Episode 17: Training Ground

And talk about the, um, the academic side.

It's...

There's high goals that you have to meet.

Yeah, so they...

So in the law enforcement side of the house, they, uh, they get tested on roughly 19, uh, chapters of instruction, and they have to have an 80% or higher to pass.

So they, you know, that's- that's pretty, pretty high standard for, uh, you know, to pass these tests.

Yeah, Randy, and that's, uh, one of the things that I've seen over the years is, you know, we have really tried to increase our starting pay to be able to recruit that best recruit out there that really wants to be in law enforcement.

So a lot of these young, uh, recruits that we get today, college graduates, you know, we get unbelievable, uh, class average from these, uh, academy classes: 94, 95, 96.

So, you know, they are academically prepared, but we have to make them street cop prepared, if- if you get my drift because a lot of...

Yeah, 'cause w- what we see is a lot of the younger, uh, recruits, um, grew up differently, I would say, than-

Uh, yeah

...

the old timers.

I, I, I think so, yeah.

You know, I- I- I...

If I look at my sons, they didn't grow up the way that I grew up, right? So, you know, you have to teach them a lot about not only how to defend yourself but how to communicate with people out here in our community.

Totally, totally different than-

Yeah

... 1984 when I went through.

I think my academy class was about, I don't know, two weeks.

[laughs]

[laughs]

Uh, uh, [laughs] I think realistically it was four months.

Well, we say it all the time.

I mean, it's a different world that we're living in.