Cottage Grove police will launch a five week youth academy next month. It's the first ever for the academy.
"They'll be getting to getting a tour of the hero center," says Officer Luke Landgraf. "They'll get to a lot of hands-on experience, some of the tools that we use in the fire side and law enforcement side."
Landgraf is the school resource officer at Park High School. He says the academy looks to generate interest through relationships he's built while interacting with students over the years.
"I also work part-time at the fair, and I get a lot of kids come up to me at the fair like, 'oh, you were at Park three years ago, and I don't really necessarily know all their names, but they know me still," he says. "So you know this is important. It's important to keep those relationships going."
The month-long academy begins March 18th and includes field trips as well as training and simulations at the HERO Training Center in Cottage Grove.
"So you wanna get those kids the experience of doing the things we do, spark that interest and you know we most departments across the state there's staffing issues," says landgraf. "And so, if we can kind of get to some of these kids are really motivated to be in the profession at a young age, the hope is to kind of keep them around."
20 students will get the chance to take part in hands-on activities and other exercises during the five week academy. It runs each Tuesday until April 15th.
Landgraf says this academy gives students interested in public safety a look at careers available right in their own community.
"We're pretty happy the fact, the fact that a lot of our cops live and came from Cottage Grove, and gone to Park High School and come back to serve the community," Landgraf explains. "So we really like to have those kids are from here to kind of just stay home and then work for their own."
While law enforcement has reported a decline in public support over the last several years, Landgraf says the youth academy can help show students from all walks of life what's possible in the public safety career field.
"Just it's kind of staying status quo," says Landgraf. "I think people are being less vocal about it, but I also think that when you start doing youth academy things such as this, kids can show each other what they're doing during the youth academy and some of the things that they get to experience. I think it motivates them and makes them want to do the job more versus never ever getting a chance to do some of the stuff before, having to make that, you know, 'what am I gonna do with my with my life' decision. I think this gives me the opportunity to do that, so that's the whole hope to kind of motivate kids to wanna do it and kind of spark that interest further."
The five-week academy begins March 18th and continues each Tuesday through April 15th. Students can sign-up for the police academy through Friday, February 28th.