Staff Report
After seven weeks of interactive classes, 38 Santa Barbara County residents graduated May 18 from the Sheriff’s Department’s latest South County Citizen’s Academy.
The Sheriff’s Office collaborated with the UCSB Police Department and the city of Goleta to put on the free program.
The Citizen’s Academy is designed to give the public an inside look at some of what law enforcement does daily to keep its community members safe. The participants toured the jail, fired a handgun, took interactive classes in active-shooter training, use of force, search and seizure law, building searches and arrest and control, among other things.
On May 18, the participants finished their last class, a K-9 demonstration, at the Sheriff’s Training Bureau. Then they received their certificates of completion at a graduation ceremony and celebratory barbecue attended by family and friends of the graduates, their instructors and past Citizen Academy graduates.
To find out more about the sheriff’s Citizen’s Academy, go to https://www.sbsheriff.org/about-us/community-outreach/citizens-academy/.
