CERTIFIED

With Ron Sloan, Director of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (keynote speaker)





Pinning on of the badge by my wife

Very pleased to announce that the Denver Metro area is a safer place now that there are thirty four new deputy sheriffs and police officers. Every one of us passed our final POST exam. Graduation was a blast and it feels great to have finally made it.

I really enjoyed myself in the academy; this has been one of the greatest experiences I have had in my life. I am glad to be finished and feel ready to take on the next stage - Field Training (FTI).

As our friends from our neighboring departments move on, us Jeffco Deputies will remain for a three week detentions academy. This is preceded by a week of observation training in the jail. After this we will begin FTI and thus our careers.

I am grateful for the opportunity I have had over the past 20 weeks to share my experiences with you. I hope I have given you an insight into what it takes to become a law enforcement officer, it’s a crazy ride with a lot of challenges, and my head should stop hurting by Christmas!

If you are trying to get into the academy for the next class, do not give up, no matter how hard it may be it is all worth it when you reach this stage.

I would like to thank Deputy Johnson, Deputy Hoffman and Lieutenant Wygant for seeing us through this whole experience. You never gave up on us and gave us a 100% all the time. Thank you to all our instructors, so much effort was put into all aspects of our training, I really appreciate everything.

Drunks, taser and court

It has been a while since my last blog, and for that I apologize. The last couple of weeks have been very busy! We had our final test last Wednesday, and POST exam today! I did well in my last exam scoring a 92%, and as I write this I am waiting to find out the results of the POST test, fingers crossed! I actually feel good about the test, if I missed 30% and get a fail it is because I fell asleep half way through!

This is the last day of Academy, five months ago, this day was so far away, and now we are here. I am so excited. Tomorrow I will be a certified Peace Officer in the State of Colorado. It feels really good.

I want to tell you about some of the stuff we have been doing this last week or two, as I haven’t had the chance to do so yet.

Firstly our DUI wet bar was a lot fun. Getting drunken people to do roadside tests was very educational. We had practiced these techniques in the classroom on each other and had learnt what signs to look for that would indicate intoxication, with out the use of a breathalyzer. This was all well and good but didn’t really make sense until we performed these exams on the intoxicated.

Taser was a kick in the butt! You can take that as a literal statement. Getting fifty thousand volts of electricity running through your body is an experience you don’t forget too easily. We got some great video footage of the event, some of which is not family suitable as you can imagine.

Mock crime scenes, probably one of my favorite exercises of the academy; it incorporated everything we had learnt thus far into one simulation using actors and props. We were divided into groups and dispatched to our scene. The whole scenario was played out from start to finish; we could utilize our arrest control techniques, weapons if we had to, and then eventually process the crime scene, interview suspects and write our reports.

From dispatch to clearing the scene took about four hours. The report writing for the scenario took another five hours. A week later we had to go to the Jefferson County court house where real DA’s played judges and defense attorneys, we took the stand and they ripped us apart, well they ripped my class mates apart, I didn’t get called up. It was really cool to see the whole justice system in action from start to finish.

Qualifying Lap

We are now wrapped up with driving. It was a great week. I feel I learned so much in the five days we were at the track. We took the POST (Peace Officer Standards of Training) exam on Friday which consisted of a written test and a driving exam.

The driving test was a timed course around the track; we had to get one lap in within 4:10 order to pass. Sounds easy right, just hang on and drive fast; well it wasn’t that straight forward. Along the track five separate courses were set up for us to drive through. We had the reverse serpentine, shuffle steer, and lane change to name but a few.

If you hit a cone at any stage you have to get out of the car and fix it, doing this will cost you about ten to fifteen seconds, if you hit more than one cone the chances are you will not qualify in time. Also, you cannot drive off of the track or roll over the center divide at anytime, any violation is an automatic disqualifier.

The good news is we got lots of practice and excellent training, I am happy to say that I completed the course in 3:36, not the fastest time but top three of my group. I was talking to one of my class mates about the training that we have received here at the Academy. From the driving to the firearms instruction and everything in between, it would cost us thousands to do this privately! It truly is an honor to go through the Academy. If you are trying to get here or have been offered a place here, then give it everything you have as there are a hundred people who want to take your place.