1. Thursday, November 6, 2014 Valley Courier Page 5
Valley News
Trinidad State LETA graduates serve Valley well
ALAMOSA — Where do
law enforcement officers
come from?
In the San Luis Valley
the answer is usually right
here in Alamosa. About 90
percent of the students who
graduate from the Trini-dad
State Law Enforce-ment
Academy in Alamosa
(known as LETA) pass their
state certification exams
on their first attempt and
are hired to work locally in
the San Luis Valley — usu-ally
at police and sheriff’s
offices.
The home grown approach
has worked well since 2008
when Trinidad State hired
Karl Kramer to coordinate
the two-semester program.
In 2009 when Kramer left
the valley, Duane Oakes,
who is now Chief of Police
in Alamosa, assumed direc-torship
of the program and
continues in that role.
Oakes attributes the pro-gram’s
high success rate to
students who are serious
about this career move. “We
don’t make a lot of money,
“said Oakes of peace of-ficers.
“You have to want
this. We have had people
leave good paying jobs to
train in law enforcement.”
Aside from the driving
portion of the class, which
is taught in one 44-hour
week, the academy meets
Monday through Thursday
evenings from 6-10 and on
some weekends from 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m.
POST (Police Officers
Standards and Training),
which operates out of the
Attorney General’s office,
is the state agency that
governs and approves acad-emies
in Colorado. POST ap-proved
this academy which
is housed at Cole Park in
Alamosa.
After graduation from the
academy in 2011, Kristi Du-arte,
another Alamosa Po-lice
Department (APD) em-ployee
and the only female
in her class, was promoted
to Civilian Police Manager.
She continued working with
the department for another
three years after completing
the training.
“Before the academy, Du-arte
was our property and
evidence technician,” said
Oakes. “After the academy,
she became our crime scene
technician expert and went
to crime scenes to identify,
collect and catalog evidence.
With the chain of custody
staying with one person,
the integrity of the evidence
was much stronger. If we
have a big crime scene, I
would probably call her
even now, though she is the
Alamosa City Clerk and no
longer works for the police
department,” said Oakes. In
addition to her full time job,
Duarte is now a volunteer
Reserve Officer.
Duarte took the class,
not because she wanted to
become a police officer, but
because she had worked for
the department for nearly
20 years and wanted to
gain a greater understand-ing
of what the officers go
through.
“I have no regrets, though
it was challenging to bal-ance
family, work and stud-ies,”
said Duarte.
Each year at gradua-tion,
special recognition is
awarded to the top students
in arrest control, academics,
firearms and driving. In her
class Duarte received the
top academic award. After
completing the academy,
Duarte trained as a crisis
negotiator and is certified
by the FBI along with three
APD employees.
“Every student is unique,”
said Oakes. “Every student
has a story.”
It’s usually several years
before an officer is ready to
take on the challenges and
responsibilities of being a
detective, but Dana Nauer,
a female graduate, was
promoted to that position
after only two years with
the police department.
“I would love to bring on
more female officers,” said
Oakes. “They are a huge
resource especially in major
crimes like sexual assault.
Females will open up better
to a female officer.”
Another graduate is Jan-ice
Holman.
“I love investigations,”
said Holman. “For me,
it’s like putting pieces of a
puzzle together. I wanted
to become a certified officer
so that I could take a bigger
part in investigations.”
She had been teaching
at the academy for several
years before she took the
course. As a student, she
continued to teach the
classes she knows so well
and has since added two
more. As many as 28 part-time
instructors teach at
the academy.
Holman now understands
“the finer (law enforcement)
details that I didn’t know
about.” Six other females
graduated with Holman.
Holman, now a certified
police officer, is also the
Project Director for the
San Luis Valley Victim Re-sponse
Unit. Her specialty
is forensic interviewing for
crimes against children.
She interviews children
who may have been victims,
to gather information for
law enforcement and the
Department of Human Ser-vices
in a child friendly way.
“We use everybody within
law enforcement across the
valley as instructors,” said
Oakes. “Where they have
a specialty, that’s what
they’re teaching. That’s
what I love about my job
with the academy. I have
direct input on the type of
officers that we’re putting
on the streets – safe, knowl-edgeable
and professional.”
“Having local instruc-tors,
along with offering
the course locally gives the
graduates a good resource
base to draw from and en-hances
the collaboration
efforts of all concerned with
law enforcement in the San
Luis Valley,” said Holman.
To learn more about the
program call 719-589-7025.
Ronnie Hadley is doing fi rearms training.
Above: Alamosa Chief of
Police Duane Oakes
Right: Handcuffi ng exercise
Courtesy photos
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