Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Tapping their inner deputy

Students fire guns, tour a jail and more.

By TAMARA EL-KHOURY
Published November 12, 2006

Rahn Smart was looking for a bad guy in an office building when a civilian jumped out of nowhere and pointed a stick at him.

Smart shot him.

Game over.

Smart, 47, of New Port Richey was playing the role of a sheriff's deputy in a video simulation, one of many exercises students complete at the Pinellas County Sheriff's Citizens Academy.

The free three-month course brought neighborhood watch leaders, community activists and ordinary people together once a week for several hours to learn about the different departments of the Sheriff's Office.

Smart, who works for Nielsen Media Research, was one of 25 residents in the latest academy class, which graduated last week.

"We're able to bring people to the Sheriff's Office and show them we're so much more than the deputy that pulled them over," said Sgt. Larry Nalven, supervisor of the Community Services Division's Crime Prevention Unit.

Each Wednesday, the class was introduced to another department.

Students were given a hands-on defensive tactics demonstration. They were handed the keys to a cruiser and told to zip through cones at the driving course. They dusted for fingerprints and learned how to execute a felony traffic stop.

They talked with victim advocates and public information officers. The canine unit and SWAT team put on demonstrations. Another week, they got a tour of the jail.

"It's a way for them to learn what the Sheriff's Office is all about, how their tax dollars are being spent," said Sheriff Jim Coats, who attended the graduation ceremony Wednesday. "They can be ambassadors for the office."

Betka Donaldson, a homemaker from Dunedin, shot a .45-caliber handgun, her first firing of a gun.

She heard about the academy after taking a personal safety class from Cpl. Denise Nestor of the Crime Prevention Unit.

"I amazed myself," said Donaldson, 54, who delighted her classmates with her homemade chocolate tortes and chicken cordon bleu.

Then there was Smart, who was not the only student to shoot at simulated civilians. He came away from the academy with a better appreciation of what it takes to capture criminals.

Smart took the class because his best friend, a sheriff's deputy, asked him to participate. He said he now has a better understanding of his friend's world. He said he used to think of the job as mostly physical.

"It's very mental," Smart said. "It's imperative that you be cognizant of what you're doing before you pull the trigger."

The class gave Angela Kyes, 27, of Oldsmar insight into a possible future career.

Kyes, an executive assistant at an audiovisual company, joined the academy after inquiring about careers with the Sheriff's Office.

"I want to belong to part of a team," she said.

[Last modified November 11, 2006, 19:32:19]