Yesterday was Graduation Day! Mike Beato, a member of the 2011 Citizens Police Academy graduating class, shares some insights from the seven-week course.
Citizens Police Academy provides members of the community with a close-up view of University Police operations. Classes are taught by department officers and other public safety professionals. Interactive learning experiences include sessions on fire and first aid, emergency dispatch, bike patrol, crime scene investigation, recruiting and more, plus hands-on training in defensive tactics and a patrol ride-along.
Mike Beato, owner of Beato Enterprises, a communications technology consulting firm in Amherst, NY, is an avid runner and biker.
Why did you decide to take the academy class?
I live very close to UB’s North Campus, and I’m on campus all the time. I do a lot of marathon training, so I run on the bike path. I belong to the Newman Center, so I go to church right off campus, and one of my fellow parishioners is Chief Jerry Schoenle. Finally, UB is such an important part of the community, I thought it would be interesting to learn more about it.
What are some of the things you learned?
You learn so much in the course. One of the things that struck me was the tremendous amount of training all the officers have. I knew they were a police department, not a security force, but you see the officers’ professionalism in everything they do. It’s incredible the number of weeks of training they complete. Because I’m on the bike path a lot, I see officers out there on bike patrol. I didn’t know this, but they have to take special training before they go on bike patrol. They described the training; it was very intensive. And that’s just one part of their overall training.
What surprised you the most during the academy?
I think it was the amount of mental health training and expertise each officer is required to have. When you think about it, it makes sense. They’re serving a predominantly young community at the university, so they have to be sensitive to the stresses young people have. Like all first responders, sometimes they have to deal with people who are under extreme stress. It’s something I hadn’t thought about before, but it’s a big part of their job.
Patrol ride-alongs are a highlight for many class members. What was your experience?
It was a mostly quiet night. I rode for about five hours with two different officers, David Macdonald and Anthony Vinci. One of the things I learned is that unlike most police agencies, UB’s police department is responsible for the buildings and facilities as well as all the people on campus. We were on the South Campus, so much of the time we were on foot in the medical school, the dental school, in classrooms. They have to know all those buildings in detail. For example, they showed me the fire alarms. So they have a wide range of responsibilities beyond what a typical municipal police department would have.
What was the most fun thing you did?
Getting to handle a training firearm. It’s a modified Glock handgun that fires a soft training round. I’d never fired any kind of handgun before, so that was cool. It was an optional part of the course, but I admit I had my hand up first to try it.
Would you recommend Citizens Police Academy?
Absolutely. Anyone with any interest in police work, public safety and public service should take this course. They make it interesting because they use interactive learning, so you’re not just sitting there — you’re involved. There were several young people in the course interested in becoming police officers. They asked questions about the police academy and how they can get hired, not just by the UB University Police, but at any local police agency. Overall, there was a wide variety of people in our class, including local community members like me, and we all learned something.
Filed under: Uncategorized
