By Aaron Haugen (@ahaugie on Twitter)

Lethbridge Police Service opens doors for innagural Youth Police Academy

May 13, 2016 | 1:42 PM

LETHBRIDGE – The Lethbridge Police Service is giving local high school students the chance to live the life of a police officer.

The first LPS Youth Police Academy gave 17 local high school students who are interested in criminal justice, or just new to Canada, a chance to learn about community policing.

Cst. Kim Pierzchala, a School Resource Officer, said the students all have an interest in learning more about policing.

“It’s good to get them down here and see stuff that the public doesn’t get to see,” she said. “They’re going to have experiences today that they’ll carry with them forever, whether they are a police officer or not.”

The academy runs for two days with the first day being spent at the LPS training range in the river valley.

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The students learned about police procedures and safety before being shown demonstrations by the explosives, tactical and K9 units.

Colum Terry, a student at Immanuel Christian High School, said the experience gave him a new outlook on how police officers react on the job.

“When you get pulled over, you didn’t do anything wrong, but they’re taking it seriously just in case,” he said. “And, yeah, people get this stereotype that cops are mean, so it kind of shows you cops aren’t bad.”

The students will then join with the Calgary Police Service and their academy next Thursday at Heritage Park to partake in mock incidents.