By Dottie Barnes
The Grand Valley State University Police Academy’s 2017 class is the largest in more than 13 years, with 40 recruits.
The class is also one of the most diverse, consisting of 12 women (11 white, one Asian) and 28 men (22 white, four African American, two Hispanic).
Williamson Wallace, director of Criminal Justice Training at Grand Valley, said 13 recruits are already employed by area law enforcement agencies that are sponsoring their training.
The academy is conducted annually during the spring/summer semester, May–August. Grand Valley’s academy goes beyond the mandatory minimum training requirement of 594 hours set by the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and provides 653 hours of instruction in 16 weeks.
Wallace said the academy is a leader in the state, introducing innovative training methods and techniques that are setting the bar for law enforcement education.
