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Police recruits nearing graduation

Tana Weingartner
/
WVXU

 Cincinnati's first police recruit class in several years is on track to graduate at the end of next month. That graduation is set for February 27.

56 members are in the 26-week training program. Around 2,500 people took the test to be a city police officer.

Captain Doug Wiesman manages the training academy. He said the city is now interviewing police officers who are certified in Ohio for another lateral transfer class.  "We are doing interviews this week for lateral entry officers that we will hire," Wiesman said. "Their start date is scheduled for March 16 at the police academy. We intend to hire 20 lateral officers that would graduate 10-weeks later."

All city police officers are required to be involved in yearly training, and each also gets a daily discussion on a training topic during roll calls before shifts begin.

"We try to keep that very current and updated," Wiesman said. "We talk about new procedures, we talk about law enforcement officers that have been killed in the country and sort of what the circumstances were surrounding that. And then that generates discussion among the members in that roll call with their supervisors."

That includes ambush training following the shooting deaths of two officers in New York City. Cincinnati officers also received information on infectious disease issues with the recent Ebola situation.

Jay Hanselman brings more than 10 years experience as a news anchor and reporter to 91.7 WVXU. He came to WVXU from WNKU, where he hosted the local broadcast of All Things Considered. Hanselman has been recognized for his reporting by the Kentucky AP Broadcasters Association, the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, and the Ohio AP Broadcasters.