ACADEMY GRADUATION: To protect and serve

Police academy grads pass first test toward becoming officers

More than 30 new police officers were celebrated at a graduation event held Feb. 6 at the Cannery casino. The new officers will go on to fulfill department-specific requirements for Henderson, North Las Vegas, the Community College of Southern Nevada and Clark County School District agencies.

The new officers came out of a 22-week combined academy at CCSN. The class includes 19 Henderson graduates, four North Las Vegas graduates, three CCSD graduates and five for CCSN. The CCSN academy program marries the requirements of the police academy with undergraduate course work. Those completing the program have completed the state requirements for police officers and have 30 credits toward a college degree.

"This is an incredible blend of police training and academic education," said Mike Ault, Metropolitan Police Department deputy chief. "The agencies in this room work together -- we always have."

The academy is a combined effort between the cities of Henderson and North Las Vegas as well as other area agencies. For many, training doesn't end after graduation. For instance, in Henderson, recruits will now go through a four-week mini-academy to learn Henderson Municipal Codes followed by 17 weeks of field training. If all of those requirements are completed then the new recruit becomes a patrol officer.

For many agencies, the academy graduates could be the bodies that fill vacant positions. In Henderson the number of authorized officers is a set number of 259 so the city doesn't open slots in the academy unless there are open positions in that 259. There were 23 in the last group of academy graduates to Henderson last July.

"We don't put anybody through the academy who won't have a spot," said Lt. Keith Paul, a Henderson Police Department spokesman.

The CCSN academy graduated 31 out of the 43 who originally enrolled. This is the first class to graduate since the 5-year-old program moved to the Henderson CCSN campus and it is the last to be under the program's old name, the Law Enforcement Training Academy. The new name, chosen by this graduating class, is the Southern Desert Regional Police Academy.

This academy class was made up of men and women ranging in ages from 21 to 41 and hailing from all over the United States as well as Mexico and Israel. The class ran the first Henderson Police Officer's Association 5K race last fall, something class speaker Sandy Seda pointed to as one of many bonding activities.

"Five months ago I stood among strangers. Today I stand among family," he said.

The next academy is scheduled to begin March 1.


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