Updating the County Police Academy to Meet the Needs of a Changing Law Enforcement Environment

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2018

Cape May County, located at the southernmost tip of New Jersey, between the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay has 16 municipalities with nine beach resort towns. Tourism is the top industry with 12.5 million visitors; the winter resident population of 95,000 swells to 767,000 during the summer months. Public Safety is the biggest concern, local police departments more than double their force to accommodate the increased population. To meet the growing demands, the Cape May County Police Academy has stepped up to provide innovative training for veteran, Special and Class I and II officers to meet the challenges facing all public safety sectors. New programs were instituted over the past five years to enhance the integrity of existing programs and to meet changing demands. Training scheduled were adapted to meet the seasonal needs. In 2017, the academy instituted innovative programs to provide officers with an opportunity to improve their reaction times by implementing simulators with real life scenarios and hands on training. De-escalation training was added to addressed the concern of police response in tense situations. The purchase of advanced force simulator were integrated as part of a driving component with live fire scenarios filmed on location to provide realism.