A group of students in the LeCroy Career Technical Center’s Public Service Academy will be working the next couple of weeks on a police physical agility course.

Lumber to be used for parts of the course was donated by Russell Do-It Center in Clanton on Sept. 8.

“A lot of the students are sophomores to seniors,” said lead instructor Cameron Bates. “They will be working on constructing a course which is designed to test certain things such as running a certain distance, pushing a patrol car while the patrol car is in neutral and running a distance while climbing a fence.”

Bates said he has seen an increase this year with students wanting to go into law enforcement.

“Our numbers are actually increasing, which is great,” Bates said.

The Public Service Academy is designed to educate students in grades 10-12 about issues in law enforcement such as criminal investigation and homeland security, as well as other topics including firefighting techniques and fire safety.

LeCroy Assistant Principal Todd Davis said the school is looking to partner with the Alabama Therapeutic Education Facility in Columbiana for students who will be graduating in the spring.

“We are very excited about this partnership,” Davis said. “This will allow our students who are 18 and graduate from the Public Service Academy to have a job until they can apply for the Alabama Police Officers Standard Training when they are 19. It gives them experience working in a field that they might be interested in.”

Alabama Therapeutic Education Facility is contracted with the Alabama Department of Corrections to provide rehabilitation and re-entry services for DOC inmates.

The facility has bed space for 700 men and women, and students from LeCroy would have the option to serve as operations counselors at the facility.

Kyle Waldon with the Alabama Therapeutic Education Facility said the role of operations counselor would be similar to a correctional officer, and students would be coming and monitoring everything the residents at the facility do.

“They are responsible for doing searches of lockers and beds, making sure the residents are doing what they are supposed to be doing,” Waldon said.

Students are provided 120 hours of training before they are allowed contact with the residents.

“The program gives the operations counselors a year of correctional experience that they can put on their resume,” Waldon said. “When they go to apply for jobs at the DOC, they can say they already have one year of experience which is extremely helpful. It is a good chance for the students to be exposed to a career in corrections before they go to APOST.”

Waldon said the facility has also seen many operations counselors who received their degrees and stayed with the facility to become a clinical counselor.

Students must receive their high school diploma before entering the program to become an operations counselor.

Waldon said he is looking forward to working with students in the Public Service Academy at LeCroy.

“We are excited about the possibility of having LeCroy students come and apply,” Waldon said.