ST. LOUIS — She might not hear them greeting anyone with the required “good morning ma’am” or “good afternoon sir,” or see them donning their uniforms eating in the breakroom or hitting the gym together, but St. Louis Police Academy Director Lt. Angela Dickerson says she knows the next generation of police officers is busy learning the profession.
Dickerson shuttered the academy in March after the city limited crowds to fewer than 10 people to try and reduce the spread of COVID-19. The city’s two classes of about 30 recruits each suddenly became too big of a crowd.
“We thought about the safety of the staff and the recruits, so we didn't want to take the chance of having someone come in that might be infected and might not know because if one recruit is infected, they can infect the entire class,” she said. “So we don't want to take that chance so we put safety first so recruits know that is the priority here.”
But the demand to get recruits through training and on the streets is unrelenting.
St. Louis’ roster is down.
It is authorized to have 1,340 officers, but only has 1,205 on the rolls, according to Sgt. Keith Barrett.
And, like many departments, St. Louis has had to get creative to avoid a complete shutdown of its police recruit classes – many of which began weeks, even months, before the COVID-19 outbreak took hold.
Dickerson said most of the recruits use a video conferencing app every day to attend virtual classes.
“Nobody’s ever late for roll call,” Dickerson quipped.
A handful of the recruits do not have the technology they need to attend the video conferencing classes, so they, along with the instructors, are the only ones permitted in the building, Dickerson said. Under normal circumstances, recruits sit shoulder-to-shoulder at tables with computers. Now, recruits who are allowed inside the classroom sit spread out from each other in the classroom with seating for 60. They can see their fellow recruits on a large screen.
St. Louis police recruits practice social distancing at a driving range
Physical fitness and firearms training take place in small groups to stay within the guidelines of crowd restrictions and social distancing. While one half of the group work on firearm training – also standing about 10 feet apart and wearing masks – the other half undergoes physical fitness training – also wearing masks and standing at least six feet apart, Dickerson said.
Instructors also wear masks, which somewhat muffles the commands they shout at recruits in para-military fashion as they drop for push-ups and other exercises.
But there are some things about the police academy experience Dickerson admits can’t be replaced.
“I'd say they don't have the fellowship, you know, sitting inside the break room eating together and just being together,” she said. “That is something that they can't do right now. Also, they can’t do the ridealongs in the districts.”
For one of St. Louis’ two current classes, however, recruits already completed their ridealongs and other hands-on training such as defensive tactics, so they are still scheduled to graduate on time in May. The other class, which commenced in December, will have hands-on training delayed until the end of their six-month academy experience, Dickerson said.
Other academies are adapting, too.
At the Jefferson College Law Enforcement Academy in Jefferson County, Director of Public Safety Programs Diane Scanga said they, too, are having recruits attend classes via call-in video conferencing apps.
But, they have an end in sight.
Scanga said she developed a socially-distanced proposal the college accepted to allow in-person classes to resume April 27. One of the classes was supposed to graduate the next day, but it will likely conclude about three weeks from now as the classes of about 10 to 11 recruits complete their driver skills, firearms training and defensive tactics together. They will be required to wear masks and have their temperatures taken daily as well as wash their hands before and after breaks, Scanga said.
“I’ve been telling them, ‘As much as I want you back is as much as I want you gone,’ so they can get their jobs and be out there in the field,” she said. “It breaks my heart that they’ve done their due, they’ve gone out, done their applications, their psyche evals, their physicals and they’re ready to go, but we’re just stopped in our tracks.”
The Eastern Missouri Police Academy in Lake St. Louis also is conducting classes via a call-in video conferencing app, but was might have been more prepared for the scenario than others, said Rich Will, the training coordinator. The academy recently opened in the Meadow Shopping Center and included video-conferencing academy and continuing education classes into its curriculum to attract officers from out-state Missouri, Will said.
The 23 recruits currently attending the academy are in their fourth week of instruction. They must wear their uniforms even though they’re at home, Will said.
“Home provides a distraction, so they can’t wear whatever they want, they need to come to the realization that it’s not time to let the dog out or talk to their wife, their job is to sit at a computer and to learn,” he said. “We want them to be virtually in the academy.
“But the longer this crisis goes on, the less we have to teach them because at some point they’re going to need that firearms, defensive tactics and driver skills. So for now, we’re delivering all we can in lecture format.”
It’s unclear how recruits at the St. Louis County Municipal Police and Fire Academy are continuing their training.
St. Louis County Officer Tracy Panus said no one from the police academy was available for an interview and released a statement:
“Adjustments have been made in training to practice social distancing. Despite the limitations we currently have in place, I’m confident our recruits are still training at a high level and will be ready to serve our communities when they graduate in June.”
That academy services municipalities as well, so seven of the 31 current recruits will be working for different departments, she said. They began the academy in January.
The St. Louis County Police Department also is running below its authorized strength. It currently has 965 officers, even though it can have 1,024.
“Staffing numbers are not a huge concern,” Panus said. “It’s normal for an agency our size to be below full-staffing levels.”
But the academy is delaying a class that was to begin in April until June, or possibly longer if coronavirus concerns remain too high, Panus said.
“A delay in one recruit class will not cause any disruption to the service we provide to our community,” she wrote.
St. Louis also is delaying the start of future academy classes until further notice, Dickerson said.
All of the recruits currently in local police academies will miss out on of the biggest moments of the experience: graduation.
Academy leaders say their graduations, which are typically marked with the pomp and circumstance of a formal police gathering and attended by sometimes hundreds of friends and family members will likely be reduced to just the basics:
The reading of the oath and a badge.
The celebrations will have to wait.
