TUSTIN : Students Create Video Detailing Police Work

A 15-minute video written and produced by middle school students will soon be used by the Police Department during community presentations about police work.

Twenty students in grades seven and eight from Columbus Tustin Middle School produced the video, calling it “What Is Suspicious?”

The video includes simulation of a car theft and shows people how to make an emergency 911 call. It also gives tips on recognizing a suspicious person and illustrates the procedure police officers follow from the time they are dispatched from the police station to when they arrest a suspect, said John Mirarchi, a Tustin police community resource officer who has coordinated the project.

“It’s the first time in Orange County that students have produced a videotape for a police department,” Mirarchi said.

The Tustin Police Department does not produce its own training videos because of budget constraints, he said.

Mirarchi said he outlined the scenarios, but the students wrote the script and shot the video. The production took several weeks, he said.

Columbus Tustin, one of four middle schools in the community, has offered a video production class, paid for by a state grant, for the past two years, said Kathy Sampson, who teaches the class.

In the past, the students videotaped classroom projects, emergency preparedness drills, holiday programs and school board meetings, Sampson said.

For the police project, students were divided into three teams, each with a director and two for camera work. They shot the video at the Rancho Mariposa apartments in Tustin Ranch and at the police headquarters, she said.

The students are now editing, dubbing and adding music, special effects, titles and credits to the video at the school.

Once completed, the video will be used in police training, shown at neighborhood watch meetings, community events and as a public service announcement on local cable’s Channel 33.