On Monday May 22nd, the thirty-nine members of the 33rd Session of the Barnstable Police Department’s Citizen’s Police Academy graduated in a ceremony that was held in the James Crocker Hearing Room at Town Hall.  Lt. David Cameron opened the ceremony with the bagpipes, then the graduation featured remarks by Chief Sonnabend, and class president Maggie Van Sciver.  Town Council President Matt Levesque sang the National Anthem, and State Rep. Steven Xiarhos led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The academy was an intensive ten-week program, our primary focus was;

The mission of the Barnstable Police Department’s Citizen’s Police Academy is to create partnerships and establish trust with all members of our community.  We will accomplish this by creating an intensive and educational program that will allow participants to interact with officers, and observe how the Barnstable Police Department operates.  The CPA will allow our residents to gain a better understanding of the fair, professional, and compassionate policing that takes place on a daily basis in the town of Barnstable.

Over the course of ten weeks, the participants heard from Chief Sonnabend, and approximately thirty other speakers on a wide range of topics including;

  • An overview of the Barnstable Police Department by Chief Sonnabend 
  • A description of the hiring process and academy training 
  • Presentations by D.A Galibois, State Reps Steven Xiarhos and Kip Diggs regarding the legislative process and prosecution of cases
  • The BPD Prosecution Unit provided information regarding Constitutional Law and Criminal Procedure
  • The Community Impact Unit 
  • Patrol Procedures 
  • School Resource Officers and Juvenile Procedures  
  • Firearms Unit 
  • Detective Division 
  • Barnstable County Bureau of Criminal Investigation 
  • The Record’s Division 
  • SWAT 
  • BPD Dispatch Center 
  • Domestic Violence Unit 
  • Narcotics Unit 
  • Peer Support 
  • Traffic Division, with OUI Night when members of our class were allowed to consume alcohol and then complete field sobriety tests before their classmates 

We also had several events outside the classroom; 

  • A Ride-along with an officer on shift 
  • Tour of the Barnstable County House of Correction 
  • Shooting BPD firearms at the range

We thank the public for the support of the program, and we will be running another class in the fall starting in mid-September, applications can be found on the Barnstable Police Department website.