A new Hopkinsville police officer is among 25 graduates this week of the Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Training’s basic training academy.
Hopkinsville Police Officer Patrick Scherm and the others received more than 800 hours of recruit-level instruction over 20 weeks.
Major training areas include patrol procedures, physical training, vehicle operations, defensive tactics, criminal law, traffic and DUI, firearms, criminal investigations, cultural awareness, bias related crimes and tactical responses to crisis situations.
Officer Scherm will now spend eight weeks with a police training officer where he will continue to learn and build relationships with the community.
Once he successfully completes his training, he will then be released to solo patrol.