The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Police Citizens Academy graduates 13
Civilians train with officers for 10 weeks
Another group of citizens got an inside look at how police officers serve and protect the International City.
Another group of Lorain citizens got an inside look at how police officers serve and protect the International City.
The third class of the Lorain Police Citizens Academy graduated Nov. 20.
Participants, family and friends, Lorain officials and police gathered at City Hall for a ceremony that served as the capstone for the course.
“This was an awesome, awesome, awesome experience,” said graduate Jay Nimene, one of two academy participants who spoke to the group. “It has allowed me to really have a different perspective on what it means to be a police officer, a greater respect of what you guys go to and through.”
Lorain police relatively are new at the Citizens Academy, said police Chief Cel Rivera.
About 2012, at the national level, there was a dramatic change in the environment due to some incidents of misconduct and perceived wrongs, Rivera said.
“The Lorain Police Department is determined that this will not happen here,” he said. “We are determined that every neighborhood and every person in our city will know that we value them, and that we are not only enforcers of the law, but that we’re here to serve and protect them.”
Nimene is director of student and family outreach for Lorain City Schools.
One of his academy classmates was Corina Barranco, 17, a Lorain High School senior and daughter of Leovigilba and Eleazar Barranco.
“Before this, I was scared to death of police — let me just put it out there, I was terrified of them,” Corina said.
She credited Rivera for persuading her to take a chance on the academy.
“Coming here it totally changed my perspective on police and what they do,” Corina said. “They earned my respect, because before that, like I said, I just feared them.”
The participants spent 30 hours over 10 weeks studying police officers’ methods for investigating crimes.
Nimene prompted laughs when he said as an academy participant, he spotted officers making a traffic stop, then jumped out with his academy polo shirt and file binder and attempted to help them.
On a serious note, he described a simulated traffic stop where the instructing officer acted like an irate man reaching for an unseen object.
Tensions escalated until Nimene had to make-believe shoot the man.
“Even though that was a simulation, it messed with me for about three days,” he said. “I even called him afterwards. To think that’s some of the stuff the officers go through.”
The graduates included Greg Argenti, current Ward 4 city councilman; fashion designer and downtown merchant Jevon Terance; and Sam Felton, a Vietnam veteran who has become known as an advocate for veterans issues in Lorain.
Other graduates were Steve Bansek; Prestys Blakely; Bambi Dillon;
Jeanine Donaldson; Dan Gross; Don Jacopin; Malixza Molina; and Lynn Wrice-Head.
Detective Jake Morris, academy director, credited the group with being openminded and objective as they learned about police work.
The officers solicited challenges from the participants, Morris said.
“I was excited when people asked why?” he said. “Because our goal was for people to truly understand, or at least have a good opportunity, and an open opportunity to gain an understanding for some of the things that we do and some of the things that we’re not sure.”
Mayor Chase Ritenauer said the academy was a great idea by Rivera to reach out to the community.
“There’s no better way to understand what it’s like than to actually participate in what our officers go through,” Ritenauer said.