First the good news: All graduates of Basic Academy Class 186 of the Orange County Sheriff’s Regional Training Academy will receive 24 college credits, courtesy of Santa Ana College.

The not so good news: There has never been a Basic Academy class at the academy that made it to graduation without dropouts and most classes suffer dropout rates of one-quarter to one-third.

Academy Commander Lt. Mark Billings gave some details to the 46 recruits who attended Basic Class 186 orientation at the academy. The recruits all wore sharply pressed black suits and each brought a family member or loved one for the occasion. 

“I want to explain how difficult the course is. Not to scare you but to prepare you for it,” Lt. Billings told the group.  “We don’t try to emulate the military but some graduates who have served in the Marine Corps say they would rather go back to Marine Corps training than here.

 

“At first a lot of what we do doesn’t make sense, it’s confusing but at the end it makes more sense. The goal is to prepare you for a 30 year career in law enforcement.  It is a profession that takes a toll and we need to prepare you to meet that challenge.”

He noted that there has been a good deal of negative news about law enforcement in the press lately.

“The fact is that the vast majority of people in this profession are honest, hardworking people. We don’t offer an excuse for those who do wrong, but they are only a few.”  He admonished the prospective law enforcement officers that honesty is the only policy in law enforcement. “Recruits will sign an Honor Code and failure to be ethical and honest at all times will result in immediate dismissal."

He said the Academy has high standards and no plans to lower them. Between two and four percent of all applicants actually make it through the entire hiring process and graduate from the academy.  The hiring process generally includes a difficult battery of written tests, background investigations, physical examinations, physical agility testing, psychological examinations, oral interviews, polygraph tests, and more.

He warns that on average between 1/4  and 1/3 of those recruits in the auditorium will not make it to graduation. 

 “I expect all of you are ready.” The last graduating class had 93 percent of the class graduate, one of the highest success rates in memory.

“To make it takes commitment, you have to stick together and you have to work hard.”

The class is composed of 20 Deputy Sheriff Trainees, and 26 trainees from partner agencies including the Alhambra, Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Vernon Police Departments.

“You need support from your families. You’ll go through this together. If you are still here in 6 months, you will be on this stage and your family will come up on stage and pin your badge to your chest.

“You can’t do it yourself.”

Next came Sgt. Paul Gilmore, Range Sergeant, who gave a talk on firearms safety and the concern for safeguarding the service weapon when it is at the recruit’s home. A key concern is children and he introduces the recruits to different types of locks and safes that are designed to keep firearms out of the reach of others. He advised them to hide the key in different places to make it even more difficult for the safe to be breached.

He also talked about the need for the recruits to develop their firearms skills and that the range and his staff would be available on weekends to allow them to could put in extra work to hone their skills to the degree they will need to graduate.

Then the Tactical Staff was introduced.

The recruits got their first look at Tactical Sergeants Jon Briggs, Brad NewMyer, and Al Sevilla along with  Tactical Officers; Deputies Mike Crouch, Jason Park, Scott Ostash, Jeff Hallock, and Andy Stevens, and Officers Garry Couso, of Santa Ana P.D., and Ron Walker of Manhattan Beach P.D.

Marta Bartlett, Physical Training Coordinator, was introduced as The Coach.

“I hope all of you are in the best shape of your lives,” she began.  She spoke of nutrition and the need for recruits to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

“It’s not a weight loss program, throw an extra portion or two on the grill over the weekend to use for lunches.” She pushes BBQ chicken, baked potatoes, bags of fruit and vegetables to fill the recruit’s lunch sack.

She told the story of the recruit’s mother who sneaked a piece of non-fat cake into his lunch because it was his birthday. No, no.

Bartlett suggests eating small portions throughout the day rather than a single large meal at lunch time.

The Coach advises that recruits stay clear of high energy drinks with too much caffeine and make sure they drink plenty of water. 

The recruits all introduce themselves, their department and who they brought with them.

Then a video – 26 written tests, 52 hours of report writing and 85 hours of arrest and control tactics.

At break the recruits and their families mingle. Coffee, water and cookies are provided for refreshment.

Then comes the call that the break is over. The recruits line up in single file, all dressed in black suits.

They march off to meet the Tactical Staff for the first time. The families return to the auditorium for a briefing on what to expect over the next 26 weeks.

Sgt John Briggs, the senior sergeant at the academy is direct in his statements.

“We’re not trying to be mean, we’re just doing our job. Our goal is to get 100 percent of the class to graduation but it hasn’t happened in 183 classes.” Will Basic Class 186 be the first?

"There is a reason for the course being so tough," Sgt. Briggs said.  “We do things our way because if you are not going to make it as a law enforcement officer, we better find out now rather than in a patrol setting when somebody is shooting at you.”

OCSD Deputy Novinger,of Class 183 and his wife present themselves to the family of the recruits.

“This is a very hard academy,” said Deputy Novinger, who graduated April 1 with the high honor of serving as Class Guidon Bearer. The Guidon Bearer is chosen by his fellow recruits as one who portrays the epitome of motivation, integrity and leadership throughout the academy.

“Your recruits will gain a sense of pride. By the time I finished, I was tired of academy life but it was rewarding. Part of me has permanently changed.

“In the short term, your recruit may lose his or her sense of humor for a while. Most important is family support. You’ll have trouble understanding. Your recruit will come home and say it was the worst day ever.

“One of my permanent changes was my sense of awareness. Debbie and I went to Baja Fresh and I started looking a man who I now can tell is a parolee. I know how to recognize a parolee and I could see this guy was part of a White Supremacist prison gang."

“And this was in the middle of saying something important,” Debbie chimed in.

“And I saw that he saw me. It’s a tough transition.”

He looked at his wife and told the audience, “If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have come back some days.”

Debbie said she rose at 4:15 a.m. each morning to pack her husband’s lunch. He got up and, still half asleep, got together his uniform and everything he would need for the day, and things he didn’t need.

“You have to be ready because somebody in the class will forget something and you have to help them out.”

The classes lined up in the street at 5:30 a.m., the senior class going in first, then the middle class and finally the “baby class.”

Briggs reminds him that there are no babies in an academy class.

There were a few questions from the families.

“Will my daughter get a boyfriend?”

No, her daughter isn’t a recruit, she’s 13 years old. The Mom is afraid that if her husband is a law enforcement officer, it will scare away the nice boys who might be scared to date a girl whose father carries a gun.  Answers to her question vary but she is given assurance that her daughter will one day find the man of her dreams and her father will be overjoyed.

Another tip for family survival during academy training is that the recruits who are parents make sure they spend at least a short time each day with their children. Many recruits have made a habit of sitting in the kitchen with their children to work on their academy homework while the youngsters work on their homework from school.

Use ice when the recruit is sore, when there is an injury, report it to academy staff.

Don’t buy expensive clothes for workouts on “The Beach.” The workout clothes never get clean enough for training inspection after two or three times of use.  Buy inexpensive white shirts and always wear one that looks like new when reporting to the academy.

The families see their recruits marching back from having their first face to face meeting with the Tactical Staff.

Sgt. Briggs calls the meeting to an end.

“They don’t want to be waiting in the parking lot too long for you,” he tells the families.