Tuesday night marked our third session of the seven-week course in which non-officers like myself learn about the many duties carried out day-to-day by our local law enforcement.

I quickly learned Tuesday that police officers are not paid enough for what they do. Traffic stops -- our focus for Tuesday night -- are just one duty that put officers in dangerous situations all too often.

My fellow academy students met at the spacious parking lot of East Side Church of Christ to learn how to make a traffic stop, as well as play out many different scenarios that officers, nationally, face every day.

Most of the role playing scenarios we acted out were certainly outrageous, and don't happen every day -- in small towns like Shelbyville -- but they do happen, and playing them out Tuesday night was nothing short of educational ... and hilarious.

When it was our turn to play the role of officers catching the bad guys, my partner, Kiona, jumped in the driver's seat of the police car, and I opted to assist her in the passenger seat.

We took off to find the bad guys and almost ran into the front of the church, followed up by my partner almost backing up into the unmarked police car, only to the panic of officers Lt. Trey Clanton, Assistant Chief Mike Rogers, Chief Swing, Lt. Mike Baker and Det. Lt. Pat Mathis, who watched in fear from afar.

If my partner was a lousy driver, I was an even lousier cop. When we finally managed to catch up to the suspicious vehicle I called in to "dispatcher" Clanton and told him we were about to pull over the vehicle.

I was so nervous that I couldn't find my flashlight and dropped my "gun" as I was getting out of the police car. When I finally got out, I worked my way to the suspicious vehicle, but I was shot by the bad guy hiding in the truck before I could say the word go.

Of course, during my next role play, I was a bad guy -- a "drunk" passenger riding along with "drunk driver" Swing -- and in a state of panic, I accidentally "shot" the officer making my arrest.

Chief Swing got a laugh out of that one.

Some of the Citizen's Police Academy students did well in playing out their scenarios, particularly those who are married to police officers or grew up with police officer fathers or what have you.

One fellow student, who I believe is married to an officer, did make one major error, however. She seemed to have it all under control, up until the point of getting out of the patrol car to make the arrest. She had forgotten to put the patrol car in park.

I thought it was funny ... for the officers assisting us, it ignited yet another state of temporary panic.

Next week, my class will be learning about crime scenes and drug busts. Lt. Clanton urged us to wear very old clothes ... I can only imagine what that means we'll be getting into (he wouldn't say), but I'm hoping that I do better with detective work than I did with the traffic stops.

-- Sadie Fowler is a staff writer for the Times-Gazette. She can be reached at (931) 684-1200, ext. 214, or by e-mail at sfowler@t-g.com. This column is scheduled to print every Thursday.