Moscow police, UI partner on cadet program

Sep. 2—A University of Idaho associate professor of criminology knows that his students can learn a lot about law enforcement from their classes.

"But it is our goal to try and figure out how we can get them out of the classroom and take what they learn in the classroom and apply it in some kind of practical setting," Joseph De Angelis said.

That is why he worked with the Moscow Police Department to start the department's first cadet program — to give UI students a hands-on introduction to being a police officer.

The program is both an educational experience for the students and a recruiting tool for the MPD. It currently has five cadets and began with a mini-academy held the week of Aug. 15.

One of those cadets, Afton Hoch, is already hooked.

"It was fantastic for me," she said about the mini-academy. "I enjoyed every minute of it."

The UI junior said she and her classmates tried arrest techniques, learned defensive tactics and participated in the same physical tests officers go through.

They have also been learning about Idaho laws, crime scene investigation and traffic control. Hoch said she loves the hands-on learning experience.

"Everything is fascinating to me," Hoch said.

Moscow Police Capt. Anthony Dahlinger said the cadets do not do actual policing, but they are learning from the same field training manual that the department's newest police officers learn from.

The goal is for cadets to be knowledgeable enough to "hit the ground running" as they start their law enforcement career after graduating college.

Dahlinger said the police department used to have a "robust" reserve program in the 1980s and '90s, during a time when interest in joining law enforcement was high. Some of MPD's current staff were once reserves in that program.

Since then, the MPD has struggled to maintain a program designed to provide experience to those interested in becoming police officers.

"We've been trying to figure out ways to better recruit," he said. "And it kind of just dawned on us that there are agencies out there that have cadet programs."

Dahlinger said he endeavored to learn more by talking to the Washington State University Police Department about its longtime cadet program that trains WSU students. Local students also let him know they were interested.

"For the first time in my memory, I had several students come up to me and ask about internships or any kind of way they could get involved with the department," he said. "We didn't have anything. So that was more or less the spark that got us going."

The cadets now meet on a bi-weekly basis at the police department. The program will run concurrent with UI's fall and spring semesters, Dahlinger said. He hopes the program will continue to grow.

De Angelis said the cadets are documenting their experience in journals that he will read. He said the cadet program is a "great companion" to their classroom experience.

"It gives them a more realistic understanding of what the job is and I think it's going to make them better candidates for policing jobs down the line," he said.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.