Photo: Suzanne Sausville/WBZ NewsRadio
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — The Framingham Police Department wrapped up its 2024 Youth Police Academy on Friday.
21 students ages 13 to 17 spent the week learning what it is like to be a member of the police force.
Sgt. Jay Ball of FPD told WBZ NewsRadio they squeeze about six months of real police academy training into five days.
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"People say 'camp' and they know it irritates me because it’s not a camp. We try to run it like a youth academy," Ball said.
The curriculum includes learning formations and how to respond to commands, demonstrations from the K9 team and dive team, lessons from Framingham detectives, and CPR and AED (automated external defibrillator) certification.
Day one is by far the hardest, according to Ball.
"Monday is a struggle, people want to quit. We’ve never had anyone quit," Ball said. "We’ll have one or two that say they want to quit at 10:00 on Monday morning, and we’re like, 'Can you at least make it to lunch, please?'"
1 of 3 Photo: Suzanne Sausville/WBZ NewsRadio
2 of 3 Photo: Suzanne Sausville/WBZ NewsRadio
3 of 3 Photo: Suzanne Sausville/WBZ NewsRadio
But by the end of the week, it's a different story.
"They’re all in step, they’re saluting, they’re turning the right way with their facing movements," said Ball.
"We got there and they lined us up and they started yelling and screaming and there was sirens," 14-year-old Jackson Woodworth recalled of the first day.
Woodworth told WBZ NewsRadio he's glad he stuck it out.
"It’s taught me a lot of things like discipline and definitely teamwork, skills that we’ll definitely need later in life," Woodworth said. "We did a lot of exercise, got us in shape. My favorite part was probably shooting the paintball guns. Also the drone flying, we did drone flying, that was one of my favorite things."
WBZ's Suzanne Sausville (@WBZSausville) reports.
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