Sedona AZ (August 16, 2012) –  The Sedona Police Department is currently seeking residents for the Citizens Police Academy. The academy is an 8-week course designed to provide the participants with a working knowledge and a better understanding of its police department through education and information about the department, its operations, and its personnel.

The citizens academy is tuition-free and open to all Sedona residents or employees of a Sedona business. It is limited to twenty students and enrollment is filled on a first come, first serve basis. The upcoming 2012 academy begins on Thursday, September 27 and finishes on Thursday, November 15. Classes are Thursday evenings from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. with one Saturday scheduled at a firearms range.

Prior academy classes have included retirees with a wide range of former occupations, local business owners, and city employees.

In 2001, the Sedona Police Department won a Community Policing Award from the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). The award recognized the City of Sedona as having the best overall community policing programs in the country for departments serving a population of less than 20,000. The Citizens Police Academy was one of the many programs that impressed the judges of the competition.

Interested citizens in attending the 2012 class are invited to call Commander Ron Wheeler at 928-203-5004 or e-mail rwheeler@SedonaAZ.gov no later than Friday, September 7, 2012.

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