Citizen Academies - making safety more exciting

As a citizen of West Des Moines, you are no doubt interested in the safety of your home, neighborhood, and community. Our biannual citizen survey attempts to measure the feeling of safety in the community, and in 2008 95% of residents reported being satisfied or very satisfied with the feeling of safety here. The remaining 5% were neutral. It is extremely important to our public safety staff at the City to provide as many educational opportunities as possible to residents and business owners so that you are equipped to prevent problems from occurring or prepared to respond to problems when forced to.

One manifestation of that goal are the citizen academies held by our police and fire departments. Both are in the process of recruiting candidates for the next class--the police academy will hold its 8th annual class beginning in March, and the fire academy will hold its sixth class at a date to be determined.

These citizen academies contain both classroom style learning and active, hands-on opportunities to learn what your public safety personnel are trained to do professionally. They both provide an exceptional opportunity to get to know your city police officers or fire fighters, and to get a better idea of what it takes to keep a community safe.

If you are interested in either of the upcoming academies, you can read more on our website about the police academy or the fire academy, and learn how to apply.