2 Leitchfield PD recruits first to undergo new training regimen intended to raise the standard of LPD

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There is a new culture being fostered at the Leitchfield Police Department, as two new recruits will undergo an innovative, unique training experience designed to better prepare the young recruits for the rigors of the academy and how to effectively serve the community as police officers.

On Monday morning, Caden Jennings, 22, and Alex Hazelwood, 20, both born and raised in Grayson County, were sworn in by Leitchfield Mayor Harold Miller in front of family and close friends at Leitchfield City Hall.

The ceremony was only the first of many steps the recruits will undertake as they work toward earning the opportunity to become full-time Leitchfield police officers. For the next two weeks, Jennings and Hazelwood will undergo intensive training emphasizing community policing and personal responsibility, as LPD looks to raise the standard expected of its officers.

“For our new recruits at Leitchfield PD, we’re going to be doing a two-week pre-academy training with them. We’ll go over gun care, firearm training, taser training, legal training, and community-oriented training,” LPD Assistant Chief Ian Renfrow told K105.

The community-oriented aspect of the training is intended to instruct new recruits how to most effectively connect with members of the Leitchfield community.

“We want these recruits to learn how to communicate with our community and get to know the people they are working with,” Renfrow stated.

Additionally, the previous training process placed new recruits in a cruiser in full uniform with another officer prior to the recruit attending the academy. Those days are over.

The mantra at LPD is earn the right to be a police officer.

“Instead of a young man coming in and immediately putting a uniform on and getting in a car with another officer and doing ride-alongs; that’s what we did in the past. Instead of doing that, they are going to be wearing a polo (shirt) and khakis. They will not wear a class A uniform with a patch on it until after they graduate the academy.

“They will learn what it’s like to work and earn the position,” Renfrow said. “And we want to stress to them that this isn’t a job. This is a calling, this is a lifestyle that they have to adopt, and that we work in a community that has asked us to serve.”

Providing the new recruits with a structured environment from Day 1 is also a key component of the new training experience.

“We’re also going to go over financial decisions and retirement (planning); personal life and ethics decisions; use of force situations. We’re going to teach them the computer processes we use, all prior to them going to the academy, to start them with some structure that we haven’t had in the past.”

Many times, young officers are erroneously fixated on what they perceive to be the excitement of the job; the adventure, the thrill of the hunt and the satisfaction of the capture. But that mindset is being pushed back to the peanut gallery by LPD’s new training standards.

“They’re not here to be super-cop, they’re not here to lead in arrests. They are here to serve the community that they live in,” Renfrow emphasized.

Education confirmation

Jennings and Hazelwood, following the two-weeks of LPD training that began on Monday, will commence four weeks of Department of Criminal Justice Training at LPD headquarters on a computer before reporting to the academy in Richmond for 16 weeks of preparation and training.

On breaks from the academy, Renfrow said the new recruits will continue to be trained by LPD’s Field Training Officers to ensure they “are mastering the objectives they’re learning in the academy.”

(Headline photo l-r: Alex Hazelwood being sworn-in by Leitchfield Mayor Harold Miller; Caden Jennings being sworn-in by Leitchfield Mayor Harold Miller)

Photo l-r: LPD Officer Brian Jennings, Mayor Harold Miller, new LPD recruit Alex Hazelwood, new LPD recruit Caden Jennings, LPD Chief David Riley; LPD Asst. Chief Ian Renfrow

By Ken Howlett, News Director

Contact Ken at ken@k105.com

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