Goals

The goal of the Citizen Police Academy is to educate the citizens of Springfield with the operation of their Police Division while obtaining valuable feedback from those citizens. The Citizen Police Academy is not intended to serve as an accredited law enforcement course. This is a course designed for the distribution of information on the internal workings of the division.

Class Schedule

The course is a tweleve week program. There are two courses held each year, one in the Spring and the other in the Fall.

Class Requirements

General requirements include, but are not limited to, the following:

• You must be 21 years of age.
• You must not have any prior felony convictions for any crime.
• Persons with misdemeanor convictions within the past 3 years will not be considered.
• Persons with misdemeanor convictions involving drugs or violence will not be considered.
• You must submit to a background check that will include, but not be limited to, criminal and traffic history checks.
• There is no minimum physical requirements to participate in this course. You will not be asked to do anything that you do not wish to do.

Application

Applications are available here or at the Information Window at the Police Department's headquarters which is located at 130 North Fountain Avenue, Springfield, Ohio 45502.

Printable Application

Fill-in Application

Completed applications can be:

• mailed to the Chief's Office: 130 North Fountain Avenue, Springfield, Ohio 45502
• dropped off at the Information Window (same address as above)
• emailed to Paula Rich prich@ci.springfield.oh.us

Selection Process

Students are selected by the Chief of Police or his designee through an application process. Class size is limited to 20 people. It is anticipated that these classes will fill up quickly. Applications will not be kept on file. A new application must be completed for any future Academy course.

Citizen Academy students will be encouraged, but not required, to ride along with uniformed officers. If the student has a family member who is a Springfield Police Officer, the student may not ride along with their family member, a different officer will be selected for the student to observe. Students who choose to ride along, do so in an observation role only.