Erlanger and Edgewood police departments are the first in Northern Kentucky to employ graduates of the federally funded Kentucky Police Corps.

        The departments this week welcome graduates from the program in which cadets commit to four years of law enforcement work in exchange for a college education.

        “By bringing officers into communities who have higher levels of education and have received intensive training, we can go from good policing to really good policing,” said Jeff Allison, director of the Police Corps, U.S. Department of Justice.

POLICE CORPS

• The federally funded program offers four-year college scholarships worth up to a total of $30,000 in exchange for four years of service at a police department in Kentucky.    • Applications are due June 1 and Dec. 1 yearly.    • Anyone can apply after they have been admitted to a four-year private or public university.    • Cadets do not have to major in criminal justice or law enforcement.    • Dependent children of Kentucky officers slain in the line of duty are eligible for Police Corps scholarships, but are not obligated to work four years as police officers in Kentucky.    • For more information, call 866-KYCORPS — (866) 592-6777.

        He said the federal government, which created the program as part of 1996 anti-crime legislation, is trying to demonstrate that investing in critical training for police officers improves the quality of policing.

        Kentucky law enforcement officials say the program helps smaller departments recruit, raise the educational levels of officers and ease the cost of training new recruits.

        Frankfort is getting $2.5 million for fiscal year 2002 to operate a Police Corps in Kentucky. The program has placed 33 officers in 15 agencies across the state during its first three years.

        There are 1,140 Police Corps participants nationwide, Mr. Allison said. Some 450 have completed their training and are officers in 120 law enforcement agencies in 30 states, including Ohio.

        Two of this year's graduates are Brad Dolwick, 25, and Chad E. Girdler, 23, both of Erlanger.

        “I feel like I got a lot from the Police Corps: The job I wanted; my college paid for; extra training,” said Mr. Girdler, 23, who took a job with Erlanger Police after graduating from Eastern Kentucky University in May.

        On Mr. Dolwick's first day as an Edgewood Police officer, the Northern Kentucky University graduate found himself involved in an armed bank robbery investigation.

        “I was in the middle of the action,” he said, after attending the arraignment Tuesday.

        One objective of the program is to place officers in geographic areas that have the greatest need for additional officers, said Kentucky Police Corps spokeswoman Jacinta Feldman Manning.

        “A lot of the smaller departments are having trouble recruiting,” Erlanger Police Chief Greg Sandel said. “This will be a big benefit.”

        While departments struggle to attract recruits, educational standards for recruits have also increased. The most sought-after police recruits have college degrees, and many departments require recruits to have completed some college courses.

        Police Corps graduates receive a higher standard of training than traditional police academy cadets, Chief Sandel said. The cadets receive six more weeks of academy training, intensive Spanish lessons and mountain-bike certification. They are all college graduates.

        “They have Spanish classes they take, which is going to be very useful to Erlanger with the (Spanish-speaking) population exploding like it is,” Chief Sandel said.

        Edgewood Police Chief Steve Vollmar said the Police Corps' financial assistance allowed his department of 12 sworn officers to fill a position left open by a retirement much quicker than it would have been able to do otherwise.

        Chief Vollmar said a Police Corps cadet's police-academy training eliminates an eight-month lag time for recruiting and training new hires at Edgewood Police.

        “Every agency that receives a police corps graduate receives $40,000 for each graduate over the 4-year period,” Ms. Manning said. “The agencies are not only receiving well-trained officers who have some training in speaking Spanish, they are also receiving money to offset the cost of hiring them.”

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