LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — For the first time, cameras were invited inside the Las Vegas Metro Police Academy as a part of their recruitment initiative.
This is a place where recruits spend six and a half months training before they serve the Las Vegas Valley community.
Each recruit comes in with a different dream and a different story. But by the end, they’ll leave with the same foundation. Inside the academy walls, they all train to the same standard.
“It is important to see how the officers you see in your community are trained, everything they have to do,” said LVMPD TAC Officer Anya Highsmith in Spanish.
For Officer Highsmith, this academy is where her own dream began.
“When I came to this country, I realized that a woman could be an officer,” she said.
Officer Highsmith immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador and taught for the Clark County School District for five years. At 30 years old, she decided she wanted to make a change and live out the dream she had carried since childhood.
“One of my heroes when I was growing up was my grandfather, who was a police officer,” she said. “I always wanted to be like him, and when I came to this country, I said to myself, ‘What an honor it would be to be like my grandfather.’”
She was a mother, an immigrant, a woman in a field still dominated by men, and though she started later than most, she refused to let any obstacle stand in the way.
“My son was two years old, and I said to myself, ‘I can do this.’ It’s a dangerous career and a big change to my schedule, but I said to myself, ‘No, I have a dream, and I have to try’ because it was what was in my heart.”
Now, as the next generation of recruits faces their exam, a grueling test of body and mind, they follow the same path she once endured. The same rite of passage every LVMPD officer must conquer.
“They are going to use those skills to help the community, to fight crime, and that fills a person with more pride than one can have,” Officer Highsmith said.
Our cameras captured just one day inside the academy, a mere glimpse of a process that takes months to complete. We saw exhaustion, sweat, tears, and limits pushed. But when we asked several Metro officers if they would do it again, everyone had the same answer.
“Yes, and it’s never too late,” Officer Highsmith said.
The test is open now for applicants interested in joining Metro’s Spring Police Academy. You must be 21 years or older, have a driver’s license, and pass a background check. For more information about the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, visit their official website.
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