Gov. Youngkin To Speak At Graduation Ceremony For State Troopers

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, VA — Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin will speak at a graduation ceremony in Chesterfield County on Friday for 58 new Virginia State Troopers.

The new troopers will be presented their diplomas during the 10 a.m. commencement exercises at the State Police Training Academy on Midlothian Turnpike.

The graduating members began their 27 weeks of academic, physical and practical training at the academy in July 2021. They received more than 1,300 hours of classroom and field instruction in more than 100 different subjects.

The training included learning about de-escalation techniques, strategies to assist people in mental health crisis, ethics and leadership, fair and impartial policing, constitutional law, emergency medical trauma care, and public and community relations.

“Completing the training here at the Virginia State Police Training Academy is no easy feat, and when you add the challenges COVID has brought, the bar is raised even higher,” Colonel Gary T. Settle, Virginia State Police Superintendent, said in a statement Thursday.

Last year, the Virginia General Assembly approved a spending plan for $4.3 billion in federal coronavirus relief money. As part of the spending plan, members of the Virginia State Police each received a $5,000 bonus.

The 58 new state troopers are from all parts of Virginia as well as Ohio, Oklahoma, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Vermont. One of the new troopers was born in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and will be assigned to James City. Another new state trooper who was born in Bittburg, Germany, will be assigned to Springfield.

After graduation, the new troopers will report to their duty assignments across Virginia the week of Jan. 31. For their final phase of training, each trooper will spend an additional six weeks paired up with a field training officer, learning his or her new patrol area.

This article originally appeared on the Richmond Patch