Regional police academy to open in Norwich
Dec. 10—NORWICH — A new regional police training academy is set to open its doors to police recruits in January.
The non-profit Law Enforcement Council of Connecticut received certification from the Police Officer Standards and Training Council in September to open a satellite academy at the LEC's offices at 11 Stott Ave.
The new facility will alleviate the travel burden of new recruits commuting back and forth to the State Police Academy in Meriden, where the majority of new recruits are now trained, said Law Enforcement Council Executive Director Wilfred "Bill" Blanchette III, a retired state police master sergeant.
The idea behind opening a new satellite academy, — several years in the making — is to provide more academy space to ensure local departments get their new hires trained on a timely basis, he said.
It will also give an opportunity, he said, for recruits to interact and network with instructors and fellow recruits who are likely to be working together.
"They'll be more hands on with the departments where they are likely to serve," Blanchette said
Blanchette said he's also hopeful the convenience of having a facility nearby will generate more local interest into a field where recruitment has been down over the past several years.
Norwich Police Chief Patrick Daley, the LEC President, said departments like his are struggling to find new hires to replace an exodus from policing, and there are times when spots at the academy in Meriden are not available.
The idea of a satellite academy is not a new one in Connecticut, since others exist in places like Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven and New Britain. The Norwich site, however, would be the first regional academy serving an entire region.
The Law enforcement Council of Connecticut has 19 member police departments in eastern Connecticut that can benefit from the new academy.
The Norwich-based group already facilitates regional entry exams and physical agility and written tests for potential police recruits for these departments.
The new academy will offer a maximum of 30 seats, most of them slotted for eastern Connecticut recruits.
When a police department hires a new police recruit, the individual is typically sent to the state Police Academy in Meriden. Recruits used to sleep at the academy on weekdays for the six months of training. The Meriden academy, which went remote during the pandemic, now has commuter classes in which recruits drive home each day.
While classwork will be done at the LEC office on Stott Avenue, Blanchette said the hands-on parts of the training, such as defensive tactics, will be done at the Army National Guard Armory in Norwich, which has locker room space and is also on Stott Ave. Firearms training will be done at any one of the several facilities in eastern Connecticut, including Waterford and Groton.
The majority of the certified instructors will also come from eastern Connecticut and serve as deans, or departments heads, in different areas of study.
East Lyme Police Chief Michael Finkelstein will serve as the dean of the new academy's criminal investigation department, which includes crime scene processing. Already a certified instructor, FInkelstein will be teaching classes in criminalistics, or forensic science, and terrorism and suicide bombers. Other instructors are coming from places like Norwich, Willimantic and Waterford.
Finkelstein said the regional academy will have benefits for local departments. While much of the training is standardized, he said there is room to localize the instruction to fit with the specifics of how local departments operate.
"They're getting the instruction from the people they work for and with. It's a little more personal," he said.
Classes are slated to start on Jan. 17, and spots are already filling up.
