Imagine a summer camp where the daily activities included working with K-9 police dogs, learning about hostage situations or even collecting evidence at a crime scene.

That is what 11 Slidell high school students undertook last week as they attended the first Slidell Law Enforcement Cop Camp.

The camp was held at the Slidell Police Academy in Camp Villere and is the brainchild of Slidell police officer David Wortmann.

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He got the idea after reading about similar camps around the country. He approached Chief Freddie Drennan, who gave his blessing.

Wortmann said the camp has a dual function. First, he sees it as a recruiting tool to get teenagers interested in going into law enforcement after they graduate.

“The camp shows them what we do on a daily basis, and they can decide if this is what they want to do,” Wortmann said.

He also sees the camp as a way to break down the barriers of mistrust between police and young people. Wortman is a resource officer at Northshore High School and enjoys working with young people.

“We want to show them we are the good guys and not to be feared,” Wortmann said.

He added the teens who attend the Cop Camp will help him and other school resource officers when school begins next month, and they won’t be so reluctant to talk to the police.

Wortmann said the Slidell Police Department is starting out small. Currently, the camp is open to teens, ages 15 to 18, who attend the three Slidell high schools.

Next year, he believes word will get out and more teens will want to attend, and the department will open the camp to all teens in St. Tammany Parish.

Wortmann said for the first camp there were 20 applications, but that was whittled down to 11. He said some of the teens decided they wanted to get summer jobs or go on vacation.

But the 11 who attended Cop Camp were enthusiastic about their experience.

“I’ve always thought about being a police officer,” Salmen High School student Gene Pharr said. “This has been great. How often do you get to see a SWAT demonstration?”

Getting a lecture from SWAT members was just one of the many activities the students did in Cop Camp.

Monday was dedicated to first aid training and ropes exercise. During the time with the ropes, the campers had to get across an obstacle course on ropes, but they had to develop a sense of teamwork to accomplish the goal.

“They learn to rely on a partner to get through it,” Wortmann said.

On Tuesday, the teens were a given a demonstration with the K-9 unit. They were shown how the dogs were able to sniff out suspects and drugs and disarm people.

Wednesday was the SWAT demonstration. The campers were shown all the weapons used by SWAT during raids and hostage situations. They were shown how to use a Taser, but only on a cardboard target, even though some of the campers actually wanted to have the Taser used on them.

The high school students were driven out to the shooting range in the Slidell SWAT’s armored personnel carrier. Police officers demonstrated the firepower of automatic rifles. A SWAT team also demonstrated how they enter a building by using a “flash-bang” grenade that produces a loud noise and smoke to stun suspects.

The final two days of the camp were dedicated to crime scene investigation. On Thursday, the teens were instructed how to collect evidence at a crime scene. This included learning how to take fingerprints. Friday, fake crime scenes were set up and the campers had to collect the evidence for evaluation.

The teens were also taken on field trips to the Slidell City Court and the Slidell Police Department to see how the entire criminal justice system works. They were able to meet and talk with Drennan, who gave them words of advice on being police officers.

He also regaled them with tales of several big drug arrests the chief took part in.

Most of the campers felt they received a complete look at the job of the police officer.

Sarah Holden, a senior at Northshore High School, liked the K-9 demonstration but felt she got a lot of education on all aspects during the week.

“The best thing was all the different things we got to do,” Holden said.