Ambler TU Police Academy now trains new Temple hires

Newly-hired Temple police officers will train at the TU Police Academy for six months instead of Philadelphia Police’s academy for nine.

COURTESY / DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

The Temple University Police Academy has begun training new Temple police officers in a six-month course at Temple Ambler after the officers previously trained in a nine-month course at the Philadelphia Police Department Academy.

The new program keeps Temple’s recruits within university facilities while they train and allows Temple’s Department of Public Safety to get to know future officers during training, said Chris Willard, director of tactical and professional development for DPS.

Philadelphia Police Department’s Academy trained cadets in PPD-specific training, like certain paperwork standards, which added an extra three months to the training. Temple’s six-month program allows cadets to get all state-required courses without this additional training.

PPD Academy standards have lessened in recent years to increase the number of eligible cadets, including the current and future classes that have a lower standard of entry into the academy, NBC10 reported. State agility requirements are still necessary to be able to graduate.

“All of the agencies are hiring at this time, but we’re the only one hiring new officers and lateral officers, so that delays our hiring,” said Vice President for Public Safety Jennifer Griffin. “We’ll have somebody who goes to the Academy for over six months then off onto [being a field training officer].”

The TU Police Academy is accredited to train cadets for any force in Pennsylvania and also offers two six-month National Park Service training programs each year. 

Cadets can pay for the program themselves or police departments around Montgomery and Delaware counties will hire recruits and send them to the TU Police Academy.

“They’re getting the state-specific required training, but they’re there for at least six months,” Willard said. “Because I’m an instructor there, I’m able to have a lot of face time with them, whether I’m actually teaching or just stopping in to see them, so they get to know me a lot sooner. I get to know them before they get here to actually start working.”

DPS officers who were certified through other police academies, or ‘lateral hires,’ don’t need to attend the TU Police Academy.

“Once they’re done with whatever training academy they go to, they come back to Temple where they have in-classroom onboard training with a variety of different instructors that go over Temple specific policies and procedures,” Griffin said. 

DPS can hire cadets before they’re certified, Willard said. Five cadets, including one that DPS hired while they were training at TU Police Academy, will join the Temple police force after they graduate on March 28. 

“[Director Willard] has been in communication with the cadets here since day one,” said William Patterson, a current cadet at TU Police Academy. “She checks in on us to check on progress, or when we passed our first PT test, she congratulated us and encouraged us to keep working on it. We take different exams for each module, and she’ll reach out to us about our scores and things like that. It definitely motivates us and keeps us focused.” 

DPS is especially focused on recruitment and retention because of the nationwide decline in police officers. Since the Temple University Police Association reported a significant loss of patrol officers within the department, the union’s leadership has been pushing for more officers to better serve the larger student population due to enrollment increases.

Less cadets are applying to police academies across the state, including those in Montgomery and Delaware counties, Willard said. Previously, classes at TU Police Academy would include more than 30 cadets. Now, the typical class size has shrunk in comparison to pre-COVID-19 numbers, correlating with the patrol officer shortage.  

With retention and recruitment in mind, DPS is trying to connect with officers as soon as they start training. Willard hopes that even non-Temple officers who go through the program know that TUPD is a career option.

“If they have questions about Temple PD we have a police officer scheduled out there during the Academy [time] to cover the Ambler campus, so they can talk to them to see what they do, ask questions,” Willard said. “Again, since it’s a Temple program, they’ve got the campus available to them. They have Temple staff available to them for any questions.”

Temple Police officers, including lateral hires, can be certified under the Municipal Police Officer’s Training Act, or ACT 120. Temple police officers, like other full-time Temple employees and professionals, receive full tuition remission. The program extends to employees’ legally dependent children as well.

“I always like how Temple tries to incorporate the Philly community, even people who aren’t students, and also if you’re moving from somewhere outside of town, but you’re going there as a Temple student, you kind of get indoctrinated into that community,” Patterson said. “I also appreciate the education opportunity, I would like to finish my degree so I like the benefit that I can do that as a Temple officer.”

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