FACE TO FACE WITH ACCEL Bridging the Gap Program Back to In-Person Training
Officer Matthew Butler and Officer Nathaniel interact with students during a traffic stop scenario.
It’s a Friday morning around 9 o’clock and the weather is unusually warm for an October day. Coming around the bend to the Metro Firearms Training Facility is a Chicksaw City school bus. Officer Joanne Watson steps onto the bus to welcome the 22 students. They are from Accel Academy and the first group of students to participate in the Bridging the Gap program this school term. In 2020, COVID-19 disrupted many school activities, including Bridging the Gap. So it was an exciting time for the MPD Office of Strategic Initiatives to begin again facilitating the interactive training in its original format. Four scenarios are set up, allowing officers and students the opportunity to engage in dialogue.
Officer Nathaniel McCarty, Officer Matthew Butler, Officer Jeffrey Taylor and Officer Bobby Napier made the students feel comfortable to ask any question. Through role-playing, the students learned valuable lessons of what is expected of them and the officer during a law enforcement encounter. Bridging the Gap is a national program created in 2015 by the FBI, MPD, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of Alabama. The purpose of the program is to bring youth and law enforcement together to learn about each other and rebuild mutual respect. In the weeks ahead, several other schools are scheduled to come out for the training.
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