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Warren, OHIO — Police departments across the country are struggling to find enough police officers, and Kent State is hoping to address that shortage by opening a new police training facility in Twinsburg.
Cadets go through simulation training to prepare them for real-life scenarios they might encounter as police officers.
“Don’t be John Wayne. You’re outnumbered, you need back up, you need assistance, call for it,” advised Jim Willock, Director Public Safety Training and Police Academies at Kent State while speaking to a police academy cadet.
Kent State is planning to expand their police academy in Twinsburg, he said.
According to a survey from the Police Executive Research Forum, police staffing levels are down and resignations are up. In 2021, the number of resignations increased by more than 40%. Kent State hopes expanding their police academy will help address that problem.
“We have multiple classrooms for our cadets,” Willock said.
The current academy on Kent State’s main campus has only one classroom for training.
At the academy, cadets get hands-on learning for how to handle situations police officers might encounter.
“All of our simulations, there’s lecture and PowerPoint presentations,” Willock said.
Willock showed Spectrum News 1 around the Trumbull Campus where cadets currently train. The new facility in Twinsburg will be modeled after this facility.
“The police academy is housed out of here. Even when we were on the main campus, this was the main academy,” Willock said.
The Trumbull Campus will continue to be the main campus for the Academy, and Twinsburg will be a satellite campus that serves the Cleveland area and northern part of the state, according to Willock.
“Here’s our multipurpose room or regional training classroom. We can train up to 50 police officers in this room. Last week we had police officers from all over the state in here,” Willock said during a tour.
One of the training exercises involves domestic violence training with actors.
“You’re actually able to go into a scenario where they’re actually fighting, yelling, swearing, trying to hit each other. You’re able to go in and get kind of the adrenaline pump that you would get and be able to calm yourself down and do what you need to do,” Academy Cadet Noah Benza said.
Because of these staffing shortages, Willock said now is one of the best times to become a police officer.
“Young people, but anyone that wants to make a difference, wants to get a job that is going to pay well and have good benefits and that gives you a future, so you can make a difference in your community and make a good living at the same time,” he said.
Most cadets secure jobs by the time they complete their training and start out earning more than $70,000 a year. Some are reimbursed for their tuition and hired or sponsored by agencies while in the Academy.
They plan to move in to the Twinsburg facility in July for limited training. The Twinsburg location will be fully operational in January 2025, according to Willock.
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Desirae Gostlin
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