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Bermudes working on combined academy
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Posted on Jun 01 2023
Clement Bermudes
Department of Public Safety Commissioner Clement R. Bermudes looks forward to having another police cycle or academy this year as he believes this will help reduce overtime.
In his testimony last Friday before the House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee to go over DPS’ proposed budget for fiscal year 2024, Bermudes said he is working to have a combined law enforcement academy so the department and other law enforcement agencies can share the cost.
In response to questions by vice speaker Joel C. Camacho (Ind-Saipan), the commissioner said they have several vacancies at DPS, yet the last police cycle was the 26th about two years ago, during which there were 36 cadets, and was one of the largest the DPS had.
A typical police cycle has about 25 cadets because it’s considered a manageable size.
Bermudes said a police academy is designed to increase the number of personnel so that they can minimize overtime as an organization.
He disclosed that they are in talks with the Northern Marianas College because he will need officers and that they’re looking to have a police academy as early as this summer.
The commissioner said the financial part is a factor so they need to run the academy where it’s not just for DPS though. “We have to start breaking down these obstacles. We’re running a basic law enforcement academy,” he added.
Bermudes said what they teach about criminal law to a police officer is the same with a conservation officer and that the only difference is that a conservation officer will not need traffic law enforcement.
The commissioner said that, based on his talks with other law enforcement agencies, the interest is there to have a combined law enforcement academy, which happened the last time in the late 90’s.
