Regional Police Academy Recruits begin training

Day one of Regional Police Academy training at NMU is in the books. New recruits were initiated in with high expectations and a no excuses policy.

Our ABC 10 News Now Reporter, Danielle Davis, was on site to follow along through the strenuous process.

Day one of Regional Police Academy training at NMU was no picnic. Trainers accepted nothing less than perfection from recruits, even when learning the basics like the proper way to wear a hat. They don’t want the best. They want the best of the best because enforcing the law takes exceptional skill. Officers need to be prepared to deal with the worst of scenarios.

“We look for good moral character, we look for a recruit that is in shape, we want someone who has the mindset to be a good law enforcement officer, common sense, discipline, it takes a special person to do the job, long hours, lots of time away from your family, so we are looking for someone we feel fits into the law enforcement community,” said Kenneth Love, Regional Police Academy Training Coordinator.

“There are 14 recruits in this years program, with one female, but all will have to go through the same 16 weeks of grueling training,” reports Danielle Davis.

One privilege of successfully graduating from the program is the opportunity to come back, and give advice to new recruits.

“It’s kind of an honorary thing, those that have gone through it understand, the previous years class does it, looking on this side you can see what is going on and understand it, the first day you don’t understand.  It’s kind of a right of passage for those that have graduated the years before,” said Nathan Kinnenen, Alumni/Houghton City Police.

I didn’t talk to any recruits today as they hadn’t earned the privilege to speak, yet.

They’ll finish up in August and hopefully, by that time, they’ll be able to elaborate on their experience.