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RACHEL REABE: If you don't count the speeding ticket he got 20 years ago, Brian [? Teecee ?] has never had any dealings with the police. The 39-year-old Brainerd postal clerk says his impressions of law enforcement came from what he watched on television or read in the paper. When the Brainerd police department offered a Citizens Police Academy this winter, [? Teecee ?] says he signed up to get a more realistic view of law enforcement.

As part of the course, [? Teecee ?] is spending his evening riding along with Brainerd Police Chief Frank Ball on routine patrol. They've already responded to a liquor store where three boys ran off with a case of beer after wrestling with the clerk. Now Ball pulls over a car with only one headlight.

FRANK BALL: Howdy.

SPEAKER 1: What's up?

FRANK BALL: I see you got a headlight out, buddy.

SPEAKER 1: Yeah, I know.

FRANK BALL: Did you get it stopped already?

SPEAKER 1: No, I didn't-- we're from Minneapolis, and we're just out on lunch.

Hey, man, what kind of cologne you like to wear?

FRANK BALL: What kind of cologne do I like to wear?

SPEAKER 1: Yeah.

FRANK BALL: What do you mean? You're selling cologne?

SPEAKER 1: We work for a wholesale fragrance company.

SPEAKER 2: Now, the stuff that you buy is probably eau de toilette.

FRANK BALL: You know, wait a second. Let's back up here a little bit. I stopped you because you got-- you're a padiddle. You got a headlight out. Now you're trying to sell me some cologne.

SPEAKER 1: No, no.

FRANK BALL: Look, you dudes might want to get your headlight fixed.

SPEAKER 1: Yeah, I know.

RACHEL REABE: [? Teecee ?] says he has new respect for the difficult job of policemen and the wide variety of situations with which they deal.

BRIAN: I didn't know any of this before we started. When you get into class, you go, oh, wow, I didn't know that. And when you get out here on the street on a ridealong like this, you understand a lot more.

RACHEL REABE: [? Teecee ?] is among 20 Brainerd residents enrolled in the Citizens Police Academy. The class meets once a week for the nine-week course, which covers law enforcement from probable cause to prosecution. In addition to educating the community about police work, Brainerd Police Chief Frank Ball says the Citizens Police Academy gives his police force a chance to tell their side of the story.

FRANK BALL: 1995 has been a bad year for cops with the OJ trial and the Mark Fuhrmans of the world. We're trying to get the cops back into the good graces of the citizens that pay our salaries, that hire us to protect and serve them. And when the chips get down, and people start hacking on the police for brutality or their too-selective enforcement, or they're too aggressive or not aggressive enough or-- the graduates this year and the years to come, graduates of the Police Service Academy, will be able to be our spokesperson.

RACHEL REABE: Ball got the idea of a class for citizens from Alexandria, Minnesota, where the police department is running its third academy and has a growing waiting list. Alexandria Police Chief Chuck Nettestad says it's been a great investment.

CHUCK NETTESTAD: I really believe that once people are informed, they can make a good judgment about us and how we are performing our jobs. We're not perfect, but we want people to understand these are humans doing a good job with very limited resources at times.

RACHEL REABE: Classes are made up of a cross-section of the community, with a wide range of ages and occupations. Alexandria class member Rosalie Wosepka, a school nurse, says the academy was much more than a prepackaged public relations effort by the police.

ROSALIE WOSEPKA: We were able to ask quite very pointed questions. I felt that we were really given direct answers. One of the questions that came up was, do we have a woman on our police force?

And we don't. Why don't we? You know, wouldn't that be an asset? And Chuck was able to say, I am trying to hire a woman. And they are in demand.

RACHEL REABE: Wosepka says she wasn't expecting the rapport that would develop between the students and the various officers that taught the academy. No one ever missed a class, and there was unanimous interest in holding followup sessions. Citizens police academies are springing up in communities across the country. Bob Prout, chairman of the St. Cloud State University's Criminal Justice Department, says the academies are a low-cost way to provide a tremendous service.

BOB PROUT: These are departments that are very, very progressive. And they realize who they work for and that they want to, in essence, demonstrate to these individuals the kind of jobs they do. And they're very proud of what they do. It's almost like show and tell.

RACHEL REABE: Prout says the academies are part of a larger movement to integrate police departments with the communities they serve.

BOB PROUT: What they're mostly after, I think, though, is more positive public attitudes towards law enforcement agencies and decrease potential for conflict between citizens and the police.

RACHEL REABE: Fewer than a dozen Minnesota towns currently operate citizens police academies. But the numbers are growing at the upcoming conference for the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, chiefs Nettestad and Ball will present a workshop on how to get a Citizens Police Academy started. I'm Rachel Reabe for Main Street Radio.