MARQUETTE — We’ve been following the intensive training of what it takes to get through the N.M.U. Regional Police Academy from the start and the cadets are still going strong.

Today the recruits learned about proper procedures in traffic stops and interrogation.

“We learned a lot about just the questions you ask, how to communicate with people, what to ask for as far as license, registration, proof of insurance. The biggest thing is officer safety and we learned a lot about that,” said one of the recruits, Keegan Taylor.

The cadets also learned about how to question witnesses and suspects. There’s a lot more to interrogation than just the good cop/bad cop routine.

“It’s all about the communication. You want to be open and trustworthy toward the person you’re talking to because you’re not always confronting them and saying ‘you’re the one that did it.’ It’s a lot of just getting their side of the story and letting them know that you’re there to listen and kind of building off that. If you know that they are a suspect, then you have to get the facts. That’s what it is, it’s getting the facts of what happened,” Taylor added.

We’ll have more coverage of the recruits tomorrow when they learn about search procedures.