Excellent police work begins with excellent training. Mississippi Delta Community College is one of five law enforcement academies in the state dedicated to the mental and physical preparation of tomorrow’s elite force of community servants. At this week’s Indianola Rotary Club meeting, MDCC Law Enforcement Academy Coordinator Wesley Hazelwood described how recruits go through an 11-week series of classroom, field training, and physical exercises to ready them for careers in law enforcement. “It’s a paramilitary-style training where we get up at 4:30 in the morning, do PT (physical training), take about 15 minutes to eat chow and go to class from 8 until noon,” Hazelwood explained. “At noon, we take about 20 minutes to eat lunch, go back to class until about 5, eat and do PT until about 6, 7 or 8 depending on the mood. We take a fruit break and if we don’t have night fire training on the firing range, we shower and are asleep by 9 or 9:30. And we are up at 4:30 a.m. again the next day.”
Officers in training are pushed to the limit but polished and refined at the same time. They must pass uniform and bunk inspections to demonstrate their professional presentation and dedication. “There are three major skills that recruits learn while attending academy,” Hazelwood said. “They learn defensive tactics, SSGG, which is a jujitsu type of fighting, and firearms. Right now, we are in week six, which is a solid week of firearms training. By the end of this week, the average recruit will have fired an average of 2,000 rounds.”
Recruits undergo high levels of stress to simulate field conditions where they learn how to evaluate situations pertaining to use of force, de-escalation, approaching vehicles with tinted windows, and driving to the scene of accidents with both speed and safety in mind. Hazelwood said that there are three cohorts of students per year and that the current class started with 44 recruits and is down to 22 a little more than halfway through this cycle.
By the time someone completes the program, they will undoubtedly have both the physical transformation and academic skills to qualify as a certified officer. But, Hazelwood, a 15-year law enforcement veteran, said that the heart test is perhaps the most important of all that recruits face. “Everybody who comes through the academy, I ask them what is their why,” he said. “Let’s face it. There are a lot of people who just do not like police officers. And you must understand your reason why you want to go and serve and protect people who might not like you or respect you.”
When recruits make the transition to becoming officers, Hazelwood always tells them to operate with honesty and integrity. “Do the right thing even when no one is watching, but be mindful because someone is always watching,” Hazelwood said. “You can’t afford to be sloppy. Take pride in what you do because once you get labeled a bad cop, you might be able to wash the label off but the residue remains.”
