Eleven graduate from first Citizen Police Academy

The Mount Vernon Police Department graduated its first class of the Citizen Police Academy recently.

Eleven citizens graduated from the class, which educated them the policies, procedures and practices of the department, said MVPD chief Robert Morgan during a news conference Tuesday at City Hall.

“Everybody seemed to have a good time and said we gave them a lot of good knowledge about the police department,” Morgan said.

The eight-session course gave citizens an opportunity to tour the MVPD offices, see the cruisers, equipment and tools used by officers, and go on ride-alongs with on-duty officers. They also learned about a variety of police-related topics and see how different situations are handled by officers.

Topics covered during the class included criminal investigations, traffic enforcement, domestic situations and mental health issues the officers face each day.Morgan said they plan on offering another CPA, but it might not be until after the new year.

The chief also said they are working with the Boy Scouts about a possible Explorers program for middle school to high school youths. Sgt. Nick Myrda, who also ran the CPA, will be working on getting the Explorer program off the ground.

MVPD hired Jackie Nauman as a new patrol officer and she has been training with the first shift officers. Morgan also reported the MVPD will be adding a third K-9 officer soon. The dog has been purchased from Storm Dog Tactical, but the process of picking out the puppy has not been finalized. He said they expect to have the dog by August and will begin the procedure of picking its handler at that time.

Morgan said they have applied for two grants for the department. The first will be for the use of forensic equipment and they hope to be notified of the decision by the end of the year. The second is the continuation of a matching grant for the license plate reader cameras the city currently uses.

The cameras can read license plates and alert the department if a vehicle has been reported stolen or if there is an Amber Alert associated with it.

Morgan also said they have received a $50,000 grant from the Ohio Attorney General’s office for the drug abuse response team and a $4,000 donation from the Dan Emmett Kennel Club for the new K-9.

MVPD responded to 1,481 calls during June. Morgan said that 27 of the calls were juvenile complaints, along with 27 thefts and 22 domestic violence calls.

Mount Vernon Fire Chief Chad Christopher reported that six fire station employees have completed medical school recently. Three of them have now passed the national registry exam and will now go through a training period to become a paramedic. Once all six have passed the exam and training, that will give the department 47 employees that are cross-trained as firefighters and paramedics.

Christopher said the paramedic certification is the highest level attainable and takes nine to 14 months to complete.

“There are benchmarks to meet, which are pretty tough. Then you have to take the national registry test. It’s not an easy process. We’re pretty proud of them for this,” Christopher said.

The MVFD also received a $1,200 grant for EMS equipment and a $4,000 grant from the local Elks lodge for specialized equipment, including a fastboard and glow in the dark markers for their masks.

MVFD had 532 EMS and fire calls during June, giving them 3,229 for the year.Both Christopher and Morgan reported there were no major incidents with the Mount Vernon fireworks for the Fourth of July celebrations.