Recap: Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy Class 14

Class 14 of the Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy convened for the first time on  Tuesday, August 6.  Our class was comprised of a diverse group of people, most of whom I had never met prior to our first session.  By the end of the academy, we had bonded to the point that I would not…

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Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy — Week Nine

I am writing this post nearly a week after last Tuesday’s session, which focused on the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Team.  According to an August 9, 2012 Brunswick Beacon article, the Special Operations Team includes the K-9 enforcement team, the motorcycle unit and the Aggressive Criminal Enforcement (ACE) Team.  The ACE Team is…

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Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy — Week Eight

Week eight of the Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy focused on the proper use of firearms. Based on my notes from tonight’s session, law enforcement officers are typically required to complete a minimum of 40 hours of firearms training, and they must re-qualify annually. A large portion of tonight’s discussion focused on safety.  The instructor repeatedly…

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Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy — Week Seven

First, it is hard to believe we are already in week seven of the citizens academy.  Time flies!! This week’s session met at Brunswick County Academy.  We started in the gym, where we were given an overview of what tasers are and when and how they are used.  In a nutshell, the purpose of a…

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Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy — Week Six

Week six of the Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy focused on the Vice Narcotics Unit.  As stated on the Sheriff’s Office website, the primary mission of the Vice Narcotics Unit is to investigate and detect narcotic violations, illegal alcohol sales, gambling, prostitution, and other illegal vices throughout Brunswick County. One particularly compelling statistic was provided during…

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Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy — Week Five

I spent most of last week on a much-needed vacation, hence why I am just getting around to posting this update.  The only day I came back to Brunswick County was Tuesday for a County Commissioners’ workshop and meeting (rescheduled from Monday due to the Labor Day holiday).  As soon as the meeting was over…

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Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy — Week Four

During week four of the Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy, we learned about Animal Protective Services and the Crime Prevention Unit. Animal Protective Services According to the Sheriff’s Office website, the goals of the Animal Protective Services division (in addition to the obvious goals of protecting citizens from rabid or otherwise dangerous animals) are to create…

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Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy — Week Three

Week three of the Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy started off with a visit to the Brunswick County 911 Center.  This is the facility where both emergency calls to 911 and non-emergency calls to the 911 Center’s administrative lines are received, processed, and dispatched. First, Stacy Stevens with the Brunswick County 911 Center gave us an…

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Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy — Week Two

Tuesday was my second week participating in the Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy. Before I get into the things we covered Tuesday, I feel compelled to add one thing that I failed to include last week:  the Sheriff’s Office is not a department, it is an Office.  While the Board of County Commissioners on which I…

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Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy — Week One

Tonight was the first session of the 14th class of the Brunswick Sheriff’s Citizens Academy, and I am excited to be a member of the class. The Sheriff’s Office website describes the Citizens Academy as follows:  The Citizens Academy was established to build a better understanding between Law Enforcement and those we serve, through a…

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