CLEVELAND, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A disciplinary board is implementing a one year probationary period for the Lakeshore Technical College Law Enforcement Academy after 15 of its 18 students failed a portion of the law enforcement preparatory training.
According to the Law Enforcement Standards Board, the majority of students failed the search incident to arrest process because students were not thorough enough in their searches.
Board members say it is imperative for students to search inside the pockets during a search incident to arrest process in order to pass.
“We are talking about the basics of law enforcement and if I had a new officer that I hired that came in and was in the field training, who didn’t go in the pockets during a field training in a search incident to arrest, that would be a bigger problem for me, we would score them low, retrain,” LESB member Ben Bliven said.
The college said the students successfully completed a number of other steps in the process.
“As exercise control officers, after we looked at it we were like yeah, this needs to be fixed. But at the same time, out of that 23 step process, they checked a significant number of those items off and in discussing it with the other instructors, felt that it would be something that if we have our own remediation and say hey this is what we need to do different next time guys, I felt that that would’ve satisfied the criteria,” LTC Academy Director Jeremiah Pritzl said.
The college already held remedial training for the students to clarify how to conduct the search.
In addition to the probationary period, LTC will also need to submit a progressive report every six months detailing the specific reforms implemented by staff to ensure compliance during the course of the probationary period.
The academy’s next audit is also to be scheduled this year to monitor the level of compliance with LESB standards.
Lakeshore Technical College Dean of Energy and Public Safety Ryan Skabroud said in a statement,
We appreciate the LESB meeting to review and discuss the atypical results of a student scenario test as a part of Lakeshore Technical College’s Criminal Justice – Law Enforcement program. The LESB determined our students could be retrained and retested and that our Criminal Justice Academy will be placed on a one-year probation. We thank the LESB for meeting quickly to rectify the situation, making sure our students are set up for success, and helping identify steps to make sure no academy is in this position again.
“We want to partner with Lakeshore and get through this blip on the radar. That’s what it is and we’re going to work with them to make sure these types of things don’t happen,” LESB member Steven Wagner said.
Pritzl says the academy hopes to add additional instructors and implement visits to other academies to enhance training.
