Eighteen weeks ago, the recruits of Basic Law Enforcement Academy Class 942 arrived at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission in Burien for their first day of training.
On Sept. 8, 28 graduates will walk across the stage having completed 720 hours of training and preparing for the next stage of their careers in law enforcement.
For Class President Hunter Fennell of the Renton Police Department, reaching graduation has been a long time coming.
“I fought for about two and a half years to try to get here,” Fennell said. “So Tuesday when we graduate is going to be a sweet victory.”
From strangers to classmates
Class 942 began May 5 with recruits representing law enforcement agencies of different sizes and communities across Washington. Some arrived already knowing several classmates. Others were meeting for the first time.
Vice President Brigit O’Rourke entered the academy with 12 other recruits from the Seattle Police Department. Over the next 18 weeks, those existing connections expanded to include the entire class.
“It’s been super great to meet everybody from the smaller departments, and we’ve grown really close over these 18 weeks,” O’Rourke said.
She remembers the early days when conversations at the tables could be awkward and people were still figuring each other out. By graduation, that had changed.
“Now we’re really close, and it’s been great to get to know everybody,” she said.
That progression is part of the academy experience. Recruits train alongside people they may someday work with on calls, investigations or regional incidents. They learn how to communicate, make decisions together and rely on one another under pressure.
Turning instruction into decisions
BLEA is Washington’s mandated academy for entry-level peace officers. Recruits complete 720 hours of instruction built around the guardian model of policing and designed to give new officers the knowledge and skills needed to safely serve their communities.
For Class 942, some of the most memorable lessons came when individual skills were combined in realistic scenarios.
O’Rourke pointed to the academy’s high-intensity training week, when recruits moved through repeated calls and had to apply what they had learned throughout the academy.
“All week, every day, we’re just running to call after call,” she said. “It made me feel like what the actual job will be like a little bit.”
She also pointed to building searches, where recruits worked in small teams and practiced communicating with their partners while completing the scenario.
Fennell said medical training and high-intensity scenarios were among the areas that stood out most for him.
Those exercises give recruits opportunities to make decisions, communicate and respond under pressure in a training environment before they encounter similar situations in their communities.
WSCJTC’s mission is to establish training and certification standards that prepare criminal justice professionals with the knowledge and skills to safely protect the communities they serve. The agency’s values of leadership, integrity, dignity and accountability are incorporated into that work and the expectations placed on recruits throughout the academy.
WSCJTC’s BLEA curriculum is also nationally certified through the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training’s National Certification Program, which reviews training for instructional quality, design and delivery.
“We defend with honor”
Every BLEA class chooses a motto to represent its experience and the type of officers its members want to become.
For Class 942, the decision was made together. Recruits wrote ideas on a whiteboard, narrowed the choices and voted.
The motto they selected was simple: “We defend with honor.”
As the class graduates, those words now follow 28 new officers back to their agencies and communities.
Graduation also does not mean their training is finished.
O’Rourke will return to the Seattle Police Department for approximately three more months of training. Fennell will continue into additional training and eventually field training with the Renton Police Department.
For both, Sept. 8 marks a major transition from preparing for the profession to beginning the next phase of the job.
“When we started, I felt like it was so far away,” O’Rourke said. “This is still a huge milestone.”
For Fennell, the path forward is equally clear: continue training, move into field training and eventually begin serving the community on patrol.
For the 28 graduates of BLEA Class 942, graduation recognizes what they have completed over the past 18 weeks. It also marks the responsibility they now carry with them as they return to agencies across Washington.