He or she won’t be just a new cop on the block not too far in the future.
Indeed, he or she might be a graduate of an altogether new kind of police academy.
Last week, the state Supreme Court ruled Fairmont State University may establish and operate a new law enforcement training academy.
That decision came on an appeal by the state agency tasked with oversight of training and certification of law enforcement officers of a Marion County Circuit Court ruling that overturned its denial of FSU’s application for the academy.
Currently, the State Police Academy, near Charleston, is the sole academy designated to train and certify law enforcement officers in West Virginia.
Though there typically is no waiting list for aspiring officers to enter the academy’s 16-week regimen, anyone who wishes to must be hired by a local law enforcment agency or be a State Police trainee.
Upon review of the decision to allow for this new academy — which won’t be operational until 2021 — it’s a win-win for everyone, including aspiring law enforcement officers.
Those officers will emerge from FSU’s academy with not only law enforcement certification, but also a four-year college degree.
Though they need not already have a job with a law enforcement agency to attend this academy they will graduate job-ready.
But the greater good this decision serves is it helps take small towns and budget-pressed counties off the hook before committing to paying for a new hire’s training.
That provides insurance against a newly hired officer, whose training was paid for by a community, to move on later to bigger departments.
Though it may not account for an increase in more officers the money saved in some cases on training or turnover might mean another cop on patrol.
And though we are not going to qualify someone with a college degree as “smarter,” we are willing to estimate most college graduates are exposed to more schools of thought and cultures on a campus.
Being schooled amid a diverse population can only help an officer who otherwise would likely only be training solely among fellow officers.
We also recognize the professionalism of the thousands of officers — active and retired —across the state who have trained at the State Police Academy since its first classes in 1953.
The vast majority of its graduates have excelled at serving and protecting the public for as long. A degree is no badge of life experience nor is it a substitute for the first-hand response to the kinds of incidents officers respond to daily.
Still, the courts’ decisions to allow for this other academy can only help improve public safety and that’s no cop out.
In fact, that should be the goal of all law enforcement.
