Waterford — Town police want to show citizens what's behind the curtain, or the tinted windows, of an officer's cruiser.

The department is planning its eighth annual Citizens Police Academy, an 11-week, 33-hour free program meant to "give citizens a better understanding of what police officers do every day" and "to improve the relationship and rapport between citizens and the Waterford Police," according to its website.

Lt. Marc Balestracci said the academy begins in March and runs through May and is funded by the Waterford Rotary Club.

Applications likely will be open sometime in the next week, and spots are awarded on a first-come-first-serve basis. Applicants must be at least 18; there is no maximum age. Sgt. David Ferland said the department has had adults of all ages go through the program. People can apply on the Waterford Police Department website or in person at department headquarters. People need not be from Waterford to apply.

Ferland, who is leading the class this year, said students start by learning the history of the department as well as its current command structure. Educators, comprised of volunteer police officers and guest speakers, discuss recruiting and training of new officers. Then the class gets into the hard stuff, such as motor vehicle enforcement and patrol procedures, use of force and the case law that governs that and live baton and taser demonstrations. Ferland said this usually involves an officer being tasered. Students can use the batons on padded shields.

Later, there is a week focusing on drunk driving enforcement as well as drug recognition. There's a week on juvenile crimes where the department's school resource officers discuss the difference between adult and juvenile criminal activity. Ferland said students also learn about the accident investigation team regarding accidents involving serious injuries or death.

Classes become more hands-on by the end of the 11 weeks. Students explore defensive tactics, how to quell dangerous situations as quickly as possible and how to fight someone off while refraining from injuring them. A week where canine officers talk about their jobs and do demonstrations with dogs precedes a trip to the gun range, where students are allowed to fire police weapons including pistols, rifles and shotguns.

"At the end, we put them in some scenarios and let them put what they learned into effect," Ferland said. "It's a good general overview about the different aspects of law enforcement."

If students meet attendance requirements, they can go on a four-hour ride with an officer.

Maysun Saad, a longtime Waterford resident, went through the academy two years ago. She said she'd aspired to be a police officer growing up, but her mother was worried about her safety, so she went into banking. Saad was ecstatic about the ride along opportunity.

"I've always wanted to be inside a police car," Saad said. "For the ride along, they basically drive around and try to catch people. The people in the class, some of them had fun times when they went on a ride along, some of them were there during responses to robberies. The only thing I ended up seeing was stopping someone for talking on their cellphone."

The academy is one of the department's more prominent community outreach efforts. It certainly got through to Saad, who said she enjoyed interacting with officers in a normal manner, not charged with the possibility of receiving an infraction.

"I was able to experience and learn a lot about traffic, criminal investigations, domestic violence, DWIs, stuff that you don't really get familiar with every day," she said. "They're not out there to give you tickets. That's not their job. Their job is to protect people."

While Saad enjoys the television show "Forensic Files," she recognizes police duties don't really resemble what's on TV, and they especially differ from Hollywood productions.

Balestracci said differentiating between Waterford Police and representations of police in pop culture is a large part of the academy.

"They call it 'the CSI factor' where a crime is reported, and they think there's this amazing technology that can be enhanced and a crime can be solved in 30-45 minutes," Balestracci said. "It's just not that way. A very basic common crime such as a theft from a store can take an officer quite a bit of time, days possibly even weeks to identify the person and track them down. That's probably the biggest misconception, is how slow the process actually is."

Some students have returned to the academy after completing it. Some have even tried to be police officers after taking the courses.

"We host interns every spring, a college intern and a high school intern, and part of their internship is they go through the program as well, some of them have applied," Ferland said. "One of the guys took it two years ago and then applied."

Ferland said the academy also shows students the sort of snap decisions officers have to make in the field.

"We give students shoot/don't shoot scenarios where they use a rubber gun and an officer plays the suspect," Ferland said. "The suspect may become aggressive, may pull a fake weapon. This is how quick this happens; would I shoot this person, or not? We see a lot nowadays when an officer shoots somebody, people say, 'Maybe they could've done this instead,' but maybe they couldn't have."

s.spinella@theday.com