West County Mosque Holds First Police Academy Graduation for Citizens

Wednesday night, a graduation ceremony was held at the Daar-ul-Islam Mosque located at Weidman and Manchester roads for its first-ever Citizen Police Academy.

As previously reported by Patch, the St. Louis County Police West County Precinct partnered with the Islamic Foundation and offered the eight-week course to mosque members.

(Read Previous Story: First Ever Police Training Offered at West County Mosque)

St. Louis County Police said more than 50 members of the Muslim community graduated this week from the course that began in November. St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch and County Executive Charley Dooley attended the ceremony.

Adil Imdad, the outreach and community relations program coordinator for the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis, previously told Patch he felt the course would be an asset to the mosque members and pointed out it was designed to teach area Muslims about the police department and how it conducts investigations.

The course was also an opportunity for mosque members to meet the officers who serve the community and for those officers to meet the mosque members.

Imdad said the opportunity came about last year during Ramadan when St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch reached out to the Muslim community and offered to provide the course.