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GRPD Youth Police Academy 2009

For the past several years, GRPD has committed a significant amount of time and resources into building relationships with our youth. This year, we took on the added responsibility of hosting not just one, but TWO Youth Police Academies.
YPA 09-1 was held June 8th - 12th with the second session held July 6th - 10th. This one week experience is a condensed yet comprehensive look into the profession. Our hope is to not only educate but also hopefully motivate the attendees to consider this honorable career.



Our Recruiting Officer Jason Gady was the Coordinator and Lead Instructor. He spent the entire week with the Recruits and guided them through many areas of police work such as Physical Training, Use of Force procedures and applications, Ethics, Traffic Stops and Firearms - to name just a few. These segments were taught by GRPD Training Instructors each of them experts in their field.







We would like to thank the Recruits for their energy, interest and fantastic attitudes! We had so much fun! Thanks also to all the Officers who allowed us to borrow their equipment so we could outfit the Recruits with gunbelts, all the Instructors, and those who assisted in making sure lunches were on time.

Lunch was a "big deal" here. After an hour of PT in the morning, the Recruits really looked forward to a good meal. We want to THANK the following lunch sponsors who graciously donated all the food for our YPA Recruits:

Adobe, Buffalo Wild Wings (BW3), Dog Pit, El Sombrero, Grand Rapids Pizza & Delivery, Peppinos, Sandmans, Subway - West Fulton location.

Please support these businesses - in these difficult times, they still recognized the need to support our young people!!!

RC 09-1 Graduation

After 7 weeks of intense training, the members of Recruit Class 09-1 have taken the Oath of Office and were sworn in as Grand Rapids Police Officers. Their training ranged from Critical Incident Response to Dispatch and Detective Unit Orientation. It required a mental and physical commitment which they embraced and exceeded. We are very proud of their accomplishments and expect great work from them in Field Training.


Critical incidents require teamwork and communication. The Recruits practice these skills by diagraming the building in the scenario.


The Recruits learned new skills and improved upon those they already had.


Recruits completed approximately 400 scenarios during Orientation.


Over 40 Instructors were involved in the training of the Recruits.


And at the end of the day - even OC day - the Recruits were still smiling.

Congratulations to RC 09-1! We are proud of you!!!

Recruit Class 09-1

Congratulations to the newest members of the GRPD Family!

Recruit Class 09-1 started their In-house Orientation on Monday, April 13th. They were personally welcomed by Chief Belk, Deputy Chief Farris, numerous members of the Command Staff, Training Bureau and many GRPD Personnel.

Jeffrey Konwinski

Sean McCamman

Paul Mercer

Kayla Oxender

Andrew Rusticus

Ryan Sterenberg

Peter Thompson

Ross Vandenberg

I am happy to introduce them to you! Do YOU want to be in our next recruit class? Do you have questions regarding how you can make that happen? Contact Recruiting Officer Jason Gady (616) 456-4247 or send me an e-mail and we will help you any way we can!

Come out and support the GRPD Unity Tour Team!

Click on the image for magnification.

Spring Training GRPD style!

I'm happy to report that our Mandatory Training session - Use of Force/ECD Recert and MOP/Legal Update is now complete. Each Officer spent 10 hours in training to complete this very important recert and update. With 12 Officers per session and almost as many Instructors, this was a huge undertaking for our Training Bureau.

Our training is scenario based and interactive. We designed scenarios for both our Defensive Tactics Room and Scenario Room in addition to the recertification of skills. Some were completed in low-light conditions to mimic realistic building searches, resident contacts etc. While it was physically and mentally challenging, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.




It's impossible to capture the dynamic nature of this training in pictures but I wanted to try and show you a few examples.

Next up for Departmental Training - Spring Firearms! Check back soon!

GRPD Youth Police Academy

We are gearing up to again host our Summer Youth Police Academy. The academy is a youth based partnership between the GRPD and students in Kent County. It is designed for students between the ages of 16 and 18 who are interested in a hands-on, comprehensive look at the law enforcement profession. This one week training program encompasses over 50 hours dedicated to physical training, classroom lecture, public speaking and scenario based training.
Training Topics will include:
Professional Conduct
Defensive Tactics
Special Response Team
Patrol Operations
Vice Unit
K-9 Unit
Dispatch
Hostage Negotiations
Traffic Investigations

The topics are instructed by field experts and much of the training will be hands on learning. This is truly a unique experience that will aid students in their professional development.

Due to the very successful programs of the last two years, we have decided to expand the program and host TWO Sessions this summer:
June 8 - 12, 2009 (Session 1)
July 6 - 10, 2009 (Session 2)
All high school Juniors and Seniors who reside in Kent County OR attend any school within Kent County are eligible to apply.
Applications can be found in the following places:
-In person at the Grand Rapids Police Department Training Bureau
-Online at www.grpolice.com (or click on the GRPD link on this page)
-By contacting Officer Gady at (616) 456-4247
Applications will be due by March 13th, 2009 at 5:00pm!
Check back often as I will post more information on this exciting opportunity in the next few weeks!