For any Marbleheaders who’ve ever driven by a traffic stop and wondered why three police cars were on the scene, wanted to know how K-9 units operate, or have always been interested in watching a live trial in person at a courthouse, Lt. David Ostrovitz and his Citizen Police Academy (CPA) program are here to answer your questions and more.
After researching other nearby departments’ academies and how they template their programs, Marblehead Police Department started offering an eight-week course in 2018. Since then, the popular class has grown to nine weeks in the spring, and Ostrovitz is even considering adding a 2.0 course for graduates to further their law enforcement education.
“We actually ran two classes in 2019, and then, unfortunately, COVID took us out of the game for 2020 and ’21. But in 2022, we actually came back and ran three classes that year,” Ostrovitz said. “We had such a high demand, we couldn’t say no, and we just wanted to keep running these classes. We loved that everybody was so interested in it, and I believe that we ran two in 2023 and then one in 2024.”
As people around the department started to get recruited to teach classes, officers advocated for certain topics they were interested in. For example, Ostrovitz had an officer who wanted to teach criminal and constitutional law and another person who lectured on motor vehicle stops and OUI enforcement.
Other local figures have chipped in, like Essex County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Superintendent Maurice Pratt, who teaches about the department’s operations and their purpose in the county. This includes the canine unit, which MPD doesn’t have, but will call in whenever there are certain cases like missing persons or looking for a suspect.
There’s also the Salem Superior Court field trip, where students can sit in on an actual trial.
“A couple years ago, we actually did happen to sit in on a murder trial… I’ve been on the job for 28 years, and I’ve never been on a murder trial until I saw one with the Citizen Police Academy.” Ostrovitz said. “And the judges will meet with our group before court begins to talk about the court process, and they are very interested in supporting the Citizen Police Academy heading over there because they want the public to hear from them.”
An important goal of the CPA is to see the perception of policing from residents before they hear from these figures and then see how that changes after they’ve taken the course. The officers involved with the program hold a lot of gratitude for these citizens who are taking that step to interact with them and learn more about law enforcement directly from the source.
Ostrovitz says another benefit is the academy gives officers something different to do in the way of connecting with the community and sharing their passion with them. In fact, he says that after someone has gone through the academy, they’ve interacted with around a third of the department.
“This really created an opportunity for our officers to interact with the public in a much different way, a very positive way… It’s not just about educating people; it’s also about creating this connection with the local police force,” he said. “More often than not, in any given class, they run right to the end with questions and answers, and during the break, folks just want to talk with the officers, and I think they really enjoy that really close interaction.”
In turn, the participants in Marblehead Police Academy spread what they learned from officers to other community members, making the town an overall safer and more educated place for everyone. That word-of-mouth advertising for the academy has led to its popularity growth, and more and more students are coming because they heard about the program from a friend.
That community bond is something Ostrovitz has been passionate about in his 28 years working as a law enforcement officer. For example, he became trained in child passenger safety along with a few other officers at his department to install and inspect thousands of car seats for anyone who wanted them checked out before using them to transport their children.
“That was a great way to meet a lot of people, and it was a great community engagement opportunity. I’ve also done other things, whether it was informational tables or crime prevention talks or going to a school,” Ostrovitz said. “Looking at my locker, I get some pretty cool pictures with student groups and scout troops, and we still have a very robust community engagement program now. It’s really been a great run.”
