By Jim Stevens
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
For 40 years Waukesha County Technical College has prepared hundreds of people to “serve and protect.” The Police Academy at WCTC is an important and integral part of a person seeking employment in the police profession.
Jodi Crozier, Protective Services Coordinator, said completion of the academy is necessary for a person to be certified by the state to be a law enforcement officer.
The program is an intense 13-week course that includes 520 hours of instruction.
It includes, academic book work, such as constitutional law, and hands-on training from learning arrest tactics to using a firearm to handling an emergency vehicle. At the end of the session, these police cadets must put together everything they have learned and use those skills in a variety of possible scenarios. If they don’t pass this final exam they do not graduate from the academy, she said. Some of the cadets though never reach that point.
“Some people find out it’s not for them,” she said.
The first step though is getting into the academy.
Admission is restricted to those who qualify under Wisconsin Department of Justice administrative rules. According to the WCTC website, “Candidates must possess at least 60 college credits, undergo a criminal history and driver record check, successfully complete a medical examination by a licensed health care provider and participate in a personal screening interview. Recruits are responsible for the cost of a weapon, magazines and other related duty gear in addition to tuition and study materials.” Some applicants are straight out of college, some are mothers who used to be in law enforcement who want to get back into police work, while many are “second- career people,” she said.
“A lot are military people. A lot of military,” said Crozier who noted she was going to interview a soldier who had just returned from Afghanistan. The solider will have traveled 20 hours to Pewaukee for that interview, she said.
“It is very, very competitive,” Crozier said. “We have a lot of people applying.” There are 24 openings for the two sessions offered annually, one in the summer and the other in the fall. Crozier said the week prior more than 100 people were interviewed.
While there are other police academies in the state that offer the same curriculum and have similar facilities, WCTC is set apart from the rest, she said.
“We have the quality of the instructors. We have amazing instructors. Our reputation is spread all over the state,” Crozier said.
One of those instructors is Hartland Deputy Chief Mike Bagin, who teaches part-time at WCTC. Bagin praised the program.
“It’s an opportunity to work with brand-new officers who are embarking on a fascinating career and teach them the most up-todate practices in law enforcement.
Additionally, we work with pre-service students,” Bagin said. Those are cadets that are not yet hired by a department. The academy, Bagin said, “provides them a level of education that can give them a significant advantage in the hiring process.” If a new hiree at a department has already completed the program, Bagin said that is an advantage as a department does not have to pay an officer for 13 weeks while the rookie officer is attending the academy.
In addition, Bagin said if there are two potential candidates who are equal, if one has already completed the program that person has an advantage over the applicant that has not gone through the academy.
In the past, many departments hired new officers who then had to go through the academy. Now, many people go through the academy in order to get an edge in the hiring process.
And if there is such thing as a guarantee in getting a job, it is with this program.
“We have a 95 percent placement of our pre-service students,” Crozier said. Others go into correctional services or security firms, she said.
Copyright 2011 Journal Sentinel, All Rights Reserved.