PAX Centurion - Fall 2017

Page 52 • PAX CENTURION • Fall 2017 617-989-BPPA (2772) The Academy Corner By Police Officer William Shaw & Police Officer James F. Lydon SALT #16-17 After graduating Recruit Class #56-16 in late June, the academy staff got back into it on July 31st by welcoming Sergeant Advanced Leadership Training (SALT) Class #16-17. This class consisted of newly promoted sergeants Patrick Byrne, Shana Cottone, Stephen Green, and Nicole LaPointe, and soon to be promoted police officers Paul DeLeo, Michael Felton, and Thomas Griffin. The four week course of training ended on August 25th. The classes included crime scene management, crowd control management, supervisor tech training, licensed premise investigation, and range training, along with several other supervisor specific classes. This is the seventeenth SALT, which began under retired Superintendent Paul Joyce, and has successfully continued under Superintendent Lisa Holmes. Congratulations to all newly promoted and soon to be promoted sergeants. Teen Academy 2017 During the summer, the academy again hosted the Teen Police Academy. This is a nationally renowned program run by Police Officer Darryl Owens and his great staff. (See the related article.) Recruit Class #57-17 Thankfully, the staff did have some vacation time off. In between vacation days, we were preparing for Recruit Class #57-17. This class, which started on September 11th, presented a challenge because the initial number was 130 recruits … 130 much needed recruits. A few years ago, the academy held classes in the auditorium. The auditorium could easily accommodate a large number of recruits in a classroom setting. Since then, however, the auditorium has been renovated and is now part of our world class fitness facility. The 130 needed a new home … The staff has worked hard at fitting this large group into our biggest classroom (Room 102), our Spartan cafeteria, and our meager locker facilities. Superintendent Holmes and Captain Richard Sexton were able to upgrade the classroom with fresh paint and state of the art audiovisual equipment, which has the ability to broadcast main classroom instruction to a secondary, remote classroom. The recruit locker facilities also received new, and much needed, ventilation to accommodate the large number of bodies who were going to be crammed in there every day. The academy staff also used this time to upgrade course material to keep the subjects current. As of this writing, the class consists of 117 recruit officers, all of whom are Boston recruits. The course of study now consists of twenty-nine weeks of training, and Class #57-17 is expected to graduate in the last week of March 2018. Hopefully, they will provide some relief to our patrol force. E-Learning and the Gym E-Learning has a new fall curriculum which is expected to go live in November. As always, when a recruit class is in session, the academy gym will not be available until after 9:30am and will be open until 7:00pm. Occasionally, the gym will be closed all day for recruit training. These closings will be announced through department e-mail and will be posted in the gym. During winter storms, the recruits will be using the academy parking lot and parking will be extremely tight. As always, the academy staff encourages all department members to use our facilities. Feel free to call us with any questions at 3-4410. If we cannot immediately answer your question, we will get back to you. We are here for you. Have a great autumn … and be safe!