Senior Police Academy won’t get you a badge but it could make you smarter and safer.
The program hopes to educate those 55 and older on police work and how Galesburg’s public safety apparatus works.
Sheriff David Clague tells WGIL the academy was born 6 years ago.
“It was just kind of a pilot idea that I had. I was tired of watching T.V. where they shoot 4 or 5 people and within an hour they go home, sit down and relax,” Clague says.
The first year there was only about 15 people in the class, but last year they were at 35.
Some sessions of the program include a tour of the dispatch center, canine demonstrations and a day devoted to crime scenes.
There will also be a seminar on how to avoid being scammed.
The Illinois Attorney General’s office says that seniors are often targets for scams due to typically having good credit, access retirement accounts and from being raised in era when people were more trusting.
The Senior Police Academy is totally free sponsored by the Knox County TRIAD program.
The first session was Monday but sessions will be every Monday from 9 to 11:30 a.m. in the Public Safety Building going through the next 7 weeks.
