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To contact the Academy Office please call 607-746-2336
extension 236.
The Delaware County Law
Enforcement Academy first began operating in the early
1990’s. The academy was created to offer the New York State D.C.J.S. basic course for police officer, to agencies in the
county. The academy training site was headquartered at the
BOCES school complex in Masonville, N.Y. Several basic
academy training classes were held at the location, and many
area police officers were able to earn their certification
by attending the D.C.L.E.A. basic academy. This provided a
low cost alternative to the Villages and Towns in Delaware
County, to train new police officers, without having to send
them to distant police academies.
Due to a variety of reasons,
the academy ceased to operate around 1997, and local
departments were forced to send new recruits out of the area
to complete the D.C.J.S. mandated basic training. New York
State never fully closed the academy, keeping it “on the
books” as an in-active training site. In 2007, Delaware
County Sheriff Thomas E. Mills, decided that it was time to
bring the academy out of hibernation and re-active it. His
goal was to enhance the law enforcement training
opportunities available to all of the agencies in the county
and keep the cost of police training minimal.
Capt. James H. Small,
Oneonta State University Police Dept. and Director of the
Otsego County Law Enforcement Academy, was retained to get
the Delaware academy up and running. Capt. Small had a
great deal of experience, seven years as director in Otsego,
and had the ability to liaison with officials at D.C.J.S.
Office of Public Safety to get this job done. As of Sept.
15th, 2007, the Delaware County Law Enforcement
Academy was re-certified as an active training site by New
York State. The first in-service training course will be
held at the classroom in the Public Safety Building, Delhi,
N.Y., on October 16th thru 18th.
The goal of the newly
reorganized Delaware academy will be to provide in-service
training courses not only for area police officers, but also
for corrections and other peace officers. DCLEA hopes to
have a close, on-going relationship with the Otsego Police
Academy, to assist them with training classes. Using the new
classroom facility in Delhi, and other instructors, will
decrease the burden on the staff at the Otsego academy.
Using the DCLEA will also increase the number of course
offerings that can be provided on an annual basis. With an
approved site, we can also bring training classes sponsored
by D.C.J.S. and Homeland Security, to the Delhi classroom.
All training courses will be open to any sworn law
enforcement officer, from any area of New York State. It is
also our goal to become a certified security guard training
school, which would allow us to certify new security guards,
as well offer the annual mandated courses that New York
State requires for all security officers.
We have some lofty goals and
a lot of hard work to re-establish the Delaware County Law
Enforcement Academy’s reputation as a credible law
enforcement training site. It is a job that is well worth
undertaking and Sheriff Mills is committed to the task. The
need for a professional training site, close to home is
clear and the steps taken, so far, are good ones. The
training academy web site will be devoted to keeping
everyone updated on the progress of the newly invigorated
Delaware County Law Enforcement Academy.
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