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GREENSBORO — Three officers were sworn into the ranks of the Greensboro Police Department on Friday as graduates of the agency’s first training course designed for recruits with recent basic law enforcement training certification.

The course, requested last year by the City Council, was created to cut down the amount of time some recruits needed to go from course work to cruiser, thus put officers on the street faster. 

Officers A.C. Blake, S.L. Clements-Lyons and T.D. Brown had their badges pinned on by loved ones in a ceremony held Friday morning inside City Council chambers. 

“That badge may be small in size and weight, but it carries with it a ton of responsibilities,” Chief Tim Bellamy told the recruits. 

The course is open to those who received North Carolina basic law enforcement training certification from a community college or elsewhere and not previously hired by another department. 

With a four-week class, the department built on that certification through course work on policies and procedures specific to GPD. 

Previously, all recruits were required to attend the department’s own 27-week “rookie school” to become sworn officers, regardless of whether they had received certification elsewhere. 

“We removed courses that had already been covered through their BLET program, but revisited high-liability topics as well as departmental required topics,” said Capt. Brian James, head of the department’s training division. 

Those “high-liability topics” include arrest techniques, firearms training and driving.

The course began Oct. 16 and comprised 275 hours of training, compared to the 9761/2 hours required in the department’s full certification class.

The state mandates 618 hours of training for licensing. 

“It was an outstanding first effort, and it went very well,” said Sgt. T.A. Long, who trained the recruits.  

“We had a general direction from the chief on what he wanted ... we took our current training program that we think a lot of and took the best of the best of that and applied it to these three guys.” 

The new officers will now go through 16 weeks of field training, patrolling the streets with experienced officers before going solo. 

The department will also add 34 new recruits in April with the graduation of the 91st Police Basic Introductory Course. 

More information about jobs with the police department is available by calling (888) 473-5627.  

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com