This is Part One of an story by Allison Sherry that appeared on CPR News on November 2, 2021.
One works at a bank, another at a sprinkler business. One is an armed guard at a security company, and another is chipping in weekend shifts at his family’s construction business.
And after a year of protests against the police across the country, they all decided they wanted to become cops.
“If I can stop someone by being scared from being pulled over because of the color of my skin and how I act, maybe that’s what I want to do,” said Kristen Heinonen, a Black 23-year-old from Lakewood. “I think to be the change in the community, you need to have an active role in it, and I think this is the best path to take.”
CPR News followed the 13 cadets currently enrolled at the Community College of Aurora’s police academy for several months to try and understand the next generation of law enforcement officers and what has attracted them to the field now — a job more loaded with scrutiny and danger than ever before — and how what they are learning has changed.
None of the students are guaranteed jobs when they graduate, but their education will put them in a position to be hired at shorthanded agencies across the state — particularly if they pass the Police Officer Standards and Training test.
Some of the cadets, mostly 20-somethings with existing full-time jobs, want to contribute to the current push for racial equity from the inside. Some feel driven to help their communities. Some just want people to have better interactions with law enforcement and figure they could do some good. All say they want to help.
“It’s a calling,” said Victor Dominguez Ramirez, who joined the academy after graduation from Colorado State University. “I want to help people.”
But for each of the cadets, that calling has arrived at what may be among the most perilous times for law enforcement in our nation’s history.
Joining up as laws change policing
In 2020, there were more assaults and murders of police nationally than any other previous year, and the increase has been steep and swift. There were 4,071 more officers assaulted in 2020 than 2019, according to the FBI’s Law Enforcement Officer Killings and Assaults database. Two officers in Colorado have been killed by gunfire in 2021.
Law enforcement agencies across the state are also desperate for new people to join their ranks. In 2020, three-quarters of Colorado agencies reported a shortage of full-time sworn officers and 69 percent say applications were down from a year prior, according to the 2020 Colorado law enforcement survey.
“For you guys to still want to come in and do this job, I applaud you,” Eric Stewart, an adjunct professor at the Community College of Aurora told the cadets over the summer. Stewart is the deputy chief of police at the Loveland Police Department. “There are people leaving law enforcement in droves all over the place.”
The 13 cadets enrolled at the community college’s police academy are among the first classes of people who took steps to become police officers after George Floyd’s murder last spring in Minnesota — and the subsequent national reckoning against police violence which led to months of protests and sweeping police reform nationally.
In Colorado, the state legislature’s passage of Senate Bill 217 in 2020 and House Bill 1250 in 2021 added additional use of force rules, made it easier for prosecutors to file charges against officers and opened the door for civilians to sue individual officers for misconduct.
Body cameras will eventually be required statewide, as will data collection on who officers stop and why.
Aurora community college’s adjunct professors, most of whom are current cops in top agency jobs across the state, often spoke candidly in class about the changes and how much harder it is to be an officer now.
“There is an assault on law enforcement nationally, but there is an assault on law enforcement in this state, for whatever reason, these legislators… I don’t know what they’re trying to do,” Deputy Chief Stewart told the cadets over the summer. “It’s sad.”
Over the course of 10 months, the students were trained in driving, in using weapons, on use of force techniques, homicide investigations and keeping a cool temperament on the job. They spent long summer evenings doing burpees and pushups and hot Saturdays out on unshaded pavement practicing reverse and U-turns in police vehicles.
This year’s class was delayed several times because of COVID-19. There was no vaccine requirement to attend the course and some of the cadets themselves got sick.
“I don’t get involved in their decisions, and I presented them with the argument that their job may require them to get vaccinated,” Carter said. “We’ll see what happens.”
What the cadets are learning
At the Community College of Aurora, the cadets are required to show visitors and professors respect — but the academy is distinctly non-militaristic in style. Supportive, even. This is a departure from many of the agency academies, which are amid their own reforms in how they treat cadets and expect them to behave to people on the outside.
“I’ve always viewed law enforcement in a way, it’s not where they’ve been, it’s what they can become,” said Michael Carter, director of the Community College of Aurora’s director of the police academy, said of the cadets. “You shape, by the way you treat them, you shape their future destiny as an officer … If I walk up and I’m polite and professional, maybe I give you a warning, but if I do it in the right way and in the proper way, then all of the sudden I’ve changed the experience.”
In response to the police reform movement’s demands for change, the community college’s program is among the first places in the state to implement dedicated emotional intelligence and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training for incoming officers.
“I get called the “N” word every day, all day. I’m driving to the jail, but my inmate in the back is just going at it,” said Bruce Williams, a Black Sheridan police officer and adjunct professor at the community college. “I don’t say anything … I have to take it. You’re going to get this night in and night out in this job. It’s mentally tough. But, it’s fun at the end because you’re helping people.”
Kevin Watts, a federal law enforcement officer, talked about how difficult it can be to maintain a sense of calm amid the unbroken stress, danger and upheaval of a long shift. He stressed to the cadets how important it is for them to have peer support and even flag a partner when they didn’t feel emotionally steady enough to respond to a potentially stressful, or dangerous, call.
“This job, it’s a kind of job that will uncover every small incongruity in you during the day. If you’re dealing with family problems, stress, life and it’s out of control and you say ‘I’m going to man up or woman up and I’m going to go to work and get through this shift,’ you’re going to fail,” Watts told the cadets. “Because you’re going to get into some situation that’s going to bring you to your limits and it’s going to uncover that.”
To mimic some of that unease, the adjunct professors and trainers have tried to funnel the cadets through some purposefully hairy moments during their training — including mock scenarios where they have to respond to a domestic violence call or a mass shooting incident.
Most cadets say the new statewide laws calling for additional accountability, passed after the protests, don’t scare them too much. They do worry, though, about making a mistake.
“Getting sued is really, really likely; almost guaranteed if you’re a cop,” said Jay O’Bara, a 29 year-old Longmont student with aspirations to lead a force someday. “You’re going to get sued at some point… hopefully not successfully, if you’ve done all the right things.”