SAN JOSE (BCN) More than 40 recruits of the San Jose Police Department are set to graduate today on their way to joining the force after completing a competitive six-month course, an academy spokesman said. The ceremony for the 43 graduates takes place at 1 p.m. inside Parkside Hall, a large meeting facility at 180 Park Ave. adjacent to the Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown San Jose, according to police. The future officers are graduating from the South Bay Regional Public Safety Training Consortium, or The Academy for short, located at Evergreen Valley College on Yerba Buena Road in southeastern San Jose. Those graduating from the school’s Basic Academy course have passed a rigorous 880-hour plan of study that takes six months to complete, said Gregg Giusiana, the academy’s director. “It’s quite an accomplishment to graduate from a police academy,” Giusiana said. “You have to pass every test. If you don’t pass a test, you get to take it again and if you don’t pass again, you are out.” The academy’s course fulfills the minimum training requirements of the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST, needed to become a member of a public police agency in the state, Giusiana said. Among the things recruits must pass to graduate are a physical agility test that includes a 500-yard sprint, a writing and reading test called the Entry-Level Law Enforcement Test Battery, a personal interview and a background investigation. Only two people who had been admitted to the academy this session left during the six-month training period, Guisiana said. “That’s remarkable,” Guisiana said. “San Jose did a great job recruiting.” During the course of study, the students took classes in topics such as criminal law, patrol procedures, cultural diversity, investigative procedures, firearms, leadership, traffic enforcement, handling emotional situations and first aid/CPR, according to the academy’s website.
