By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

The Alabaster Police Department has rescheduled its first citizens’ police academy for May, and is currently accepting applications for the class.

The department originally planned to start the classes in late January, but the department decided to reschedule the classes until the spring to allow more residents to sign up.

Alabaster Police Chief Curtis Rigney said the department began publicizing the classes in late 2012, but said the holiday season resulted in a small number of applications turned in for the January class.

“We’d like to have a maximum of 50 people and a minimum of 12 in each class,” Rigney said, noting those who were accepted for the January class will be enrolled in the May class. “We just got a late start getting the word out.”

The class will touch on many areas of law enforcement, and will be taught by several Alabaster officers representing the different divisions in the department.

“It’s a good program. We think it will be a good way to get citizens involved,” Rigney said. “We want to tell them about what we do, how we do it and how citizens can help us out. That’s important, because they are our eyes and ears in the community.”

The first sessions will be taught in a classroom setting at the Shelby County Instructional Services Center on U.S. 31.

Applications are available at the Alabaster Police Department’s dispatch office, which is open 24-hours-a-day, and by calling the department at 663-7401.