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. A ---------- A ------------------ - A OR NR I YX AS £5 a AES Lh ee he fw tense durl OUR SQUAD! (An officlal-looking bunch, aren't we?) After . @ strenuous day's work at the OPP Academy in Brampton, our squad posed for a family photo with our favourite Ser- geant, Don Walton (iI stole his hat). That's Susan. DeRyk from Tllisonburg doing the laughing, with Sgt. Don, John Smith from Belleville, Nancy Liebau from Kitchener and me, Cathy _Olitfie. All the squads were. marked oh our day's perfor- "mance and our's tied for last place. Oh well... 5 5 § | | EIN AK , a radia: reporter from London, looked pretty in- ng the search and rescue exercise, And no won- POLICE ACADEMY: 'Journalism school was never like this!' by Cathy Olliffe I don't know how to make a bed. I thought I did. So okay, I don't make the darn thing eve day, but I have done it enoug times in 29 years to get a rough idea of howit's done. Rough, however, is a key word. Because according to On- . tario Provincial Police Sgt. Don Walton, I don't have a clue when it comes tobed-making. Even when I'm given written instructions. Sgt. Walton took one look at what I thought was a very neat- ly made bed, the neatest work I've ever done, and he ripped off the sheets. The pillows flew in the air and landed on the floor with a muffled whump. His big burly arms tossed blankets like they were made of tissue paper, and his Sean Connery styled face was as impassive as stone. "Do. it :again," he gruffed, marching out the door. "And do itright." - I nearly cried. This 'was boot camp. This is where if you couldn't shape up, you were shipped out. . This was the Ontario Provin- cial Police Academy in Bramp- ton, the training school for new OPP recruits. And there I was, in the middle of it, a recruit for a ay. Last Thursday, 20 reporters from newspapers, radio and TV stations went to the OPP Acade- my to take part in the second annual "Media Recruit Day," a chance for reporters to see first- hand what it's like to be a cop. All too often, police and media are at odds. The police try their best to catch the bad guys. The reporters bug police for all the details--details that if publi- cized can sometimes ruin entire investigations. The Media Recruit Day pro- vided an opportunity for report- ers to understand how police handle investigations, and why it is sometimes imperative that details are kept from the press. It also gave 20 reporters from all over southern Ontario a chance to have a lot of fun. Well, maybe "fun" isn't the word I'm looking for. Maybe "in- teresting" is a better word, al- though "exhausted, tired and plain worn out" also come to mind. In short, we all showed up to be recruits for a day. And it was quite an experience. Real out-of towners like my- self stayed overnight in one of the six dorms at the Academy, at Queen Street and McLaugh- lin Road. With 92 acres of beau- tifully manicured grounds, wild forest area and open fields in the heart of Brampton, the Academy also boasts a huge gym, amess hall, a heliport, and a variety of other buildings. Real recruits go to the Acade- my for three weeks of intensive wi AGAR training, before they're shipped off to the Ontario Police College in Aylmer. Thank goodness I wasn't a real recruit. I'd never last. I could barely survive a day. After nearly two hours of driving, I showed up at the ad- ministration building Wednes- day night at 9:30 p.m., where I promptly met Nancy Liebau, lifestyles reporter for Kitchener radio station CHYM. She was just as nervous as I was and we joked about being "in camp." Together we lugged all our stuff over to Dorm B, where all recruits have their own rooms. I walked into my room and got chills. On the desk sat a set of blue OPP coveralls, a belt (complete with holster), a bulletproof vest and instructions on how to make the bed. Although I was worried about why exactly I was issued a bul- letproof vest, I was more con- cerned about making the bed. So was Nancy, and another reporter from Belleville we met, John Smith. The instructions were de- tailed. Very detailed. They came with a diagram. Here's a sample: Co "Top Blanket--Start blanket 16 inches from the head of the bed. Tuck the hang over at the foot of the bed in under the mat- (Turn to page 36) Meet Mr. Mark Fornler, an unfornate victim of a drug deal that turned to murder. Our he- roic search and rescue effort led to the discovery of Mr. Fornler (a "mannequin- depressive") in a forest, and even though the media recruits managed to destroy every bit . of evidence at the scene, we somehow solved the crime.