Council Accepts Contribution to Junior Police Academy

The Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to accept the latest contribution to help fund a Junior Police Academy for Los Angeles high school students interested in a career in law enforcement.

The $45,000 contribution was the last installment of $284,000 pledged by the 20th Century Insurance Co. of Woodland Hills for supplies, salaries and other costs in the first 18 months of the program.

The academy began operations last fall at Monroe High School in North Hills, Dorsey High School in the Crenshaw area and Wilson High School in El Sereno. A school in San Pedro is to be added this year.

Roberta Weintraub, the former Los Angeles school board president who led the effort to create the academy, said she has so far helped collect about 60% of the $1.2 million needed to build weight rooms, computer centers, obstacle courses and other facilities for the academy.

Much of the money has come from state grants and from contributions from charitable foundations, such as the California Community Foundation and the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, she said.

In addition to traditional high school courses, the curriculum includes courses in the judicial system, history and law enforcement. The school district pays the salaries of teachers and the Police Department provides volunteer officers to speak to classes.

The junior academy was established to create a consistent source of motivated and ethnically diverse candidates for the Police Academy, thus reducing the city’s recruiting costs and ensuring that recruits come from the communities the department serves.