Panel’s OK Brings Junior Police Academy Closer to Reality

A plan to create a Junior Police Academy for students interested in law enforcement took a step closer to becoming reality Monday when a Los Angeles City Council committee approved the plan in concept.

The academy, an idea championed by Mayor Richard Riordan, Councilwoman Laura Chick and former school board president Roberta Weintraub, was proposed as a way to improve the quality and quantity of recruits entering the Los Angeles Police Academy.

The board of the Los Angeles Unified School District was also scheduled to consider endorsing the plan Monday.

The council’s Public Safety Committee voted to support the idea, despite concerns about whether funds will be available to pay for the program.

Weintraub told the committee that she hopes to team up with Riordan and community leaders to solicit private donations to finance the $194,750 cost of operating the academy for the first year.

But Councilman Mike Feuer, a member of the Public Safety Committee, is worried that if private donations ran out, students participating in the program would suffer.

“I wouldn’t want to make a commitment we can’t keep,” he said.

Weintraub acknowledged that donations could run out. “I can’t guarantee we will always get the money, but I will look,” she said.

The committee also voted to establish a trust fund that can be used to collect private donations.

Chick said the idea would not go before the full City Council until first-year funding is found. Initially, Chick proposed that the city contribute $150,000 toward the program. But her staff said she is now confident that all the money can be raised through private donations.

Already, the plan has the support of Police Chief Willie L. Williams and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

“A Junior Police Academy would be an investment in the future of the youth of Los Angeles because it would provide the city with a consistent source of qualified and motivated youth, who will be inspired to pursue a career as an officer of the law,” Feinstein said in a letter to Chick.

The academy would operate like the 124 magnet schools the LAUSD already runs. But to save money, the academy would not be designated a full-fledged magnet, which would require busing students in from throughout the district.

Instead, the academy would initially draw 160 students from the law and government magnets at Monroe High School in the San Fernando Valley, Dorsey High School in the Crenshaw area and Wilson High School in El Sereno.

Williams has vowed to help develop the curriculum and provide guest speakers, tours and possibly some intern and work-study jobs.

In addition to traditional high school courses, the curriculum would include courses on the judicial system, history, law enforcement practices, Spanish, computers, report writing, physical training and diversity training.

“We think it would be beneficial for all our students and beneficial for our community,” said Joan Graham, a magnet school administrator for the LAUSD.

Weintraub and school officials recently visited a junior police academy in Sacramento that she called a tremendous success and said was lauded by Sacramento police.