MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – Police officers spend most of their day behind the wheel. For most cops, their police car is their office.
The NMU Police Academy training course, held Wednesday, teaches these recruits about defensive driving, accident avoidance, high speed driving, and overall competence in emergency situations.
Sergeant Adam Maynard, Training Director for the Academy explains the importance of these drills.
“We’re able to put them in scenarios where they can be confident with themselves and they know what the car can do, don’t exceed the limits, and again with that muscle memory, they will be able to transition to any speed,” said Maynard.
Wednesday’s training course was an abandoned parking lot at KI Sawyer. In total 28 prospective police officers will take the wheel under the supervision of a driving instructor. The students were asked to perform various driving maneuvers, all with the intention of teaching advanced driving techniques that will soon become second nature.
“Being out here and getting the amount of training they have is really important to not only instill that competence but again bring it down to a reaction and not thinking,” said Maynard.
For recruit Timothy Spoden of Ishpeming, learning these driving skills is sometimes more difficult than it looks.
“I mean, this whole course kind of surprised me coming in, I knew about it, but I had no idea what it actually entailed,” said Spoden. “And just pushing the vehicle, even at 35 miles an hour doesn’t seem fast, but having split seconds to react has been all brand new to me.”
Many of these cadets have already secured law enforcement jobs after graduation. And with the training they received here, they will also be safer while on the road.
