{"id":42953,"date":"2021-12-31T21:44:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-31T21:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-good-time-to-be-a-cop-trainer-says-positive-reforms-are-underway\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:10:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:10:35","slug":"a-good-time-to-be-a-cop-trainer-says-positive-reforms-are-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-good-time-to-be-a-cop-trainer-says-positive-reforms-are-underway\/","title":{"rendered":"A good time to be a cop? Trainer says positive reforms are underway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Southwest
Southwest Regional Law Enforcement Academy of Pueblo Community College graduated 10 cadets in December. Each cadet graduated with a sponsorship, meaning they had been hired by a law enforcement agency. Douglas Parker, police academy director, said the program\u2019s goal is to graduate officers into work, preferably within the surrounding communities. The 2021 police graduations were Brayton Thurber, from left, Derrick Gallegos, Caitlin Bills, Nathan Scott, Billy Castaneda, Trevor Robertson, Kadan Sharp, Brady Veach, Robert Bosick and Fred Buffington. (Courtesy of Southwest Regional Law Enforcement Academy)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Law enforcement nationwide has endured a fair amount of public scrutiny during the past few years, with some high-profile shootings and allegations of racial biases \u2013 sometimes backed up by data.<\/p>\n

But at least one law enforcement professional in Southwest Colorado said there has never been a better time to become a cop.<\/p>\n

Police Academy Director Douglas Parker said reforms are underway with how officers are trained, vetted and hired. New recruits are in high demand, and they will have new skills and tools for dealing with a host of sensitive issues, including mental health-related calls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both know there is a lot of controversy around law enforcement right now,\u201d Parker said. \u201cSadly, a lot of it\u2019s self-inflicted. Not all of it, but a lot of it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ten cadets graduated earlier this month from Pueblo Community College\u2019s Southwest Regional Law Enforcement Academy with jobs already lined up in local law enforcement.<\/p>\n

The class was slightly smaller than the typical class size, said Parker, who has been with the academy a little more than three years.<\/p>\n

The cadets graduated Dec. 11 after 18 weeks of what Parker described as a \u201cgrueling\u201d course curriculum set by Colorado Peace Officers Standards and Training, the agency that regulates law enforcement in the state. Classes were typically taught five to six days a week and often extended over eight hours per class, Parker said.<\/p>\n

Cadets were immersed in 62 different topics of study that included mental health crises response, firearms use, arrest control and Colorado law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot to learn, and you are learning topics that are foreign to you,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n

The cadets were all sponsored by the time of graduation, meaning they were already recruited by a law enforcement agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was nice to know because one of the things that I tell all of my cadets is this isn\u2019t about just taking your money, giving you a piece of paper and saying, \u2018Have a nice life,\u2019\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n

He noted it is one thing to make it through the police academy and quite another to get to work in real-world scenarios.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike in the academy where we have do-overs, in the real world, they don\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we\u2019ll see how well they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduation, the new officers will transition into a field training program where they will ride along with trained veteran officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty intense,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 I think people sometimes come to the academy not understanding how difficult it is going to be. But when you think about it, there\u2019s no other program that I know of where you can start off on day one and 18 weeks later you are career-ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parker, who has been in law enforcement for more than 40 years, said he shakes his head at \u201csome of the things that go on,\u201d such as crisis-intervention going wrong.<\/p>\n

The training model for law enforcement has been \u201cstuck in a rut for a number of years,\u201d despite there being many good people in the profession, but it\u2019s on the right track toward something better, he said.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a shift in the general mindset about training police officers \u2013 something that Parker likes to see, he said.<\/p>\n

A greater emphasis on communication skills exists than it had in the past, and Parker thinks that\u2019s for the better.<\/p>\n

Another positive reform is crisis-intervention training, or training officers to intervene with people who are undergoing a mental crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of those people out there,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n

It used to be that police officers were dispatched to situations involving people undergoing mental crises without proper training about how to interact with those individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens is they resort to the pools of law enforcement and those encounters sometimes go very badly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

More recently, a conversation is being had about why officers are being sent to situations they are not trained to handle.<\/p>\n

Parker said Durango\u2019s Co-Response Program is a good example of how mental crisis situations are being handled now. The program empowers social workers and police officers to tend to behavioral health incidents together.<\/p>\n

Parker said new cadets don\u2019t always realize what they are getting into when they apply for Southwest Regional Law Enforcement Academy. They don\u2019t always understand how difficult law enforcement is.<\/p>\n

It is a time of change for law enforcement, he said, and people who want to see changes take place have the chance to be \u201cright in the thick of it and be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t like what you see out there, as I don\u2019t, and you want to be a part of making it better for your community, then step up and join up,\u201d Parker said. \u201cUncle Sam needs you, as the poster used to say, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

cburney@durangoherald<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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