Saturday, March 15, 2008
County justice academy holds graduation for first class
Ten recruits were part of the first class.
JARED SOARES The Roanoke Times
Roanoke County Criminal Justice Academy graduate Christopher Boblett gets his new badge pinned on by his wife, Adria Boblett, during Friday night's graduation ceremony.
Roanoke County Criminal Justice Academy's first class waits to be dismissed Friday at a ceremony at Melrose Baptist Church in Roanoke.
Photos by JARED SOARES The Roanoke Times
Newly minted Roanoke County police officer Christopher Goff gets his badge Friday from his parents, Maria and David Goff.
Photos by Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times
Graduates of the Roanoke County Criminal Justice Academy stand at attention during the ceremony.
Video
After 21 weeks of grueling training and class work, the 10 recruits from the Roanoke County Criminal Justice Academy were finally sworn in Friday night as Roanoke County police officers.
They signed off as a class for the last time, shouting their motto: "As One."
To the Roanoke County officials who won the battle last year to form the new academy, the class will always be "the one" -- the first to graduate.
"We will always hold this distinct honor of being the first," said Officer Brian Corcoran, who was sworn in during a ceremony at Melrose Baptist Church.
For years, county officers had trained at the Roanoke police academy in the Jefferson Center.
But when the Roanoke County Sheriff's Office pulled out of the regional Cardinal Criminal Justice Academy last year, they and the county police formed the new academy.
While the county police department's split from the city academy was amicable, the departure of the sheriff's office from Cardinal was not.
Roanoke County Sheriff Gerald Holt said he wanted a new academy because Cardinal was not meeting the department's training needs. The academy's former director, Rich Schumaker, said last year that Holt's concerns were unfounded.
Schumaker retired in August two months after being placed on paid administrative leave. Kip Vickers, a former captain with the Vinton Police Department, stepped in as the Cardinal academy's new director in January. That academy serves 36 agencies.
Before Roanoke County could establish its own academy, it first had to get an exemption from a statewide moratorium on new academies and have the governing board at Cardinal agree to the withdrawal.
State legislators approved the exemption last year after much lobbying by Holt, Roanoke County Administrator Elmer Hodge, Roanoke County Police Chief Ray Lavinder and others.
Cardinal's governing board voted against the withdrawal but later reached an agreement with the sheriff's office. Under that agreement, the sheriff's office is paying Cardinal $45,000 a year for five years to make up for lost tuition and state funding.
The police department and the sheriff's office began organizing the Roanoke County Criminal Justice Academy last summer, said Lt. Jimmy Chapman, director of the academy.
It is set up with two branches, one that trains officers and another that trains deputies. The sheriff's office's first group of 11 recruits will graduate from the academy April 11.
Those recruits praised the academy during a class earlier this week.
They said that because their instructors also work for the sheriff's office, they've been trained specifically for the jobs and situations they'll face.
"They have a personal interest in teaching us," said recruit Michael Geiser, 23.
For now, the new academy is housed at the Roanoke County public safety building on Cove Road and at the old police department on Peters Creek Road.
County officials, including Holt and Lavinder, are in the early stages of planning to build a new facility for the academy.
If the plan comes to fruition, the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors could be asked to allocate the $2.8 million the county received from the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia. No location has been chosen.
The money is a portion of the $100 million in penalties levied against ITT Night Vision last year for inappropriately exporting technology to other countries in 2001. It was awarded to the county because the police department helped with the investigation, and it must be used for law enforcement purposes.
The Roanoke Police Department is planning to break ground on its new academy building this fall at a site on Barnes Avenue Northwest, near the Roanoke Regional Airport, said City Engineer Phil Schirmer.
The city will use part of the $2.8 million the department received from the ITT penalties to fund a training tank that teaches officers how to perform water rescues.
The "green" building, estimated to cost $6.5 million, will also feature virtual firearm and driving rooms, Schirmer said. Construction is expected to be finished the fall of 2009.
