(WHBC) – Here’s your chance to get a peek inside the world of law enforcement from the people that do it every day.

The Stark County Sheriff’s Office is taking applications for its Citizen’s Academy.

“It’s a great way to educate and interact the community, and to bring them up-to-speed on what we do and why we do it,” said Lt. Eric Weisburn.

He says the mission of the Citizen’s Academy is to foster communication between the people of Stark County and the sheriff’s office through education.

He makes clear that this is an educational class, not a training course.

“We don’t put them out in a cruiser and go make traffic stops, but we do have things like a mock traffic stop scenario that we go over.”

He says the students will get to play the role of the police officer and approach the driver as if they were conducting the traffic stop.

Lt. Weisburn says this will be the third Citizen’s Academy they’ve had since Sheriff George Maier has been sheriff, and he keeps in contact with many alumni of the academy, who help out with different events.

The 12-weeks of educational classes will be held on Tuesday nights February 26th through May 7th at the sheriff’s office.

People interested in attending the academy must fill out an application which can be downloaded here or picked up at the sheriff’s office.

The deadline to apply is February 1st.