Salinas Police recruits halfway through police academy

Salinas Police department is looking to gradually add around 40 new officers, something they haven’t been able to do for many many years now. Last July, News Channel 5 talked to some of these new recruits as they began their six month journey through the academy.

It has been a long three months for the dozens of recruits going through the police academy process, and Tuesday was their midterm. It was a stressful day for recruits as they were put into situations that required them to stay calm under pressure. They were tested on protocol, penal codes, constitutional law, and that’s barely scratching the surface. They’ve all made progress, but still have three months to go.

“From here they’ll go directly into a field training program and where they’ll ride with a field training officer to see if they can handle the job and put all the things they learned here at the Academy into use,” said Salinas PD Deputy Chief Dan Perez.

“Looking forward to completing this thing and getting out of here and getting on the streets and actually doing something for the city of Salinas,” said SPD Recruit Abel Gomez.

Salinas PD is hoping to hire enough officers to re-establish some special units that they were forced to abandon during the staffing crisis a few years back. Deputy Chief Perez adds that he believes the recruits are doing better and better every week. All of this is possible because of Measure G, the one-cent tax measure approved this year that is estimated to generate about $20 million.