Community Police Academy Aims to Teach Dedham Residents About DPD

The Dedham Community Police Academy ended their last tutorial with a bang Wednesday morning.

Members of a Dedham Retired Men's Club got to see first hand some of the firearms training that Dedham officers go through using a simulation program that shows them different scenarios they may see through the course of duty.

"It's like a big video game for cops," said Sgt. Frank MacMillan who ran Wednesday's session.

The purpose of the tutorials, held at Endicott Estate, is to show Dedham residents, first hand information on how their police department works.

“It’s more on a personal level than it is a professional level at this point. Hopefully it will open up the communications between us and the public," MacMillan said. “We’ve already actually developed some relationships with these guys and it gets them to see us from a different point of view - not in the cruiser, not in uniform - to be able to maybe get them to open up to us a little bit, give us some of the problems in the community they might not communicate to us.”

The class was the last of six before the club will go on a tour of the Dedham police station Tuesday at 9 a.m.