The Writer's Police Academy - Day One

Last month I did something I've wanted to do for several years - attend The Writer's Police Academy in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This was the first time my family picked a different weekend for our camping adventure, so YAY - I signed up for WPA. Four days of jammed packed workshops, speakers, and hands-on activities, all to teach writer's how to portray police and what they do correctly in our stories. As we all know, what we see on television is not always true. Since there was so much to learn, I'm going to break up this blog by day.

After checking into our hotel Ginger Ring, Peg Strand, and I headed to The Kooky Cop Carnival where there were stations for us to try different things the police do. After the carnival we were given a talk and demonstration on drones. (Hover your mouse over the pictures for more information.)

Ginger Ring, Peg Strand, and myself on the last morning. As you can see, we were exhausted.

I was trying to look tough, but someone made me laugh!

Learning to rescue a downed officer. Quite heavy.

Wearing a vest, utility belt, and pants. Holding the "gun" and cufflinks. The object was to sit in a chair as if you needed to use the bathroom. Very heavy and cumbersome. We all agreed this would be a pain for female officers who are not allowed to take them off while using the facilities.

At this station, we donned the gun belt. As a word from the instructor, you had to remove you gun, yell police, then aim the gun at a target. No one told us there was a button to press to release the gun. I didn't do very well at this one.

Veterans from the Oneida Nation performed the opening ceremonies.

Dancers from the Oneida Nation. The young man in the middle was an incredible dancer.

This little cutie was wearing a Packer jersey since the Packers were playing in Green Baythat night

After the ceremonies, Lee Lofland, the founder of the Police Academy spoke to us. A very warm hearted, funny man. As a former police officer, he had a lot to say.

Our speaker for the night was Lisa Klink who talked about the experience of pitching, selling and writing her first episode of television, for “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” She also has written short stories, novels and for other television shows.