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Ty Mann of the San Saba County Sheriff’s Department accepts the Top Gun award for firearms proficiency from instructor Johnnie Thomas during the Central Texas College Police Academy graduation ceremony last week.
The Central Texas College (CTC) Police Academy recently hosted a virtual completion ceremony for 19 cadets in the 19-week, 720-hour Basic Peace Officer Course (BPOC). The ceremony was broadcast live on Facebook for families to “attend.” Twelve of the cadets were affliated with local law enforcement agencies while seven were self-sponsored. All of the cadets passed the BPOC 2020-Charlie class to qualify for the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement state licensing exam to become a peace offcer in Texas.
During the ceremony, several awards of achievement were presented. Kya Salt of the Leander Police Department earned the academic honors award for achieving the highest scholastic average at 102.63 percent. The overall class average was 98.3 percent. The Top Gear award for best driving competency was presented to Levi Charleston of the Copperas Cove Police Department. Ty Mann of the San Saba County Sheriff’s Offce won the Charles “Chuck” Dinwiddie Top Gun award for best firearms proficiency. Selected by his peers to serve as class president was John Curatella of the Cedar Park Police Department. The cadets voted John Wilkerson of the Texas Municipal Police Association the winner of the Best Guest Instructor award.
Graduates of the CTC Police Academy Basic Peace Officer 2020-Charlie class were Levi Charleston, Lawrence Davis-Perry and Jorge Lopez – Copperas Cove Police Department; John Curatella and Shepherd Medrano – Cedar Park Police Department; Jason Hume and Justin Smith – Harker Heights Police Department; Jarred Hogan – Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Police Department; Kya Salt – Leander Police Department; Stephen Bauer – Rogers Police Department; Ty Mann – San Saba County Sheriff’s Department; and Jesus DeHoyos – Taylor Police Department.
Graduating cadets not affliated with a law enforcement agency were James Ashley, Dalton Buchhorn, Jason Collins, Cody Crouse, Alex Early-McCollough, Cesar Medrano and Jacob Nobles.
The CTC Police Academy is designed to prepare students to pass the basic peace offcer licensing exam administered by Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. The course includes more than 30 topics ranging from three to 68 hours in length. Approximately one-third of the class is devoted to developing the physical skills required to become a peace offcer. Each cadet in the CTC Police Academy can earn 23 college credit hours and a certificate of completion. These hours can be applied to the CTC Associate of Applied Science degree in protective service: Texas peace offcer. The next daytime BPOC course will begin in January 2021, and a night course will start in February. Applications for both will be accepted October 5 through December 18.