The uniformed police-officers-to-be stood at attention, sweating in the late afternoon sun. When the command was shouted, they double-timed it up the steps and into a classroom.
So began instruction for the final group of students at the Clayton County Regional Law Enforcement Academy in Jonesboro. When this class graduates in the fall, the academy will shut down after 35 years of operation.
The main cause is a shrinking economy, and it’s affecting more than just Clayton County. Spending for law enforcement training is down at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth as well, dropping from about $12 million to about $9 million in three years, said that center's director, Dale Man.
"There are no villains in here, there are no bad guys," Mann said. "We understand the revenues of the state have been down by double digits over the last 24 months or so. We are willing to tighten our belt."
Capt. Robin Hollingsworth, assistant director at the Clayton police academy, doesn't think its closing will hurt public safety. But she said a bit of quality control will be lost.
"When you have the ability to train your own, you can shape the kind of officer you want," she said.
Clayton ran a regional academy, meaning it received money from the state for offering training to officers from about 160 agencies in 18 counties. But it never operated as a money-making proposition.
"The county has been carrying the academy for years," Hollingsworth said.
Other regional law enforcement academies operate in Athens, Augusta, Columbus, Dalton, Tifton and Savannah. They receive money from the state for training officers from outside their county. Some larger counties -- Cobb, Fulton, DeKalb and Gwinnett -- run their own academies. The state used to subsidize the county academies, but that funding was killed two years ago.
After mold problems were found last year in the Clayton academy building south of Jonesboro, students and teachers moved operations to the International Park on Ga. 138. Repairs will cost about $400,000 -- a big chunk of money for a county facing a $9 million budget deficit. In June, the county commission voted to close the academy, among other cuts. Five academy employees will lose their jobs.
The Clayton police department is beefing up departmental training by creating positions for instructors of state-mandated in-service training. Recruits, who undergo 409 hours of basic training, will probably go to Forsyth or another regional academy.
The Forsyth training center is using $242,000 in state money that had been earmarked for Clayton to offer additional classes and hire two more basic training instructors, Mann said. Officers who normally would have gone to Clayton County will face longer drives. Forsyth is 50 minutes south of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and 35 minutes from Jonesboro.
Meanwhile, the last Clayton class goes through its paces. It's held from 6 to 10 p.m. three or four nights a week, allowing the 26 students to work full-time jobs during the day and get to class for training at night. Some of them, like Jamie Parker, love police work so much they paid the $3,000 tuition out of their own pockets.
"I'm happy for the opportunity to be here," said Parker, 32.
On Wednesday night they learned about arson. In later classes they'll practice self defense on the sand beside the swimming lake and jog around the tree-shaded park grounds. Come fall, they'll graduate and shut the academy doors behind them.
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