HARRISBURG – State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller announced that 200 individuals -174 men and 26 women – have been invited to begin training Monday to become Pennsylvania state troopers.
“These cadets will receive 28 weeks of intense classroom and physical training,” Miller said. “Those who complete this training will join an organization with a long record of distinguished service to the citizens of the commonwealth.”
Miller said Gov. Edward G. Rendell’s 2006-07 budget calls for raising the department’s complement to 4,673, the largest number of troopers in the state’s history.
“The Governor’s commitment to public safety has been reflected in his efforts to give State Police the personnel and equipment needed to maintain the department’s reputation as one of the finest law-enforcement agencies in the nation,” Miller said.
Major Mark E. Lomax, director of the State Police Bureau of Training and Education, will supervise the training of the cadets. The cadets reporting next week will be members of the 124th class to be trained at the State Police Academy in Hershey, Dauphin County, which opened in 1960.
He said members of the new class and the 43 members of the existing 123rd class that is scheduled to graduate March 30 will help the department fill the new positions. He noted that some cadets from those classes will fill existing or anticipated vacancies.
Lomax said that because of space limitations at the academy in Hershey, members of the 123rd class have been moved to the State Police Southwest Training Center at Greensburg, Westmoreland County, to complete their training.
Lomax said the prospective members of the 124th class include 30 veterans of military service.
