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Sheriff’s Academy graduates six
The local Missouri Sheriffs’ Association Training Academy not only graduated six certified peace officers recently, but four of them graduated in uniform because they already have been hired to go to work for local law enforcement agencies.
“We started the class last August (and) we started out with eight students — and then we ended up with six that actually graduated,” said Tom Burns, the site coordinator for the training academy. “Out of the two that didn’t graduate, they both left voluntarily.”
The 750-hour class graduated five male certified peace officers and one female. Burns said that two of the graduates are working for the Sikeston Department of Public Safety, another is working in law enforcement in Carter County and another has joined the Hayti Police Department in Pemiscot County. The other two graduates also have interviewed with area law enforcement agencies.
“So pretty much all of them are probably going to be employed,” Burns said.
Academy graduates having law enforcement jobs waiting for them as soon as they graduate is not uncommon, Burns said.
“When they get close to graduation, we’ll give that (employment paperwork) out to the students if the department is willing (and is) looking for somebody,” Burns said. “For example, Sikeston went ahead and let the two that they hired out of this academy (class) go ahead and go through their application process — and they basically end up hired two months before they actually graduated and took their state licensing exam. “It depends — some departments do that, (but) some want you to already have passed the exam and have your commission.”
Over the years, the local training academy has sent law enforcement officers to cities throughout Missouri and also to northeast Arkansas.
“We have people that have went to the Columbia police department and we’ve had people that have went to Linn (in central Missouri),” Burns said. “We’ve got people that went to Independence, we had one go to Kirkwood. They go to a lot of the good departments.
“A lot of them that we get in Poplar Bluff, want to stay in this area. And that sometimes is hard for them because of hiring processes and needing of people in turnover — if they want to stay, a lot of times, the (local) departments don’t have a lot of turnover.
“Butler County doesn’t have a lot of turnover and Poplar Bluff (PD) doesn’t always have a lot of turnover. So that’s why a lot of the departments that they look at are like Sikeston, Cape and Jonesboro — places like that.”
The academy classes are held at the Butler County Sheriff’s Department and another class is slated to begin Aug. 5, if the academy receives enough applicants
“If anybody is interested in getting in, all they have to do is go to the Sheriff’s Association website,” Burns said. “They can get to the application there and fill it out. They have to have it into Jefferson City by July 15.
“They can go to www.mosheriffs.com and there’s a training tab at the top. They click on that, click on Academy (under it) and it takes them right to the page. It tells them everything they need to know.”