Police take over as teachers

Public Safety is running a 12-week program to teach about law enforcement. Nineteen members of the University City community spent the better part of last night in a back room at the Penn police station. And not one of them went in wearing handcuffs. They were there, in fact, not on charges of theft, burglary or assault, but for the first session of the Penn Public Safety Institute, a 12-week program organized by the Division of Public Safety to give members of the local community an extra glimpse into the work of the Penn Police Department and its associated divisions. "The institute will hopefully give people a better idea of what it is that the Division of Public Safety provides for this University and for the West Philadelphia community," said University Police Chief Maureen Rush, who served as a host and presenter during the evening's program. Every Wednesday night for the next 11 weeks, the participants -- five Penn students, six University staff members and eight West Philadelphia residents -- will spend an evening at the police station meeting officers and learning about topics such as security services, crime scenes, victim support and other law enforcement-related subjects. And while much of that learning will take place in a classroom-style environment, the participants will have several opportunities to get hands-on experience as they engage in some authentic police training exercises. Among the planned activities are a session in a computerized firearms simulator and a series of special one-hour "ride-alongs," during which the participants will accompany a University police officer throughout his or her patrol of the campus community. According to Rush, the main intent of the program -- which is slated to run every fall and spring semester -- is to reinforce the bonds between the police department and the community that it serves. "The general idea was to have representatives from students, faculty and staff, as well as the West Philadelphia community," she said. "It's terrific to have this kind of community involvement because we really want our neighbors in West Philadelphia to see us as an ally." For the first session, Rush and a team of police and community officials gave the group a general overview of the Division of Public Safety and the measures taken by Penn and other community organizations to make University City a more liveable community. Future sessions will delve into more specified subjects, as the group gears up for their official "graduation" on April 12. Initial response to the program was very strong. Most members of the group were enthusiastic about what they will be learning over the next 11 weeks. "I thought it went very well, and it should be a very interesting session," Wharton senior Kevin Hodges said. "There's been a lot of information given out and I learned a lot of new things. It's going to be a good group." "To me, the police [department] is really an alien world and I just wanted to understand things better," Powelton Village resident Mark Humphries said. "I like how they touch on all sorts of different topics, like fire safety, harassment, sexual assaults, the firearms simulation. It's a wide variety of stuff and I think it's a great general law course." The most positive response, though, may have come from the course's presenters. "I was extremely pleased. It was clear to me that [the participants] were enjoying the program, and numerous people have been telling me how excited they are already," Rush said. "The informal interaction and passing of information has already occurred."