BERKELEY -- A fourth group of young people have completed a program that teaches health and fitness, conflict resolution, personal safety, drug and drinking laws, and other criminal justice issues.

The Police and Life Academy for Youth (PLAY) program started in September 2010 with a $25,000 grant from the Chancellor's Community Partnership Fund at UC Berkeley. A $20,000 from the same source last September kept the program alive.

About 70 teens have completed the 11-week program since it began 18 months ago, said police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss. More than a dozen will graduate from the most recent session on Wednesday.

The graduation is at 5 p.m. at the Ronald T. Tsukamoto Public Safety Building, 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Berkeley.

PLAY is a partnership between the University of California Police Department, the Berkeley Police Department, the Berkeley Boosters/Police Activities League and the Berkeley Unified School District. It is free for students. More information is available at http://www.berkeleyboosters.org.

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Teens graduate from program that teaches them about criminal justice