Academy preps
offi cers for more
than a career
By Sarah Asch
ITTSFORD — Training police offi cers for duty in our modern
world is an increasingly complicated task, according to
Rick Gauthier, the executive director of the Vermont Police
Academy. However, he said he is confi dent that his academy is up to
the task.
He said that addressing the changing social landscape that
offi cers work within has required an increased emphasis on fair and
impartial policing and cultural competency, in addition to keeping
track of new laws and regulations that impact offi cers’ jobs.
“We stay on top of the changes, but it’s become more complex to
train police offi cers,” he said. “For instance, when I came through
(the Academy) in 1980, it was an eight-week program, and now it’s
a minimum of 16 weeks.”
Gauthier explained that recruits training for their Level III
certifi cation, which allows them to serve as full-time offi cers,
must complete anywhere between 16 and 26 weeks, depending
on their agency affi liation and their educational needs. Regardless
of a recruit’s specifi c training course, however, Gauthier said,
the academy’s curriculum is designed to prepare recruits for the
challenges ahead.
“We don’t just train in individual silos and isolated lessons,” he
said. “The stuff they learn in criminal law is supposed to relate
to what they’re learning in fair and impartial policing, which
is supposed to relate to what they are learning in their cultural
competency course.”
According to Gauthier, the goal is to make good policing practice
P
Photo Provided
Jeffrey Bauer, center, soon to be Colchester Police Department’s newest member, holds the American Flag as
it’s removed during the fi nal lowering ceremony at the 103rd Basic Training Class graduation at the Vermont
Police Academy in Pittsford on May 26, 2017.
into a “behavioral muscle memory,” and to instill integrity as a core
value for all the offi cers who graduate the program.
The Vermont Police Academy has operated at its Pittsford location
since 1971, and graduates two classes of about 40 recruits each year.
Instructors are responsible for training offi cers at every level, from
town police departments to sheriff’s departments and the state police.
Departments choose which recruits to send to the academy. The
Rutland City Police Department recently sent Patrol Offi cer Mike
Delehanty, who graduated in May and has been serving on the force
in Rutland since. He said his training prepared him for his job.
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