For 36 young men and women, today is the first day of the rest of their lives as they open the first class at the San Antonio Police Department training academy of 2018, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
That brings to more than one hundred the number of cadets who are undergoing the rigorous eight month training program. The cadets who start today will pin on the badge and earn the title of 'Officer' on August 31.
Mayor Nirenberg, Police Chief Bill McManus, and City Manager Sheryl Sculley will be among those who will welcome the rookie class to the academy.
The three cadet classes which are underway right now come as the San Antonio Police Officers Association is calling out Sculley for her 'negligence and mismanagement' in not adding enough police officers to the force to meet the city's growing population.
“Sheryl Sculley has failed police officers and the people of San Antonio by helping create a police shortage that threatens public safety,” SAPOA President Michael Helle said in a statemnt. “Her only answer is to authorize 40 new positions, but what good does it do to add more authorized strength if we can’t hire? The City Manager has conceded there’s a shortage saying, ‘I know we need more' but she’s done nothing to help. Instead she’s relied on bureaucratic double speak and accounting gimmicks to give the impression that progress is being made.”
Sculley and other city officials say the cadets who are currently in the police academy training program will go a long ways toward getting the ranks of the SAPD up to full strength.
The SAPD is also aggressively recruiting, including a recruiting trip to Austin just last week.