officers, but first-hand experience what we do on a day-to-day basis,” said Lindquist.
Applications are due by June 1.
