ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, January 23, 1996              TAG: 9601230056
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
COLUMN: Reporter's Noteboo
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN

POLICE GET A BOOST FROM PUBLIC

Christiansburg Police Chief Ron Lemons found an unexpected benefit for his officers and staff from sponsoring the first Christiansburg Citizen Police Academy.

Lemons' goal for the program was to show the public, "We are professional. We are small town. We are rural. We wanted to show you that we are accessible." What he had not counted on was the impact on his department.

Teaching local citizens about their work, the stress, dispatch duties, even coaching them at target practice lifted morale, especially for those who taught classes or rode the beat with academy members, Lemons told members of the academy's charter class.

"It has really made a difference. You've benefited a lot of us," he said at the group's last session Dec. 21.

The high school student, the power company worker and the 12 others who attended the three-month course all spoke at a dinner at the academy's graduation. They talked of the new knowledge they had gained of how a police department operates and the new respect they had gained for the work that police officers do.

Paul Poff, who works at the window at the Christiansburg post office, earned a guffaw when he spoke of enjoying the hands-on experience at the shooting range, joking about how brave the department was to put a gun in the hand of a postal employee.

The academy's success also has encouraged the county's new sheriff, Doug Marrs, to try to excite his new colleagues about the possibility of a similar academy sponsored by the Sheriff's Office.

"It's really been wonderful ... to hear what you have to say," said Marrs, who helped organize the academy when he was the town's lieutenant of investigations.

Gary Brumfield, Christiansburg's new investigations lieutenant, offered this joking thanks at the graduation ceremony: "I'd like to take this time to publicly thank anybody who voted for Doug so I could get promoted."

Anyone interested in participating in future academies may call 382-3131. Two class members, Rick Basham and Steve Knowles, volunteered to help run the next citizen academy.

Kathy Loan, New River Valley Bureau police and courts reporter, was one of the 14 members of the first Citizen Police Academy.

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