Butler Community College Students Complete Kansas Collegiate Law Enforcement Academy

Butler Community College Criminal Justice students Jessica Moore, Justin Sanders, Ariana Silva, Daniel Lazaro, Elsy Puente and Katherine Melgar were six of 17 college students from across Kansas to complete the Kansas Collegiate Law Enforcement Academy May 11-14. The Academy is hosted by the Kansas Highway Patrol at their training facility in Salina.

Criminal justice students from community colleges and universities across the state apply for this prestigious program. The Academy program offers students the exclusive opportunity to experience training academy life before entering a career in law enforcement.

Students are selected on the basis of their academic history, level of participation in their college’s criminal justice programs, and commitment to a career in law enforcement through submission of an application.

Participants go through some of the same training that recruits in the Kansas Highway Patrol Academy go through, such as team-building, physical training, situational awareness, search and seizure, police ethics, investigative skills, evidence recognition and defensive tactics. They also perform practical exercises that take them through the firearms range course, felony car stops and the emergency vehicle operations course.

“This is the eighth consecutive year that one or more of our students have participated in the Academy,” Criminal Justice Lead Professor and Academy Sponsor Miles Erpelding said. “It is a great honor to be selected. We are very proud of their accomplishments. It is an excellent opportunity to further the student’s interest in criminal justice and the law enforcement field.”