From explosives to firearms, a handful of Lethbridge high school students got a hands-on introduction to policing.
Emmanuel Christian High School student Colum Terry, along with 14 other students, had a chance to fire a police officer’s gun.
“I’ve shot guns, but that was way different because of the kick,” he said. “You’re aiming, then you don’t know where it actually hits until you look. It was really cool.”
Grade 11 and 12 students from various schools around Lethbridge spent the day with specialty units from the Lethbridge Police Service.
Cst. Kim Pierzchala helped organize the event and said the students got to see several areas of policing.
“We are teaching them a little bit about handcuffing, we have our bomb unit here, we have the tactical unit, we have K9. We are actually going to take them to a simulator and play like a large video game and show them how we train.”
The program is based on giving students who think they might want to pursue policing as a career an opportunity to try it for themselves. But it also shows them the bigger picture of law enforcement.
“A lot of them don’t understand or have misconceptions of what we do as police, or understand that there is a lot of safety and different components,” Pierzchala said. “It’s not just put on a uniform and go out there and arrest people.”
Terry said he has considered enrolling in a criminal justice program, so he jumped at the chance to take part in the training session.
The group of Lethbridge students are headed to Calgary on May 19 to join hundreds of other students for an even more in-depth look at policing.
About 600 kids shut down Heritage Park for the event.
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