It’s hard to believe that it’s almost time for the new school year to begin. I’ve spoken with parents who are counting the days until their kids are back in school and with teachers and students who can’t believe that summer break is almost over. There are several organizations around town that are collecting school supplies to give out to kids who need them. We are collecting supplies here at the police department and would appreciate any donations that people would like to make. We need book bags, paper, pencils and notebooks. Of course, monetary donations are always welcome so that we can purchase the items that are in short supply. Donations can be dropped off at the front window of the police department between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays.
We restarted the summer GREAT Program this year. We had 19 sixth graders participate in the program which met from 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The program included classroom sessions on making good decisions, lunch, recreation and exercise, and three fields trips. The program concluded with a graduation ceremony that was well attended and received good press coverage from our local newspapers and area television stations. We partnered with the U.S Attorney’s Office and our local Georgia Department of Community Supervision Officers to present the STYLE Program to the students on graduation day. This program uses video and role play scenarios to allow students and officers to interact in common police/citizen encounters such as traffic stops. The role players act out the wrong way and the right way to handle an encounter so that the students can see the different outcomes. We got a lot of positive feedback from the students, who enjoyed getting to “arrest” the volunteer officers.
The STYLE Program takes about four hours to present and we would really like to offer more sessions. Anyone who is interested in scheduling the program for your youth group can contact me or Sgt. John Brown at the police department. Our email addresses are mscott@americusga.gov and
jbrown@americusga.gov.

Mark Scott is chief, Americus Police Department.