KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department will soon welcome eight new graduates to its department.
On Wednesday night, KSHB 41 caught up with Recruit Class 61 as they prepare for street duty.
“To see them at this moment and be successful — it’s exciting, and now they are getting ready to go to field training,” said Ofc. Marshee London, KCKPD public information officer and recruiter.
This class of eight recruits will see their 4 1/2 months of hard work pay off.
“Working out, going through defensive tactic training, learning Kansas statutes, learning city ordinances, learning how to talk and diffuse, deescalate situations, plus CIT training," London said.
The class, while small, is from all over the country and with different backgrounds.
Many of the recruits have military experience and are bilingual like soon to be graduate Sergio Rua.
“Here, I’ve learned more to be compassionate and have empathy for the public and understand and see that not everyone is doing something bad, or not everyone is doing something cause they want to,” Rua said. “There are reasons that people do something, so building that connection and rapport with people.”
That’s what the department wants to grow, and they know the public will keep them accountable.
“With our community being so multiverse and multi-cultural, we need people on our department that speak various different languages,” London said.
Rua said he's excited to serve his community.
“I want to be accounted as the person you can count on,” Rua said. “Hey, that officer, I can count on him for anything, or that officer really changed my day today.”
KCKPD still needs another 40 officers to have a fully staffed department.
The next recruit class begins in May.
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