Academy Tests Recruits’ Resolve : 1 in 3 Fail to Finish 18 Weeks of Training

POLICE RECRUITING

The Orange County sheriff may be the most active recruiter of any U.S. law enforcement agency. But officials nationwide say they must seek out hundreds of men and women just to get a few good officers. Last in a series.

Three top recruits in their Sheriff’s Training Academy class are profiled on Page 9.

“Sir, yes, sir.”

It’s the first line recruits learn at the Orange County Sheriff’s Training Academy in Garden Grove. It’s the last line they repeat just before the traditional tossing of their hats into the air at graduation ceremonies 18 weeks later.

Sgt. Charles Bensinger, the academy field leader, calls it “paramilitary training.” The recruits say some days it seems more military and less para .

They get demerits for walking instead of running between classes. They get demerits for weak push-ups. They get demerits at the morning lineup if they can’t answer questions from the previous lecture.

They get snapped at, yelled at and fumed at.

But it’s all part of the plan.

“We run a stress academy,” said Capt. Andy P. Romero, head of the sheriff’s training division. “But we don’t do any hazing. Everything we do is for a purpose. We’re not out there playing games.”

The dropout rate is high--one out of three who enter the academy don’t make it to graduation. And these are people who have already made it through half a dozen screenings by the hiring police agency just to get to the academy.

Susan Saxe-Clifford, psychologist for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, says the dropout rate should not be surprising.

“It’s the most emotionally and physically and academically demanding experience of their lives, all at the same time,” she said. “Some of them realize once they get in that it’s just too much for them.”

Things are humming at the Sheriff’s Training Academy these days.

The increase in sheriff’s deputies--45% in the last two years--is putting the academy through more growing pains than anytime in its history.

The academy also has seen a slight increase in the number of officers it trains for other agencies--more than a dozen city police departments in Orange County send recruits there. It also continues to train with each class several “independents,” who pay for their own training and use their graduation credentials on their resume when they job-hunt with police agencies.

Training officials used to run one or two 18-week classes a year, with 25 or so in a class. But last year the academy began overlapping classes, most with 50 or more. And this summer it began running three classes overlapping each other.

The stepped-up training, Romero says, has put a lot of pressure on the Sheriff’s Department to keep up.

For one thing, Sheriff Brad Gates had to find bigger facilities.

Last September, Gates arranged to take over space for new recruit classes at the Rancho Santiago College facility at Newhope Street and Garden Grove Boulevard in Garden Grove. The academy for new recruits had simply outgrown the sheriff’s compound off Katella Avenue, a mile east of Anaheim Stadium, where it shared three classrooms with advanced officer training programs.

Gates has just made a five-year agreement with the college, and he is hoping that the county supervisors will eventually approve plans for a new academy.

Gates also has had to expand his training staff. Two years ago the new recruits were trained by a sergeant and two deputies. Today that staff has grown to three sergeants, six tactical officers, two arrest control technique specialists, and at least two others brought in from other police agencies that send recruits to the academy.

“We’re constantly having to make adjustments because of our growth,” Romero said, adding that officials have tried hard to maintain “the quality of our training while we’re doing all this growing.”

The academy gets high marks for quality from a variety of sources.

The state Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission, which monitors law enforcement training facilities in California, considers it among the best.

“The standards at the Orange County Academy are very high,” said Glen Fine, training commission deputy director. “And when you maintain high standards, you get quality police officers.”

“It’s an excellent program,” said Anaheim police training specialist Randall F. Brydges. “We know that if our recruits make it through that training program, they are going to be good officers.”

But the training academy is not without its critics.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the jail overcrowding lawsuit that forced a recruitment surge at the Sheriff’s Department, questions the aim of the training.

“My complaint is that these people are being trained to be police officers on the street and yet they are not sent to the street. They are sent to the Orange County Jail for at least two years of duty,” said Richard P. Herman of the ACLU, referring to Gates’ practice of having rookie deputies work at the jail. “I think it’s a good training program, but it’s not adequate for the needs of the jail.”

Sgt. Linda Calligan, who ran unsuccessfully against Gates in the June 3 primary and is an outspoken critic of the sheriff, gives the academy generally high marks. “It gives new cops a good foundation, and that’s what it’s supposed to do,” she said.

But Calligan believes that politics is often involved in deciding who gets the prestigious assignment of teaching classes at the academy. She also believes that the academy needs to put more emphasis on the responsibility officers have once they are out in the field.

Calligan comes to the academy’s defense on any claims that it discriminates against women.

Joan Marie Donoghoe, a recruit who failed to graduate, has a lawsuit pending against the county, claiming such discrimination.

Calligan believes that the academy makes special efforts for women recruits.

“When I went through the academy (in 1975), women and older recruits were given extra points to help them get through the physical training,” Calligan said. “We called them sissy points.”

The academy does not award such points today. But several recruits interviewed claim that the training deputies work especially hard with some women who are bright yet have a tough time with the physical agility tests.

The psychological stress can be tough, too, however.

“Why are none of you wearing your hats?” Sgt. Bensinger yelled at the recruits one recent day as the class prepared for physical exercises. The recruit leader answered that one fellow had forgotten his hat.

“So you’re all going to get demerits because one guy screwed up?” Bensinger asked.

They all ran to get their hats.

One young woman recruit got an earful from Bensinger for wearing a gold chain.

“Is jewelry part of the dress code for the day?” he yelled.

“Sir, no sir,” she answered, jogging in place, her cheeks turning bright red.

“She’s a good recruit,” Bensinger said later.

He added:

“What we are teaching is command presence. We don’t want officers on the street to bully people, but at the same time, you have to let people know you are in control of a situation.”

Group leaders are chosen not for the ability they have shown, but often because they’ve failed to show leadership.

“Some of these people have never in their lives been in charge of anybody; this is how they learn,” Bensinger said during one exercise drill.

At graduation, usually held at the El Toro Marine base, recruits get their badges pinned on them by whomever they choose, usually a husband or wife, or a parent, in a traditional ceremony. They then take the oath of office as a group and are asked if they will live up to that oath.

Their response: “Sir, yes sir.”

Then it’s hats in the air, followed by lots of hugs and kisses.