Decatur Police hires private citizens for passing out registry fliers

I know it is perfectly legal to allow private citizens to do some police work, but I still have my concerns. First off, Sheriff Greg Bartlett runs quite an array of fear-mongering messages. Maybe it is Bartlett's way of trying to make people forget about the fact he neglected the dietary needs of inmates awaiting trial while he pocketed over $100k in taxpayer money, and ended up locked up in his own jail. Given that fact, I have my doubts as to the training given to thise private citizens.

Since Greg Bartlett is facing a very close runoff election soon, I'm sure he's pulling out all the stops.

On to the story now:

http://www.decaturdaily.com/detail/63004.html

The Decatur Police Department will accept applications for the 2010 Citizens Police Academy until Sept. 7. The program acquaints residents with the operation of the police department. The class is free, but class size is limited to 25 participants....
Members of this organization help with duties such as working the front desk at the Police Department, maintaining the Community Resource Center, registering convicted sex offenders, notifying the community of convicted sex offenders living in the Decatur area and assisting the Criminal Investigations Division.