New officers located in the western part of the state will soon be able to train closer to home.
MCCRACKEN COUNTY, Ky. -- The Governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear recently announced a new basic training facility to come to western Kentucky.
The new training facility was announced to come to Madisonville and open in February of 2025.
This will help law enforcement in western Kentucky in a variety of ways.
McCracken County Sheriff Ryan Norman says this new facility will be just over an hour drive as opposed to five hours away when they travel to Richmond, Kentucky, for training.Â
"Once this opens, people that are needing to go through the Basic Law Enforcement Academy will be able to go to the one in Madisonville," Sheriff Norman said. "Currently, you know, even deputies that have been here for 15 years sometimes have to go to Richmond, for in-service training because we have to get at least 40 hours of training every year that's accredited by the law enforcement council. So, eventually I believe the in-service trainings will also be held there. We have in-service trainings throughout the state, but that'll be another good central location to have."
Sheriff Norman said deputies will stay overnight in Richmond for the training session, however, in Madisonville, they would have the option to come home if they need to over the weekend or at night.
"So that will give them more time at home with their family," Sheriff Norman said. "Sometimes they have to come back to our agency to do assorted things over the weekend and then it would give them a lot more time. And you know, there's always things that arise in 20 weeks being away. There's things that arise throughout the week that, you know, they wish or need to be home for, especially if they have families."
Another area Sheriff Norman says this will help out with is the efficiency of getting deputies trained quicker and getting them out in service in their community sooner.
"I believe it'll help with the backlog," Sheriff Norman said. "It's one of the things they've talked about quite a bit recently is the backlog and it takes a while to get somebody, if we were to hire somebody today, and say that we needed to send them through the basic Academy course. It's probably six, seven months out, at least before they could actually start (in Richmond)."
For the first time since basic training became mandatory in 1998, the commonwealth will be able to offer training in two locations simultaneously.
"Yeah, it'll definitely help the efficiency and get them through better," Sheriff Norman added. "You know, we have one at the Academy right now and it's taken away from our core security division. Being able to get them certified and back will be extremely beneficial."
For now, the Department of Criminal Justice Training will train officers in a building provided by the Madisonville Police Department while Team Kentucky constructs a $50 million multipurpose training facility in Madisonville.
