SKOWHEGAN — The Skowhegan Police Department is offering free child safety seat instruction, after Officer Michael Bachelder completed four days of training this summer.
Bachelder, 26, earned his National Child Passenger Safety Certification in June during training sessions in Machias. As a child safety seat technician, Bachelder can teach families how to secure their children safely during travel, he said. He is trained in the installation and maintenance of safety seats and is now certified by the Safe Kids CPS Certification Board.
Bachelder, a 2015 graduate of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy’s 18-week Basic Law Enforcement Training Program, has been a police officer in Skowhegan for about 16 months.
“The first three days was all classroom material covering air bags and different kinds of seat belts and different types of car seats and how to install them,” he said Wednesday of the summer training course. “The last day we went and actually did the work; we set up signs so people could actually stop and do it.”
He said the Police Department is inviting families to come in and learn the proper use of child safety seats in an automobile and how to harness a child in the seat, and to make sure parents or caregivers are able to do it themselves.
Bachelder said he has a check list of safety measures to note for each installation.
There is no charge for the services, but families are asked to bring their own car seats.
The Skowhegan Police Department announced the program on its Facebook page.
Anyone who wants to participate in the program can call the department at 474-6908 or visit its offices in the basement of the Town Office on Water Street.
“I’d say this is probably more for new parents, but also for some that have been parents for a while to make sure that they have them properly installed,” Bachelder said.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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