Youth Police Academy

The Piscataway Township Police Department has found that education has been the most effective way in gaining understanding and support from the community.  Through implementation of Youth Week, the Piscataway Township Police Department offers youth a new insight into how police officers perform their duties, as well as how the department serves the community.  The success of the police department depends largely upon the amount of cooperation and support it receives from the citizens it serves.

2022 dates will be scheduled when appropriate.  Police Youth Week lasts five days concluding with graduation. The last academy was held on June 24–28, 2019 with classes from 8:00 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Age parameters will be set when the 2022 academy dates are established. For the last academy held in 2019, Police Youth Week was open to any youth who lives or attends school in Piscataway, will be entering 7^th or 8^th grade in September 2019, and have an interest about their police department and law enforcement.

The purpose of Police Youth Week is to foster better communications between youth and police through education.  Police Youth Week will create a nucleus of well-informed youth who will possess greater insight into police practices and services.  Previous youth participating have attended Police Youth Week with the career of law enforcement in mind. Teaching pride, respect, responsibility, teamwork, and increasing ones self-esteem is an important objective of Police Youth Week.

The instruction is comprehensive, covering different areas of the police department each day.  Police Officers with particular expertise will instruct each topic.  A wide variety of training topics will include: Patrol Functions, Officer Safety, Drill and Ceremony, Crime Scene Processing, Radar and Traffic Laws, K-9 Unit, and Emergency Services Unit Demonstration. This year’s curriculum will include a trip to the New State Police Museum in West Trenton, NJ.  In addition, the youth’s day will consist of light calisthenics, recreational team building activities, and basic police procedures.

The Police Youth Week is free to Township Residents.  A t-shirt, shorts, hat, a water bottle and learning materials will be provided.

The 2022 dates will be scheduled when appropriate.

For information only on the process that was used in 2019, those interested would download an application found here and were returned to Police Headquarters in June 2019 to the mailing address of Piscataway Township Police, Attn: Community Policing Section, 555 Sidney Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Those who wanted additional information could contact Detective Tishun Myers of the Community Policing Section at (732) 562-2358 or Detective Calvin Laughlin of the Community Policing Section at (732) 562-2349.