Monroe County Sheriff’s Office holds a part time police academy
Three nights a week, and some Saturdays, cadets will go through the 307-hour part-time basic training curriculum mandated for all Mississippi Law Enforcement Officers.
MONROE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – It may be an academy for part-time police officers, but the training cadets receive in Class Four from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is not a cakewalk.
Three nights a week, and some Saturdays, cadets will go through the 307-hour part-time basic training curriculum mandated for all Mississippi Law Enforcement Officers.
Monroe County Sheriff Kevin Crook is in his second term and says starting a part-time academy was one of his priorities when he was elected.
“There are a lot of part-time guys out there that haven’t had the right mindset to do the job, and they need the training and they don’t necessarily want to leave their job, and make less money, we want to recruit those people, we have always said we don’t just want cops on the street, we want good cops on the street,” Sheriff Crook said.
That means all cadets will sit through classroom training. During the first few weeks, Class Four learned about the history and principles of law enforcement, we were also taught about stress management, and traffic crash investigation.
PT is a regular part of the academy, and it also had its first class on firearms
Attendees learned about conducted energy weapons, more commonly known as tasers. While not all agencies require cadets to be tased, if you take the academy in Monroe County, you get tased.
The taser locks you up for five seconds, just enough time for the officer to cuff a subject. Staff Sergeant Joe Hamilton is the taser instructor and says it’s important for officers to know how the taser feels.
“Whether you are on the side of the road, or in the jail when they’re taking somebody, it teaches them what the person is going through who is being tased,” Hamilton said.
Cadets in Class Four work full-time jobs during the day and are taking the academy for various reasons.
Josh Buford is self-sponsored. He owns a gym in Mathiston and says his inspiration came from his son.
“My five year old boy inspired me, seeing him running around in his SWAT outfit, his name is Cash, being inspired by him to think of something I have wanted to do for years, today was the day to move on and get it done,” Buford said.
Troy Peck will be the deputy chief of operations for the city of Tupelo. He has a military background and says being a certified officer will cut out a lot of the red tape in the code enforcement department.
“If we issue a violation, or the building department issues a stop work order, and someone doesn’t comply, and it goes through the court system, currently, we do an affidavit, the court issues a citation,” Peck said. “It goes through the process, once we get this done, and have one or more certified officers, it will we will issue those citations, kind of an immediate type of deal.”
