LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Right now, more than 100 recruits are training to join the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. FOX5 is getting a look inside LVMPD’s Training Academy, as recruits undergo 105 days and 1,050 hours of training.
For these recruits, being exposed to OC Spray before completing an obstacle course in under two minutes and 15 seconds, doesn’t only mean they get to move on to the next phase of the Metro’s Police Academy: completing the test means they are one step closer to their dreams of protecting and serving the citizens of the Las Vegas Valley.
“Starting up here, it’s extremely rewarding in the fact that we’re taking a civilian and building them up to be a police officer,” Training and Counseling Officer Dylan Smith explained.
Smith oversees one of the three classes currently undergoing training in the academy, the ‘Green Class.’
Like many recruits, Smith said he had a calling to protect and serve from a young age.
“I’m talking like maybe first, second grade, ‘I want to be a police officer, I’m a police officer,’” Smith remembered.
Smith graduated from the academy himself in 2017.
“My family and friends were like, ‘we respect you in the fact of, you wanted to do that at a young age and you stuck with that,’” Smith said. “It was pretty fulfilling for them to see as well.”
Now, he is taking what he learned from his own Training and Counselling Officers back in 2017 into helping recruits achieve their own fulfilling moments.
But, the journey to get there isn’t easy.
“We’re essentially taking you, as a regular human that has no experience, and turning them into a superhero,” Lt. Joshua Stark said.
Stark explained, said the academy is broken into three main focuses: physical fitness, academics, and stress inoculation.
“The stress, they have to overcome that here in the academy so that we know no matter how stressful the situation is, when everybody else is running away, they’re running to it,” Stark said.
FOX5 asked Stark what it takes for a recruit to succeed in the academy.
“It doesn’t matter where they came from, what experience they don’t have, if they give 100% effort here, we can help them be successful,” Stark said.
The test is now open for applicants interested in joining their spring academy, according to LVMPD Recruiting Sergeant John Deschutter. Applicants must be 21 years or older, have a driver’s license, and pass a background check.
He said they are hoping to fill positions as the Las Vegas Valley continues to grow.
“Metro is a very, very unique department, right? We are a very large department for a small city. Because of all the tourists that come in, we have to have a large department, and what that large department creates is just opportunities,” he said.
You can find more information about how to apply, and LVMPD’s Recruiting Campaign titled: ‘All in. All ready. All LVMPD.’ here.
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