Citizens' police academy offers real street lessons
By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Missoulian
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/01/24/news/mtregional/news09.txt (http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/01/24/news/mtregional/news09.txt)
Editor's note: This is the first in a weekly series of stories on the 2008 Citizens' Law Enforcement Academy.
As it turns out, television's police procedurals don't often authentically portray the inner workings of a police department.
Literature's pulpy canon of mystery sub-genres also gets the details wrong on occasion.
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But over the next six weeks, the 2008 Citizens' Law Enforcement Academy will shed some light on the finer points of police operations at Missoula's largest law enforcement agency - the police department.