Junior Police Academy application deadline approaching

MERRITT – A Junior Police Academy is being hosted in the new year and the deadline to apply in coming up quick.

“We are really excited to host, a first for Merritt,” said Community Policing Officer, Blake Chursinoff. “The Merritt RCMP and the community policing office are going to work together to put on a Junior Police Academy for grade 11/12 students.”

The academy will show those who may be interested more of the intense training and day to day life involved in becoming a police officer.

“This is going to be a simulated police training week, kind of to give the idea of Depo or similar police academy would be like that, so take these grade 11/12 students off site and we are going to be in West Kelowna for the week. We are going to take them through what a week of police training would look like.”

While it is a policing academy, Chursinoff said the main goal of the week is to educate the students on different avenues of similar career paths.

“The police work with a lot of different community partners whether that’s Fire Department, BC Ambulance, Corrections, or Fish and Wildlife. The hope is to have a lot of those partners at the academy as well to do either a presentation or talk to the kids to give them an idea that there is policing but there is also all these other careers and avenues to choose from as well.”

The academy is taking place between March 20-24 but the deadline to apply is January 4. Application forms can be found on the City of Merritt website.