RICHMOND, Va. — Friday marks a major milestone for the VCU Police Department as it celebrates 50 years of training law enforcement officers.
VCU Police is the only campus law enforcement agency in Virginia that operates an independent police academy, and this year’s 50th class of seven graduates will all serve with VCU following three months of field training.
"This class is extremely smart," said Curtis Diesselhorst, VCU Police Academy commander. "They're very intelligent. They're very compassionate people, so I feel very comfortable putting the community in their hands."
For the past 22 weeks, Diesselhorst has been teaching the recruits everything they need to know about the law, as well as ensuring they receive practical-based training.
He says these future officers have been trained on hundreds of real-life scenarios to ensure they are ready to hit the streets in the next week or so.
"We have VCU buildings directly next to other Richmond city buildings, public private buildings," explained Diesselhorst. "So learning how to police in this environment is very unique, and having our own academy allows us to really tailor that experience for our recruits."
Cameron Ward is one of the seven new recruits, and he graduated from VCU in 2022.
"Something about just seeing them work and how they patrol; I wanted to learn more about what it was to be a VCU Police officer," Ward said. "And also seeing how they police in the central, like the City of Richmond, being able to see how they interact with that community, that's something that I wanted to really be a part of."
Ward says the small setting of training with just six other recruits has helped build camaraderie, and he hopes VCU students, staff, and the greater Richmond community know they are in good hands.
"We are people outside of just the uniform," said Ward. "We're not just a robotic person coming to handle your call and then send you on your way. We're actually coming to go above and beyond for that call for service and actually giving people the utmost help that they could possibly ever get."
Friday's graduation ceremony kicks off at 5 p.m. inside the VCU College of Health Professions auditorium.
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