Interest in policing rebounds, earns Burrell students spots in citizen police academy

Eyeing a career in criminal justice, Burrell High School student Mariah Kaiser wants to figure out why people commit crimes.

“I’ve always been interested in law enforcement in general,” said Kaiser, 16. “I want to have a better understanding to why people do what they do.”

Kaiser and eight other Burrell students graduated from the city’s citizen police academy Thursday — which, for the first time, had students younger than 18.

Typically, the 10-week course that meets once a week is available only to adults, but a “genuine interest” among the high school students was enough to get them into this year’s program, said Lower Burrell police Chief John Marhefka.

Changing the trend

Seeing the teenagers’ interest in a career in law enforcement was encouraging, especially as enrollment in police academies has trended downward, said program coordinator Scott Miller, a Lower Burrell police sergeant.

“When I went to the academy, there were 100 people taking the test just to get in the academy,” Miller said. “Now, there might be around 40 people in the academy.”

Myles Snyder, spokesman for Pennsylvania State Police, said his agency was experiencing decreases in applicants to its academy until the department waived the requirement for college credits last year under the direction of Gov. Josh Shapiro.

A May cadet class graduated 81 cadets, compared with 74 cadets in December, 50 in August and 49 last May.

What’s contributed to the previous decrease is a changing societal image of policing, sensational use of force cases and the labor market, said Dennis Marsili, a criminology professor at Carlow University, former police officer and law enforcement trainer.

Citizen police academies are a great way to promote law enforcement as a career, he said, and break an “ignorance barrier” to educate people about what really goes on with policing.

“These citizen police academies fill that gap,” Marsili said. “When they see what officers do, it’s a lot of services they perform for the community. They tackle all sorts of problems and see they can be community advocates.”

Indicators attributed to a recent surge in police applicants include increased salaries, political leaders showing more attention to recruitment efforts and more accessible grant programs for police departments to pay for new hires, Marsili said.

The Allegheny County Police Training Academy has two cadet classes per year, spokesman Jim Madalinsky said. Its current class has 26 cadets, and the next class in July has 40 applicants.

Forty-eight cadets graduated in 2019, 30 in 2020, 49 in 2021, 52 in 2022 and 49 last year, he said.

“Other than the covid year, we haven’t noticed any patterns when it comes to the numbers,” Madalinsky said. “We work with our partner law enforcement agencies throughout the region for help with recruitment and utilize social media to attract as many qualified applicants as possible.”

Mentality shifts

The societal image of law enforcement has deterred many from getting into the profession. But that’s not stopping Kaiser, who intends to pursue a psychology or forensics degree after graduating from Burrell.

“I want to have a positive impact on the field,” she said.

Kassidy Ferguson, 17, has members in her family who served in the military. She wants to become a K-9 officer.

“Officers can make a positive impact,” she said.

Of the nine Burrell students who took the class, seven were girls. That’s also encouraging, experts say.

For example, all 17 members of Lower Burrell’s police force are men.

Both Kaiser and Ferguson acknowledged that they intend to get into a male-dominated field.

“Having the diversity of cops to criminals gives a better understanding to what they’re going through,” Kaiser said.

The need for more women in the law enforcement profession is urgent, Marsili said.

“There’s not enough females in law enforcement,” he said. “Females tend to have better communication skills. And in today’s law enforcement, there’s a big emphasis on communication and deescalating.”

Policing has shifted toward a focus on deescalation and community outreach, which makes it more attractive for younger people to get involved, Marsili said.

Other ways to get younger people involved include more communities picking up citizen police academies and implementing more community outreach programs, Marsili said.

“People can see that officers are mainly community advocates and not just crime solvers,” he said.

Departments also can focus on officers’ mental health and create easier ways to streamline or apply for open law enforcement positions to attract younger candidates, he said.

“Policing is being reimagined, and I think it will be right along with what young people want to get into,” Marsili said.

Burrell teacher Amanda Pagnotta was able to connect with the city’s police department to get the students enrolled in the program. Students received a high school course credit for graduating from the academy.

“Students learn best from experts,” said Pagnotta, who took the class with her students. “Any way you can make things real, it becomes much more worthwhile.”

Topics covered throughout the 10-week course included use of force and self-defense, drug and crime scene investigations, gun permitting and regulations, the criminal justice and judicial system, DUI and vehicle stops, the coroner’s office and firearms and SWAT teams.

“I enjoyed seeing how many different aspects go into law enforcement,” Kaiser said. “There’s so much on a deeper level that people don’t understand or know about it.

“These people find out the hows and the whats, but I want to find out the why.”