What it takes to become a police officer, the characteristics of being a good witness to a crime and how criminal investigations are handled by police detectives were just some of the points covered in the Citizen Police Academy put on by the Biddeford Police Department this fall.

On Wednesday, the eighth and final week of instruction took place.

Next Wednesday is graduation when the 12 participants will hand in their course evaluations, with suggestions of how to improve the curriculum, and “graduate” from the academy.

For the last class of instruction, Police Chief Roger Beaupre was the teacher.

The purpose of the course, he told the class, which is made up equally of men and women, “is to make you aware that we do more than just traffic stops, we do more than just chase burglars, we do more than just arrest people.”

During his talk, Beaupre gave students an overview of the department’s bicycle patrol.

As Biddeford grew and people moved out of the city center, the police left foot patrols behind and the year round bike patrol arose as a way to offer a police presence in the downtown while being able to cover more ground. The Police Department has six bicycles, all equipped with sirens and blue lights, on which officers patrol.

While the main purpose of the bike patrol “is merely a feel-good patrol,” allowing officers to interact more with the public, Beaupre said, it does have other more useful purposes.

For instance, he said, bicycles are quieter and more difficult to see than police cars, making the bike patrol useful if stealth is required to detect criminal activity. Officers on bikes are often used to patrol targeted trouble spots.

Beaupre also discussed some of the department’s special programs, like hosting events where officers create identification packets of children for their parents which can be used if a child goes missing; the marine patrol, which with Saco’s Police Department, is responsible for patrolling the Saco River; the department’s involvement in the federal Drug Enforcement Agency Task Force; and a model program developed by the department that helps victims of domestic violence.

Students in the class appeared intent on what they were learning. Many took notes, some asked questions and offered their own observations and none complained when Beaupre exceeded the one-hour class time.

“The class was better than I anticipated,” said City Councilor Rick Laverriere, who was one of the students. He said he got to see a different side of Biddeford’s police officers, who infused a touch of humor when teaching about what takes place in the department.

Another student was Cat Janson, who has been actively involved with Biddeford’s youth for years. She is the former executive director of the afterschool program Joyful Harvest and, among other roles, she is an outreach coordinator for York County Community Action Corps.

“I took the course because I wanted to get a better connection with the police department and find out more about how they work,” said Janson.

She said she got clarification on how the department operates and said the class was “definitely worthwhile.”

Student Earl Goodwin said he learned a lot about the inner workings of the police department. He said he found all the subjects interesting and would recommend the course to anyone interested in what’s going on with the department.

“I may even take it again,” said Goodwin.

The Citizen Police Academy will be held again in March 2010.

— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.