Columbus Police Department is sending fourteen trainees to the police academy.
That total includes five candidates who will be on the agenda to be hired at Tuesday’s council meeting. If hired, CPD’s total officer count will rise to about 60 officers, Mayor Robert Smith told reporters at a Wednesday morning press conference.
Police Chief Oscar Lewis said the class — the largest in Columbus’ history — will go to the academy starting May 21 in Moorehead. He said the course lasts 12 weeks, after which the officers will return to Columbus to participate in CPD’s field officer training program where they will ride with more experienced officers to better learn the job and the city.
Lewis said CPD has already been instructing trainees to better prepare them for the academy.
“The good thing with these guys now — they’ve been in the classroom before the academy,” Lewis said. “They’ve been put with officers and are riding around learning the standard operating procedure for the city and working with firearms and doing different things.”
Shaun Neal, 22, is one of the officers who will head to the academy next month. Neal is from Columbus.
He said he’s long had an interest in policing, and was a member of the former Police Explorers program that CPD used to hold in collaboration with the Boy Scouts. Neal decided he wanted to become an officer late last year so he could make a positive impact in his community.
“I want to be a police officer because I don’t want to be statistic — I want to be a changer, not to fit into what the news is saying about police because not every police officer is the same,” he said.
Haley Lucas, a 23-year-old officer trainee, also attended Wednesday’s press conference. Lucas is a military police officer for the U.S. Navy, and said she’s been interested in law enforcement since her early childhood.
Lucas, who is from Caledonia but currently lives in Tupelo, told reporters she’s happy to come back to try to help improve her home area.
Growing the force
CPD’s efforts to bolster its manpower have largely defined Lewis’ tenure as police chief so far since he was hired in January 2016. On Wednesday, he said he’s thankful to see the department drawing closer to full strength, adding that measures the city took such as increasing officer pay and purchasing new vehicles were instrumental in recruiting more officers.
He also said he is very thankful for the officers who have worked long hours through the manpower shortage.
“These officers have been working long and hard — some not even getting days off just to make this work –and I admire them for the job that they have done,” he said. “It’s been great to see the things they’ve been able to accomplish with the numbers that we’ve had during that time.”
Smith, who said he was “elated” at sending the recruiting class to the academy. He credited the work of consultant K.B. Turner, who the council hired in January to review CPD’s operations, as well as steps the city has taken such as the pay increase and holding multiple career days to attract recruits.
He said he’s very pleased with the rate CPD’s manpower situation has improved, and that he wants the city to keep pushing ahead if it meets its budgeted 67 officers. The council has approved budgeting for 10 more officers once CPD is fully staffed.
“No one more than I would like to see us get to where we need to be, which was approved in the budget for 67 officers, because they’re really needed,” Smith said.
“I see the city trying to immediately continuing to try to reach that goal of 77 (officers),” Smith later added. “That’s where I’d like to see us at.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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