HPD Training

Hattiesburg, Miss. - A various amount of controversy has been trending throughout America about police brutality, mistreatment, and dishonesty.

And the Hattiesburg Police Department is trying to make sure that it hires the best quality of officers through its academy.

Hattiesburg Police Officer, Lt. Jon Traxler said, "During the academy we look at different things, we do different things during the academy that we try to identify somebody who may be that kind of person and if they're just not cutting it to where they need to, we get rid of them."

HPD doesn't just have diversity training for the academy, but other times throughout the year as well.

Traxler said "when we bring a person on, we have continued training every year. They have to go to training six times a year and one of those training's is specifically about diversification and being able to deal with people of different races, different sex, as well as people who may have mental issues and stuff."

There's also been controversial incidents that happened around the country about police shooting mishaps.

The academy has split-second scenarios that tests the minds of officers.

Traxler said "they may have a person that they pull over and that person may do something and they have to decide what they're going to do, what actions to take, whether they're going to draw their weapon or not draw their weapon. Also during our training, even at night time, we actually have targets that have person with a gun, person without a gun. You got to pick which one to shoot and stuff like that."

If you think you have what it takes to become a great police officer, contact the Hattiesburg Police Department for more information about next available academy to participate in.