NANTICOKE, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — A local community college is now set to offer one of Pennsylvania's newest police academies. 28/22 News Reporter Joe Mason takes a closer look at what this could mean for the region.
Luzerne County Community College (LCCC) aims to address the state police officer shortage and make training more accessible to residents in the area.
In a release from LCCC, the Pennsylvania Municipal Police Officers' Education and Training Commission approved the college's application to be one of Pennsylvania's newest Act 120 municipal police academies.
The act requires individuals wanting to be employed as police officers to successfully complete a municipal police academy training program and pass a state certification exam.
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The release says the state currently faces a shortage of more than 1,200 municipal police officers.
This new academy hopes to address the shortage.
"I believe it's a long time coming. We have the facility here to provide the training and to meet the needs of the local community," LCCC Public Safety and Security Director Douglas Fawbush stated.
"We were proud to send in an application, proud that we got 100% support from the police chiefs here in Luzerne County, 100% support from the board of trustees. So, we're really looking at being a strong community partner to make sure the municipalities of northeastern Pennsylvania can hire well-trained police officers to keep the communities of northeastern Pennsylvania safe," LCCC President John Yudichak added.
The academy will be based out of the college's Public Safety Training Institute.
Cadets are required to complete 27 exams that cover five training modules. Cadets must achieve an average score of 80% per module.
It will cost future cadets $5,950 to complete the program.
